Soapbox

As you all know, this isn't a particularly political blog. There are plenty of other, better, smarter blogs for that elsewhere. And, while I'm certainly not apolitical, I'm not a political junkie type, either. I have my opinions, I vote, I should probably do more, but the politics of today just... dishearten me. Everything is so complex, so complicated, so rhetorically toxic, and everyone shouts at each other, and blah. I'm a dyed-in-the-wool Libra: I'm the definition of "fair and balanced." I (try to) see all sides of an argument; I like moderation, shades of gray, and compromise. This leaves me open to equivocation and "flip-flopping." I'm just to damn diplomatic and evenhanded, leaving me feeling unsure of myself on many issues. Nevertheless, I'm going to comment on the immigration issue.

On the one hand, the U.S. has the right to control its borders. Immigration in this country needs reform. On the other hand, the rhetoric surrounding it, the "Oh my God, the Mexicans are going to overwhelm us!" mentality is just sickening. It's not even new, either. We've been going through similar bouts of immigration hysteria since the Pilgrims. ("Ye confounded Quakers! Thou art taking away our jobs!") My own Irish ancestors had to go through some truly vile anti-Irish sentiment before everyone got on the St. Paddy's Day bandwagon. You even heard the same sort of hysteria about "They aren't assimilating! They can't speak the language!" You try coming to another country in your late teens or twenties or later and becoming fluent in a new language! It's hard. The fact is that the children and the grandchildren of immigrants turn out just as American as everyone else, whether they be those of the Irish or Italian immigrants of the 19th century or the Latino immigrants (legal and otherwise) of today.

Anti-immigrationists do bring up some fair questions regarding the economics of illegal immigration: Do illegals depress overall wages? If the immigrants were here and landscapers and construction companies had to find labor, would wages go up enough to attract native-born Americans back to such low-level jobs? Does the overall economic impact of illegal immigrants overcome any downward pressure they may exert on wages, perhaps by keeping prices on certain goods (produce, for instance) down? I honestly have no idea of the answers to any of these questions. You see arguments both ways.

But, as much of a capitalist pig as I am, I don't think we should reduce the argument to pure economics. At heart, I'm really an idealistic sap. The truth is we should let them enter the country regardless simply because we're America! The Statue of Liberty says:

"Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me....!"

Not, "I only want you to come here if you can benefit me! Oh, and be white, too." It was shameful when we as a nation took just that sort of sickening attitude and made it law through such measures as the Chinese Exclusion Act and the Immigration Act of 1924; it would be even more shameful if we gave in to such thinking now in this "more enlightened," more global age.

"Illegal aliens" are just that: illegal. They didn't go through the legal immigration process. But they're human beings who should be treated as such. Felonizing them doesn't, in my opinion, help anything. They'll just go deeper underground and be open to greater exploitation. Plus, there are eleven to twelve million in the country! How, exactly, do we imprison and/or deport that many people? Even if we brought the military back from Iraq (which we should do anyway), I don't think we could do it. Plus, I don't think a civil war is really the direction we want to go in. So we might as well regularize the position of the illegal aliens and get some benefit, for both parties, out of it. That's my two cents, anyway.