Is there really anything we can do to solve the illegal immigration problem in the United States?
Asking that question is un-American. We are, after all, a nation that prides itself on its ability to “solve problems” even if many such attempts have met with abject failure. We’ve spent a trillion dollars on public housing in the last forty years and still have almost a million homeless people huddling on park benches and subway grates trying to keep warm during the winter not to mention millions more living in slavish dependence on government to keep a roof over their heads. Ditto for all the monies spent on anti-poverty programs which most objective observers agree has made the problem of poverty worse.
Even conservatives are guilty of trying to solve these problems that may have no solution by fiddling with budget numbers and offering more in the way of free-market alternatives to government intervention.
I find it interesting that all sides in the immigration debate seem to feel that their solutions will somehow “solve” the problem. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, especially to the “open borders” crew who in something of a sanctimonious fashion continue to remind us that we are a “nation of immigrants” and that opposing the entry by millions of people who are more loyal to the government of Mexico than they are to the US government is somehow racist. But the fact is, the only “solution” to the problem of illegal immigration is flinging open our borders and letting everyone who desires to live and work in America to come on in and make themselves at home. Thus would the problem of illegal immigration disappear overnight.
Of course we can’t do that which means that instead of concentrating on fixing the problem – building gigantic walls manned every few feet by border guards and rounding up millions of people – we should be working to improve the situation. This means fewer people crossing the border, more enforcement of the law regarding illegals already here, stiffer penalties for companies that employ illegals, and a decidedly less sanguine outlook toward one of the least reported and most dangerous aspects of the illegal immigrant issue; the agitation by Mexicans living in America to return a sizable portion of the United States to Mexican control.
As Michelle Malkin points out in this post:
These sentiments, as I’ve noted before, are not limited to ethnic fringe groups—but also mainstream Democrat politicians and campus chapters of the Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan, or MEChA.Most of the members of the open-borders media won’t dare breathe a word about this militant phenomenon, lest they be accused of…racism. Oh, the irony.
Welcome to reconquista.
Where are all the assimilationists now?
Lest anyone think that this is not a serious movement or that it has absolutely no chance of succeeding, I invite you to read this piece from Maria Hsia Chang of the University of Nevada-Reno on the attitudes of many Mexicans who come here and, even more of a shock, the hugely significant demographic changes that are rapidly taking place in the southwestern United States as as result of illegal immigration and what these changes bode for the future. A sample:
Mario Barrera, a faculty member of U.C. Berkeley’s Department of Ethnic Studies, admitted that multiculturalism “would help prepare the ideological climate for an eventual campaign for ethnic regional autonomy.” In January 1995, El Plan de Aztlan Conference at UC Riverside resolved that “We shall overcome…by the vote if possible and violence if necessary.” The rise of Mexican irredentism as a serious political movement “awaits only the demographic transformation of the Southwest.”
That “demographic transformation” is almost here and it is unstoppable. Much higher birthrates among Mexican immigrant women means that by 2050, there will be more than 100 million Hispanics in the US comprising more than a quarter of our population. The current trend has more than 40% of Hispanics in the US living in California alone. That would mean more than 40 million Hispanics in California, the overwhelming number of them from Mexico, who would be a formidable bloc if Mexican irredentism becomes a truly mainstream goal.
This does not take into account a Mexican government who would see the tipping point coming and could possibly engineer a mass migration into the desired states ballooning those numbers even more.
This kind of scenario is being laughed at by some but given the present emphasis on “diversity” and multiculturalism over the out of fashion “melting pot” model of assimilation, I don’t find much humor in the situation. The fact is that immigrants from Mexico have little pressure on them to assimilate into American society. Instead, we have created a situation where two separate cultures exist side-by-side. We have encouraged this by not requiring that English be learned as an entree into American society. The fact that there are now several generations of Hispanics living in America who have had no need to learn English has accentuated the separateness of these immigrants thus keeping them from fully participating in and living the American dream.
In the past, as each successive wave of immigrants hit our shores, they would gravitate toward the communities in our major cities where their countrymen had already established a toehold in America. In those communities were support groups, some of which preyed upon the new arrivals by exploiting them for a variety of purposes, but which nevertheless offered ways for the immigrant to assimilate into society at large through a variety of activities. Local churches were important as were schools, fraternal organizations, and even sports leagues. At bottom, the goal was to become a hyphenated American by adopting English as a second language while learning the customs, mores, and habits of Americans.
