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Title: What to do about illegal immigrants
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URL Source: http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/ ... 3_4_EL16_CMNTBAILEY_S1.article
Published: Dec 17, 2007
Author: Mike Bailey
Post Date: 2007-12-17 19:55:36 by christine
Keywords: None
Views: 173
Comments: 8
A few thoughts about illegal immigration -- some original, some not. First, the debate is not about immigrants or immigration. It is about illegal immigrants and illegal immigration. The distinction is important. It is the policy of The Courier News to use the term "illegal alien" or "illegal immigrant." News outlets are under extreme pressure from activist groups to use terms such as "undocumented worker." That would be like calling a drug dealer an "unlicensed pharmacist." It is intentionally misleading. So is calling everyone -- legal or illegal -- an "immigrant." Almost everyone in America today is descended from immigrants. Legal immigrants followed procedures, filed the proper paperwork and adhered to the laws in order to arrive in this country. Illegal immigrants did not. Calling everyone an "immigrant" diminishes the debate to xenophobia. Manipulation of language to change the perception is crucial in diminishing the issue to one of inconsequential differences or elevating it to racism, depending on the tactic. Secondly, it can never be racism to enforce existing laws. Refusing to enforce certain laws because of the color of one's skin or ethnicity would be racism. Not extending equal treatment under the law would be racism. Claiming rights for yourself that you deny to people of color would be racism. Enforcing existing laws is not racism. Seeking to stop the flow of millions of illegal immigrants into this country is not in and of itself racist. American Indians found out what happens when you don't control immigration. Thirdly, the solution to this is very clear, depending on what side you are on. But in truth, it is anything but clear. To some, it is heartless to relentlessly persecute people who came here to work and live. Hard-liners want the government to round up and deport every single illegal immigrant in this country. This would be done by the same government that couldn't get 100,000 people out of New Orleans -- and they wanted to go. But open borders and a welfare state are incompatible. In fact, our whole approach to this is incompatible with common sense. We go after the illegals, but not the employers who hire them. We build a fence to stop unlawful border crossings while states discuss giving illegals driver's licenses and in-state tuition for college. In fact, we have had a national policy of looking the other way for Mexican immigrants but using the Coast Guard to turn away a boatload of wretched, impoverished Haitians at gunpoint. To stop illegal immigration, all the government needs to do is secure the borders, make it a felony to hire anyone without proper documentation and deny housing, education and public aid to anyone who cannot prove citizenship or legal residency. All the benefits of being here illegally will vanish. That is what other countries, including Mexico, do. But we, apparently, are not as progressive as they are.
Poster Comment: The solution is simple, if a solution really were wanted.
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#1. To: christine (#0)
That "if" is harder to get past than it could ever be to round up all the illegals.
Simplistic and true. Search for Ike's 'Operation Wetback' for a clue on how to get it done.
very true. welcome to 4um, litus.
Thank you, christine. Maybe one day, we'll have folks in office that don't have the word "if" in their vocab.
Cure for illegal immigration.
Fortune favors the prepared mind. A zombie, however, prefers it raw.
Alas. (For now.) Secondly, it can never be racism to enforce existing laws. What if existing laws are racist? The author's argument begs the question of what the law should be; it makes a distinction without a difference, if races are distinct, which of course they are. There's no shelter from the PC police in this line of argument, and they well know it. How could there be, when it concedes a central, possibly the central orthodoxy of PC? To stop illegal immigration, all the government needs to do is secure the borders, make it a felony to hire anyone without proper documentation and deny housing, education and public aid to anyone who cannot prove citizenship or legal residency. Seine papieren, bitte. Real nations sometimes require papers of their citizens. But real nations never need them; free nations never want them.
The most important orders were the Ku Klux Klan and the Knights of the White Camelia. The former began in 1865 in Pulaski, Tennessee, as a social club of young men. It had an absurd ritual and a strange uniform. The members accidentally discovered that the fear of it had a great influence over the lawless but superstitious blacks, and soon the club expanded into a great federation of regulators, absorbing numerous local bodies that had been formed in the absence of civil law and partaking of the nature of the old English neighbourhood police and the ante-bellum slave patrol.
What are you talking about? Get real. Sovereign nations have borders. If borders are not "fencible" it is entirely appropriate for a nation's government to require "papers" to demonstrate proof of legal residency. End of story. It has zero to do with being "free." It has everything to do with being legal. There's no need to speak in riddles.
Of course I agree that aliens among us should have papers and be required to produce them.
The most important orders were the Ku Klux Klan and the Knights of the White Camelia. The former began in 1865 in Pulaski, Tennessee, as a social club of young men. It had an absurd ritual and a strange uniform. The members accidentally discovered that the fear of it had a great influence over the lawless but superstitious blacks, and soon the club expanded into a great federation of regulators, absorbing numerous local bodies that had been formed in the absence of civil law and partaking of the nature of the old English neighbourhood police and the ante-bellum slave patrol.
The solution is simple, if a solution really were wanted.
#2. To: christine (#0)
#3. To: litus (#1)
#4. To: christine (#3)
#5. To: christine (#0)
#6. To: christine (#0)
First, the debate is not about immigrants or immigration.
#7. To: Tauzero (#6)
(Edited)
Real nations sometimes require papers of their citizens. But real nations never need them; free nations never want them.
#8. To: scrapper2 (#7)
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