Hmmm … interesting reactions to Arizona’s new immigration law, or anti-illegal-alien law, whichever term you prefer. Not surprisingly, politicians from my old state of California are up in arms about it. That’s because they prefer a different term for illegal aliens: future loyal voters — if only they can push another amnesty bill through Congress someday. Gavin Newsom, the mayor of San Francisco, has called for a moratorium on city-related travel to Arizona, and several members of the Los Angeles city council have proposed that L.A. stop doing any business with Arizona.
Mexican government officials are also up in arms, labeling the immigration law “abominable,” “a violation of human rights” and “discriminatory.” (Hard to argue with that last one; we do tend to treat criminals differently in America.)
Given all the hubub, I think the only fair course of action is to scrap the Arizona law and replace it with a new national immigration policy. Here are the provisions it ought to contain:
- Foreigners will be admitted into the country according to their ability to contribute to our national progress.
- Foreigners will be banned from interfering in our country’s politics.
- Immigration officials must ensure that all immigrants have the necessary funds for their own sustenance and for the sustenance of their dependents.
- Foreigners may be barred from the country if 1) their presence upsets the equilibrium of the national demographics, 2) they are deemed detrimental to our economic or national interests, 3) they do not behave like good citizens in their own country, 4) they have broken any of our laws, or 5) they are not found to be physically or mentally healthy.
- Immigration authorities must keep track of every single person in the country and assist in the arrests of illegal immigrants.
- A National Population Registry must be established to keep track of every single individual who comprises the population of the country and verify each individual’s identity.
- A national Catalog of Foreigners must be established to keep track of all foreign tourists and immigrants, and assign each individual with a unique tracking number.
- Shipping and airline companies that bring undocumented foreigners into the country will be fined.
- All foreigners with fake papers, or who enter the country under false pretenses, may fined or imprisoned.
- All foreigners who fail to obey the rules of the country will be fined, deported, and/or imprisoned.
- All foreigners who fail to obey a deportation order are to be prosecuted and possibly imprisoned.
- All foreigners who are deported and attempt to re-enter the country without authorization will be imprisoned for up to 10 years.
- Foreigners who violate the terms of their visas will be imprisoned for to up to six years.
- Foreigners who misrepresent the terms of their visas — such as working with out a permit – will face prosecution and possible imprisonment.
- Citizens who help illegal aliens enter the country will themselves considered criminals and face prosecution.
- Any citizen who marries a foreigner with the sole objective of helping the foreigner live in this country will be subject to up to five years in prison.
Yes, yes, I know … it’s not exactly send me your huddled masses yearning to breathe free kind of stuff. Some of those policies come off as racist, classist, or downright harsh. So how can I possibly call them fair?
Simple: those are Mexico’s immigration policies. If Mexican officials think our laws are abominable and discriminatory, let’s adopt theirs instead.
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I’ve heard “illegal immigrants” also called “undocumented democrats”.
Funny … but also true.
Hi Tom;
As usual, you’re right on the money, but your suggestion is (I fervently hope) out of the question.
How about we try enforcing our own immigration laws instead?
What a concept!
That would be a good start.
I love how just because America is a melting pot and the “land of the free” that we are not allowed to have rules and anyone and everyone should be allowed in, no matter what, AND they should be allowed to get free everything…including interpreters because they can’t manage to learn English. Seriously.
A lot of libertarians object to the idea that the government should prevent anyone from entering the country. My reply is that the day after the welfare state is abolished, we can talk about that one.
Don’t worry, if calling you a racist and a bigot doesn’t work they will start calling the illigal imigrants refugees and you inhumane for refusing giving shelter to those poor persecuted people.
As Denis Prager said in a recent column, accusations of racism and bigotry save the left-wing loons the trouble of debating the real issues.
I used to be much more ambivalent about illegal aliens, assuming that they did not break other laws. However, after learning that some of them came here just to mooch, I lost a lot of sympathy. Streamline the process so that those that are here to work can do so legally, and deport the moochers. I have a feeling that the first group for which health care will be rationed in an “unjust” way will be those who can’t prove either US citizenship, or that they are here legally. And then all the bleeding hearts will really scream!
I’m afraid you’re probably right. I also don’t think it’s good when public schools in California end up with classrooms full of kids who don’t speak English. That slows down the pace of instruction for everyone.
Bravo Tom!
Alas, those (actually pretty reasonable) “immigration” laws would never be put into place here… Too many bleeding hearts wanting everyone to be HERE instead of helping them in their own countries….(It’s SO inconvenient to do charity work overseas, much better to bring them here where Sam and Sally Leftwing can do their little bit and still make it home for “American Idol.”)
And, of course, Mexico has very harsh and active policing of THEIR southern border — don’t want no illegals entering THEIR sovereign territory… Maybe we could learn something from them…
That’s why I found the criticism from Mexico especially irksome. There’s no reason Mexico has to be such a poor country. With some economic freedom, they could prosper, but the corrupt government keeps them poor … we we get the people trying to escape the government-imposed poverty.
I do not know a lot about the subject so I may be way off the mark here, but I have a suggestion.
The question we should ask is why do Mexicans (and others south of the border) come to America? Answer: Because they can find jobs easy. Evidently, a lot of our lowest paying jobs are better than the jobs the average Mexican citizen can obtain. I think that says a lot about the success of America, but it does come with its set of problems as well.
So what do we do with this nugget of info? This is were I may be off but what if we helped build up Mexico’s economy? Maybe right now when America’s economy is not at its best is not the right time but here is an idea. If we are going to ship off jobs to other countries for cheap labor anyway (and I don’t know any laws being talked about to stop this as it seems to have become the norm) why not seen those jobs to Mexico?