The goal of the overwhelming majority of these immigrants was citizenship. Is that the case today? I have not seen any hard evidence that would answer that question one way or another but anecdotal evidence would seem to indicate the answer to be no. Also, according to this immigration attorney, only about 50% of people who receive Green Cards eventually become US citizens. That is a far lower number than in the past where that number exceeded 70%. These numbers do not include the children of those born to immigrants since they are citizens by birthright.
You cannot force someone to assimilate. But the way things are today, the system virtually assures an illegal immigrant that there is no downside to not assimilating. Unless a way can be found to stir the melting pot for these new arrivals, they will drift farther and farther away from the American mainstream thus making the dreams of the separatists more of a reality than any of us would want to admit.
The current reform proposals do not address these issues. But someday, we’re going to have to get serious about confronting the fact that today’s new arrivals are different from those in the past and that failing to integrate them into American society could have consequences down the road that are almost unthinkable.
UPDATE
My friends at Maggies Farm have an excellent round-up of Bush double-speak on immigration including my favorite:
“Comprehensive Approach/Reform:” A phrase often on the lips of Bush and co., this is the current “hip” way to refer to a mass amnesty of illegals, without actually saying so.
Whenever a politician talks about “comprehensive” anything, grab your wallet and be afraid…be very afraid.
2:38 pm
Perhaps we can save a lot of grief, current and future, by simply ceeding California to Mexico right now. Think what that would do for the politics of the US. I don’t think the economic hit would be as great new as it would be in a decade. It’s not worth fighting a new Civil War over. Just make sure to get the economic/military base out before withdrawing. San Francisco can be left in toto.
3:24 pm
Sure we can solve it … no work permit, no job. The employer pays the fine. End of story.
BTW, make the work permit a finger print and check it against one on file remotely. End of forgery.
5:35 pm
Instead of a nation of immigrants we have became a nation of criminals and the dim-wits in their hate for the country have joined right in with the current crop of criminals crossing out borders, evidently with little resistance and lots of help from the liberals and the mexican government (sic). I knew that eventually their hate would destroy them but didn’t know they would try to destroy the country also. Now we know for a fact that the criminals have to be rounded up, and quick, and dumped back across the border, not delivered to whatever country they started in, they crossed out of Mexico, dump them back in Mexico and shoot those that refuse to go. They made millions of enemies out of people that really didn’t care until this past weekend. Now the millions want them out.
5:37 pm
The only reason the democrats and elitest don’t want the criminals thrown out is they will lose their slaves and they are using them as slaves, and treat them much worse than they treat their cats and dogs.
6:57 am
As I have said in a post in another thread, a decision was made by both parties and at every level of government that America should be transformed into a Northern province of Mexico. Every time the American people speak they call for a crackdown on immigration. Prop 187 passed with overwhleming support yet a single judge ruled it unconstitutional
and refuses to write an opinion so that her decision
can not be appealed. Similar propositions have passed in New Mexico and Arizona but the respective Governors refuse to impliment them. An unholy alliance between business interests Republicans and open borders Democrats are subverting the will of the American people. So at a time when the American people are asking for a crack down on immigration what does the Senate do, they propose legislation that actually increase both leagal and illeagal immigration.The Mexican government for all intents and purposes controls America’s immigration policy. They incourage and send their surplus population north and get the benifit of remittance to the tune of 18 billion a year. In return the American taxpayer gets to subsidize illeagals education, medical care, welfare and incarceration. The government of Mexico incourages dual citizenship and Mexican politicians actually campaign in America.
In some schools in southern California, history books that a provided by the Mexican
government teach Mexican children history from the Mexican perspective and further re-inforcing their Mexicanness and to hate America. Massive illeagal immigration hurts the lower income classes and now is squeezing the middle class blue collar worker. More and more plant workers and construction workers are being squeezed out by the lower wages employers can offer these illeagals. In my neighborhood their are currently 5 or 6 home construction and renovation jobs underway, without exception all of the workers are Mexicans, most likely here illeagally. So I guess construction work is work that Americans don’t want to do. I am so sick and tired of the trope that America is a nation of immigrants and these illeagals do the work Americans don’t want to do. First, every country is a nation of immigrants, I know of
no instances of people popping up out of the ground to form a country. For most of Americas history immigration has been very low. Their were spurts of LEAGAL IMMIGRATION, but not
massive unchecked illeagal immigration. Second, their is not a single job an American would not perform, there are jobs that Americans won’t do because of the wage being offered.
