All over the nation yesterday, there were rallies on behalf of immigrants and immigrant rights. It's not nearly the level of attention that was paid to the issue last year on May 1st, but people are still talking. And what they are saying often bothers me. A lot.
Locally, the town of Morristown, New Jersey, has announced a plan to ask the federal government to authorize the town's police officers to arrest illegal aliens. A town of 20,000 with a train station that attracts day laborers, the town and now its mayor, have been outspoken opponents of illegal immigration. But the very idea of making people prove their citizenship to report a crime means that an already exploited underclass will face more problems, not less. Morristown will not get rid of its day laborer, but the town will attract an underclass confident that they can commit crimes with impunity. Nice.
The fact is that Morristown is not alone ----- many cities feel that that the federal government has dropped the ball on immigration. Strictly speaking, more than 10 years out from the last federal effort to deal with immigration, these towns aren't wrong. But the problems that they attribute to immigrants (crime, lower property values, and the so-called "costs" of immigration in terms of public services) are a form of barely veiled racism, with very little evidence to back up the claims. The facts demonstrate that in the United States illegal immigrants work the jobs no one else will take. In the form of rent and sales tax, they pay their fair share of the tax burden in the nation. Morristown is just another example of the white middle class looking to blame town troubles on the non-whites. It's shameful and it's wrong.
In the meantime, no one on the federal level is taking on this issue. So states and localities will continue to offer the sort of half-baked solution that Morristown has placed on the table. And thousand of people who work hard and only want to live the American dream will once again be excluded from the opportunities that the rest of us take for granted.
This is a problem in need of a solution. But no one seems to be listening.
3 comments:
Well said. We have a similar problem here in CT but luckily, some local governments have been working on temporary solutions. The mayor in New Haven has basically issued a don't ask, don't tell policy because in recent months, illegal immigrants have been gravely injured on the job and did not seek immediate medical attention because of their deportation fears. Coming from SoCal which would basically shut down without illegal immigrant labor, I totally agree that they take jobs that very few people would want --- fruit pickers, house cleaners, underpaid and overworked construction workers, etc... Your point is well taken that the federal government has for the most part ignored this issue which has done far more harm than good.
I heard a report on the radio yesterday that made steam come out my ears. A month or so ago there was an immigration "crack down" in a city south of Boston. Many immigrants were sent to detention centers, and a number were deported. I won't go into the issues of the children who came home from school to find their parents gone. The follow-up report was that it has been discovered that one of those deported was in fact legally here, but had the misfortune to have the same name as an illegal who, and this is what _really_ got me, is in federal custody in Texas. According to the report the government is now trying to find the man in Guatemala to tell him he can come back. And for the record the man who was supposed to be deported is Cuban not Guatemalan.
Thanks for letting me rant, and for making me think.
Well I am always here for the ranting public!
And it is so nice to know that I'm not alone in thinking that the vulnerable deserve our protection, not our prosecution.
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