President Obama's priorities, and those of the 111th Congress, have focused on the recession, economic recovery, and new policies and strategies in Iraq and Pakistan.
We the people have heard virtually no discussion or plans for legislation in another critical area begging for solutions, namely immigration law. America desperately needs legislative reforms to address the dilemmas created by decades of illegal immigration and a population in the millions of working adults who have no legal status except that conferred on all persons by the U.S. Constitution.
But I have heard no discussion regarding legislation to address a very obvious problem, a number of state and local governments, police departments and even militias and hate groups have stepped in to act out their versions of solutions. For the most part, these incomplete or hateful solutions are no solutions, and amount to efforts to manipulate other laws to the detriment of persons who have entered the United States without inspection or who have remained after the expiration of their visas.
Among some of the misdirected attempts we have seen include:
- Towns' legislating that Landlords cannot rent to undocumented foreign nationals.
- One town's legislation to redefine trespassing to include the act of walking in public places by an undocumented foreign national.
- The alleged profiling and harassment of foreign nationals by members of a local police department.
- Xenophobic hate groups harassing institutions serving undocumented foreign nationals.
And the list goes on.
Most of the xenophobes manage to put forth what sounds at first like a logical argument that they are right and that the entire blame rests with the people who came here illegally and who remain here illegally. But if we listen closely to their arguments and then consider how many other people who are U.S. Citizens are doing the same things that the undocumented foreign nationals are doing, we will then understand what the haters are doing: they are profiling.
For example, consider their whines about fraudulently registered motor vehicles, forged insurance documents and fake driver's licenses. How many American born urban poor without driver's licenses drive unregistered cars with no insurance, and why are they not included in the xenophobes' whines? How many American citizens who are homeless or poor show up at the emergency room for primary health care because they have no insurance coverage? Why do the xenophobes only whine about the undocumented foreign nationals who sometimes use the Emergency Rooms for primary health care?
I submit that ultimately, the whining xenophobes are the reason that Congress has not taken pro-active steps to address the social and economic issues presented by twenty million or so undocumented foreign nationals. It is the xenophobes and the haters who articulate their arguments blaming the undocumented foreign nationals for being here illegally, and who fixate on their illegal status as the reason that Congress should not pursue any type of amnesty or provisional admission legislation. Then, enough hard working Americans listen to these arguments, and, without thinking about the profiling implications, voice their opposition to any form of amnesty or interim solution for undocumented foreign nationals.
Finally, the Members of Congress take the pulse of their constituents,and many decide that they could lose their seats if they support immigration reform legislation.So, the problem continues, with no reform and no new laws to acknowledge the reality that twenty million undocumented foreign nationals are here to stay, and the local struggles and hate groups go on and on and on. And by the way, Rush Limbaugh is a hate group.
While this stalemate continues, there are growing adverse consequences for the taxpayers, to the extent that the undocumented foreign nationals follow some of the same survival strategies which are used by so many other urban poor, including driving with no license, insurance or registration, and accessing emergency rooms for nonemergency health care. While those are separate problems and are only tangentially related to one's immigration status, it is fairly clear that amnesty for undocumented foreign nationals would reduce the number of uninsured motorists and might reduce the number of people having no medical insurance.
I leave it to Congress to develop the solutions and let America reap the benefits of Amnesty or provisional admission to the United States, and to recognize the realities of twenty million new permanent residents. Solutions are attainable, provided we recognize the falsities being spread by the haters and whiners, and provided that enough Members of Congress do the right thing.
We the people have heard virtually no discussion or plans for legislation in another critical area begging for solutions, namely immigration law. America desperately needs legislative reforms to address the dilemmas created by decades of illegal immigration and a population in the millions of working adults who have no legal status except that conferred on all persons by the U.S. Constitution.
But I have heard no discussion regarding legislation to address a very obvious problem, a number of state and local governments, police departments and even militias and hate groups have stepped in to act out their versions of solutions. For the most part, these incomplete or hateful solutions are no solutions, and amount to efforts to manipulate other laws to the detriment of persons who have entered the United States without inspection or who have remained after the expiration of their visas.
Among some of the misdirected attempts we have seen include:
- Towns' legislating that Landlords cannot rent to undocumented foreign nationals.
- One town's legislation to redefine trespassing to include the act of walking in public places by an undocumented foreign national.
- The alleged profiling and harassment of foreign nationals by members of a local police department.
- Xenophobic hate groups harassing institutions serving undocumented foreign nationals.
And the list goes on.
Most of the xenophobes manage to put forth what sounds at first like a logical argument that they are right and that the entire blame rests with the people who came here illegally and who remain here illegally. But if we listen closely to their arguments and then consider how many other people who are U.S. Citizens are doing the same things that the undocumented foreign nationals are doing, we will then understand what the haters are doing: they are profiling.
For example, consider their whines about fraudulently registered motor vehicles, forged insurance documents and fake driver's licenses. How many American born urban poor without driver's licenses drive unregistered cars with no insurance, and why are they not included in the xenophobes' whines? How many American citizens who are homeless or poor show up at the emergency room for primary health care because they have no insurance coverage? Why do the xenophobes only whine about the undocumented foreign nationals who sometimes use the Emergency Rooms for primary health care?
I submit that ultimately, the whining xenophobes are the reason that Congress has not taken pro-active steps to address the social and economic issues presented by twenty million or so undocumented foreign nationals. It is the xenophobes and the haters who articulate their arguments blaming the undocumented foreign nationals for being here illegally, and who fixate on their illegal status as the reason that Congress should not pursue any type of amnesty or provisional admission legislation. Then, enough hard working Americans listen to these arguments, and, without thinking about the profiling implications, voice their opposition to any form of amnesty or interim solution for undocumented foreign nationals.
Finally, the Members of Congress take the pulse of their constituents,and many decide that they could lose their seats if they support immigration reform legislation.So, the problem continues, with no reform and no new laws to acknowledge the reality that twenty million undocumented foreign nationals are here to stay, and the local struggles and hate groups go on and on and on. And by the way, Rush Limbaugh is a hate group.
While this stalemate continues, there are growing adverse consequences for the taxpayers, to the extent that the undocumented foreign nationals follow some of the same survival strategies which are used by so many other urban poor, including driving with no license, insurance or registration, and accessing emergency rooms for nonemergency health care. While those are separate problems and are only tangentially related to one's immigration status, it is fairly clear that amnesty for undocumented foreign nationals would reduce the number of uninsured motorists and might reduce the number of people having no medical insurance.
I leave it to Congress to develop the solutions and let America reap the benefits of Amnesty or provisional admission to the United States, and to recognize the realities of twenty million new permanent residents. Solutions are attainable, provided we recognize the falsities being spread by the haters and whiners, and provided that enough Members of Congress do the right thing.
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