7:03 am
Mr. Centrist:
I wouldn’t go so far as to say that the government has turned its immigration policy over to Mexico but I think much of what you said is true. Immigration reform is being driven largely by business interests that benefit hugely by being able to hire cheap labor.
I think if you asked most Americans whether they were willing to pay an extra $5 for a hotel room or a restaurant meal if it would solve the illegal immigration problem the overwhelming majority would say yes. And, as you point out, if employers were forced to pay a maid $11 or $12 an hour rather than $6.75, Americans would line up for those jobs. But employers won’t pony up the extra money because they don’t have to. It’s that simple.
7:22 am
Mr. Moran:
The current situation benifits the Mexican government immensely and they fight vigorously
any attempt we make to alter our immigration policy or take action to curtail illeagal immigration. Vicente Fox calls the minute men vigilanttes, soon after, President Bush is calling them vigilantes. A sheriff in Maryland
tries a unique approach to handle the illeagals in his state he arrests an illeagal
alien for trespass, the Mexican government funds his defense and the case is dismissed
because the judge refused to see this as a trespass offense. The Mexican government dispenses matricula-conselor ID cards to illeagals and has lobbied sucessfully for their adoption as valid ID for getting drivers
licenses, opening bank accounts and obtaining
mortgages. In some districts in California and
elsewhere illeagals can vote in school elections and other local elections. In some states illeagal immigrants have been given in-state tuition for entrance into college, something that is not allowed for American citizens that don’t live in-state. I could go on and on, so could you please explain to me how the Mexican governments desire and success in pushing it’s surplus population north, is not a controlling action on our immigration policy.
the Mexican govern
7:29 am
The “controlling action” is the US Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers, and other business groups whose interests happen to coincide with those of the Mexican government.
What you say about the Fox government is absolutely true. They play our media and left wing like a violin. But just because the Mexican government has their own agenda doesn’t mean they are in any way “controlling” our immigration policy. Their actions play into the hands of American business which suits them just fine. If anything, American business controls both countries immigration and emigration policies. Fox wouldn’t be able to send all those people north unless he could be assured that most would be hired.
7:56 am
Gentlemen: I hate to interfer with a private discussion but; the ruckus started over the Mexican reconquistadores is nothing compared to the Islamist Jihad and their militant cells in this country. While we debate our immigration policies (which by the way could be solved by withdrawing all welfare for illegals, including free health care) the Moslem community is having a field day in controlling our foreign policy, subverting our culture and using oil as the ultimate weapon against us. Both Mexico and Islamist Fascist have learned to use our laws against us and our government foolishly capitulates and condescends. I fear that we have already crossed the point of no return in dealing with our internal problems. The Mexicans have LaRaza and the Islamists have CAIR that leaves we few with the likes of the ACLU. What alternatives remain for the poor American slob trying to eke out a living and prepare his children for a better life in the good ole USA?
11:16 am
The Mexican politicians campaign in the United States. Billboareds advocating the reconquista of the Southwest part of the United States show up all over California. The Mexican government takes out full page ads, spuring on the protesters. Don’t we have laws against this? Don’t we have laws prohibiting the interference by other nations into our public policy? The answer is yes, we do.
We are going down a dark road. We only have to look at France to see where all this will take us. We will become a nation that is no longer under the control of the rule of law, but instead, under the control of the Mexican government who will continue with the corruption aided and abetted by our own government.
Stop the social benefits, prosecute the employers, radify the 14th Amendment to not cover anchor babies and there will be a mass immigration BACK to Mexico.
And get rid of the wimps in Washington that pander to Vicente Fox and his unwanted.
12:43 pm
Now we know these were not ‘student’ organized demonstrations but were in response to directives put out by the radical teachers (unions). Copies of some of the directives put out by the radicals are posted on Malkin’s blog. Doesn’t that mean that each city now has the right to fire every teacher involved in this (wanna bet that public equipment was used to develop and print the directives) and to recover the cost from the radical teachers and unions for the police required to protect the public, and any damage done by the demonstators? Sounds like a cut and dried lawsuit to me.
2:05 pm
As you know, Rick, I don’t think we have an immigration problem legal or illegal. I think we have a problem controlling our southern border that contemporary exigencies require us to resolve for the first time in the history of the Republic. We can do this the easy way (with the cooperation of the United Mexican States) or the hard way (without it).
With the cooperation of Mexico we can prevent those who would do us harm from entering the country or bringing in arms or bacteriological weapons (or whatever) by that route. Without it many more Mexican citizens will be harmed in the process.