Mexicans would stop coming over to America illegally, we could improve relations with the Mexican government (I don’t know what our relationship with them is like) and maybe we can treat going to Mexico the same as going to Canada.
I don’t know how feasible this plan is. I don’t know how many jobs American companies have in Mexico already, if any. I don’t know what losing so much cheap labor in America would do to the American economy. I don’t know if it is a good idea to encourage American companies to ship jobs out to other countries more than they already do.
I just seems to me that no immigration laws address the problem that Mexico is just a poorer country than America and while America gives out tons of money to countries around the world I never hear of any money going to one of our closest neighbors who we should be treating as more of a friend instead is seems ok to treat Mexicans badly because some (or many, i keep hearing different numbers) are illegal.
Yeah, having millions(?) of illegals not paying taxes and doing jobs for very little money because they have too is a problem for everyone. However, I don’t hear of any laws or ideas that addresses the problem of ‘America provides better jobs than Mexico’ that actually will work in the long term.
I don’t follow a lot of politics, am I way off here?
We can’t build Mexico’s economy for them. We’ve pumped billions into countries around the world, to no avail, because without economic freedom, there is no prosperity. The countries beginning to catch up, such as India and China, did so by relaxing government control and allowing more freedom into their economies. Until Mexico’s corrupt government stops sucking the life out of the country, Mexico will be poor.
I have seen the Mexican Immigration laws contrasted with ours before and it makes a good point.
However, I believe the real problem is that we are treating a symptom and not the cause. I don’t know about you, but I am wondering just who the hell is gonna pay taxes as me and the rest of the tail end of the baby boomers can no longer work (cause we sure as hell won’t “retire”). I don’t even care about Socialized Programs – oops I mean Social Security – but I wonder who is gonna pay for the simple things a government SHOULD do – criminal, civil and national defense.
Our population is declining. Birth rates are down. Those being born are more and more likely to be members of the “entitlement” caste – those who think the world owes THEM a living. Who is going to generate the wealth to “fix” our overblown social system and habits?
I have a pretty good understanding of the Mexican culture and find many more similarities than differences with our “US” culture. I am talking about the people, not the corrupt government (and I won’t tell which is more corrupt because I honestly don’t know). Immigrants typically represent good ole American values (hint: they are AMERICANS too!): good work ethic, family values (even if chauvinistic -hmm – reminds me of what culture?), judeo christian values. With allowance for exceptions (whom we as a public have no business acting holier than), these people are good, honest, hard working people who just want to take care of their families. You can’t blame them for taking advantage of our asinine social give a ways. Blame the morons with counter productive incentives!
EVERY SINGLE ONE OF US AN DESCENDANT OF AN IMMIGRANT – yes including “native Americans” whose ancestors first braved the Bering Straight.
I say whip the borders open and let anyone in. We need tax payers! But I’ll be damned if they have ANY standing or privilege in this country unless and until they are paying taxes. I don’t think most people really object to sharing the opportunity. What they object to are the free social services. An illegal immigrant showing up on a hospital sCHtopp (emphasis is mine) gets free health care for delivering a baby who is instantly a US Citizen.
Hmm – but if we stopped the handouts (all done of course in the name of well intended altruism), we might be able to solve our OWN root issues. And if we were SELF CONFIDENT, we would have the balls to really share it with the world.
Either that or put a turnstile on the border and for every count we take an acre from Mexico. Let’s just annex them and show them how a truly great corrupt system works!
I agree the problem is largely with the size of government and the welfare state, not with the people. As we spend ourselves into hopeless debt, the legitimate functions of government will indeed become difficult to fund.
California was laying off teachers as we left … in a state that massively increased the number of government workers while we were living there, and gave them higher average salaries and benefits than in the private sector. The Democrats who run California know how to create thousands of taxpayer-supported loyal voters.
So you think it’s a good thing for the police to stop any random person (and my random, I mean those with brown skin, because we all know they are the only ones who will be targeted), ask them for their papers, and fine them if they don’t have it on them?
I agree with you general points about illegal immigration, definitely, but that’s not what those upset about this law are concerned with. You’re either missing the point or you agree that police should harass anyone who they think “looks” illegal. Which is it?
No, the point I’m making is that Mexican officials should shut the @#$% up about our immigration policies. I don’t actually want to pass theirs here.
The problem really with going on about making new immigration laws for illegal aliens and making it illegal is that it already is illegal.
So what’s the purpose of those laws? It really sounds like it’s so they can racial profile people under the guise of ” you might be an illegal alien.”
If you are a country who has people wanting to immigrate to it you should be happy, because that means you still have a country that prospers and has something to offer.
I’m not saying that every single person should be let in, however, if no one wants to come to your country it’s not a good sign.
There are plenty of people who have done nothing but be born into a country in order to enjoy its benefits. Some are contributing, but I’m sure many are not.
It’s not fair to lump all immigrants into this blanket idea that they are here to leech the country, when many are hard workers who have lots to offer.
So yes there should definitely be rules and if you commit a crime in the country you’re immigrating to, you’re out, that’s it!
These laws in Arizona don’t really reflect that, they reflect something more sinister than just making sure honest people are entering the country.
I’m not sure they’re so sinister. People are tired of having groups of people walking across their yards at night, sneaking into the country. And if you come here illegally, you’ve already broken the law.
We also have a huge problem of Mexican women on the verge of giving birth sneaking across just to make sure their kids are automatic U.S. citizens.
The only issue that I see with the above points that you made in your post is that if they are imprisoned I am still paying for them to be here.
I posted Mexico’s policies to make the point that Mexican officials should shut the @#$% up about our policies. I wouldn’t send people to prison to crossing the border illegally. I’d send them back.
This was fantastic!