But control it we must even it means that the Mexican economy will collapse (and that’s what I think it means). The moral of the story is not that we shouldn’t control our borders but that the Mexican economy needs to depend on something other than remittances.
6:44 pm
[...] we can do to solve the illegal immigration problem in the United States?“ » | Permalink Tags: Immigration, Illegal Immigration, Mexico, Us Mexico Border functionopenSpellChecker() { // get the textarea we’re going to check var txt = document.getElementById(‘comment’); // give the spellChecker object a reference to our textarea // pass any number of text objects as arguments to the constructor: var speller = new spellChecker( txt,”http://rightvoices.com” ); // kick it off speller.openChecker(); } » Discussion On This Entry: [...]
10:36 pm
Isn’t reconquista the same as Zionism?
9:27 am
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12:20 pm
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10:54 pm
why do we continue to talk about the problems and not act on them. The USA use to be a country where we prided ourselves for getting things done, now we just sit and talk while the mexicans take away our jobs, schools, families, communities, hospitals, heritage, and way of life, the worst part about it is we just sit back and do nothing. A day is coming when they will be more powerfull then us in our own country, then it will be to late, we will be forced to assimilate into their culture, your wife daughters, grandaughters, will be taken by mexicans to knock out babies and you wont be able to do nothing about it, it’s happening now and we have been dumbed down so we dont fight back. Can you believe the American man has been turned into a girly man, all part of the liberal agenda so that immigrants and forieners can take over the country without a fight, it’s happening folks
11:10 pm
one more thing, have you noticed that if you stand up and fight for this country and our heritage that you are labeled a racist? Think about that, I mean really think about that. This is a way to shut you up, to subdue you, keep you from taking action. I mean it’s used for everything, if I’m proud to be an Amerian I’m being racist, Im hurting other peoples feelings because I want to keep my heritage alive, The Amerian voice has been squashed, it has been quieted, it has been feminized, we are no longer suppose to be manly men thats not politically correct, we are suppose to let everyone run over us and we are.
I say to hell with that, this is American by God, I beliee in the Almighty God which this country was founded on, and I believe in fighting for what is right and fighting against what is wrong, and our current political makeup in Washington has sold us down the river, we will reach a point in this country where we will be stripped of all of our rights, I mean what country puts illegal immigrants, basically criminals before their own citizens, come on people, open your eyes, have we become a nation of dummies?
How many years has our government been working on all of these problems yet things only continue to get worse. It doesnt take a scientist to figure out whats going on, I mean come on. The problem is we have become fat and lazy, time seem to be good right now but wait until our economy collapses and there are NO jobs. Look at our manufacturing in this country its been sold out to china our construction has been sold out to mexico, im telling you people theres coming a day when we will be trying to survive off the land but even that will be imposible because our current government wont allow it
12:32 am
In regards to illeagal immigration,My wife and I are considering migrating to New Zealand were speaking english is required and assimilation is of the up most importence. Now if that little island goverment has that type of quality control why can’t the USA? WE all know why are goverment is selling its citizens out and making illeagal trespassing Mexicans the priority for its self preservation is becouse you have a populious that is uneducated and instantly cures the problem that our goverment has with its citizens they for the most part are educated and our goverment does not want that. Our goverment seems to have a population of idiots in mind for its preservation thus no on will challenge there demands and choices so unless you are in the elitely rich and goverment and corperate control is your agenda then you can and should understand what is going on I do not think that there are that many stupid people yet? what it is going to take to fix this is for those of us with any love of this Country that are left and who give a dam it is time to get control of our Goverment and use our military to remove this vermin and trash from with in our Borders and make them leave or haul there cold dead bodys back across the borders along with those treasonious goverment and corerate biggets who seem to now be in control so unite people and wake up and relize what is going on our military is over seas for the wrong reasons and should be at home fighting this economic war and fighting along our Borders and helping to clean up our communitys eatheier we take America back or we just submit to becoming an other 3rd world contry with a leadership that tells its idiots what to do for it self serving elitly rich and corperate controled Goverment Slavery is alive today and that is the common U.S. Citizen is and has been sold out for that Global economy so those fat cats can get fatter soon we will be paying 10 ndollors for a loaf of bread and 100 dollors for a gallon of Gas is this what it will take befor you shit heads wake up and relize what is going on your will you have to be speaking spanish to find a job?
Compreande senor asta le vista that all means do you understand and see you later dude.