I have never been particularly passionate about immigration. I believe in it. I believe our country is what it is because of its long history of not only immigration, but integration of those immigrants into the American ideal. If anything, I lament that we have gotten away from that, but like I said, immigration has never been my thing. Still, I am perplexed by the whole debate and the boycotts that have sprung up due to the Arizona law recently passed. So here are the things that I don't quite understand:
1) Doesn't it make sense that as a country we should have a structured, orderly process for people to come into this country, not only as tourists, but as long term workers and future citizens? If that is the case (which I believe it currently is), shouldn't that process and its laws be honored by both citizens and by foreigners? If foreigners circumvent that process and its laws to gain access to our country, they should be deported. We should not make it next to impossible for those in authority to make that happen.
2) Roughly 80% of illegal immigrants come from Mexico and other Latin American countries. Any law or attempt to stem that tide of illegals would necessarily affect Hispanic people. There is no way around it. If 80% of illegals were coming from China, any attempt to stop that flow would affect people of Asian descent. I don't understand the automatic, knee jerk mantra being thrown about by people of racism. If you are tasked with stopping illegal immigration for the sake of preserving and protecting our immigration laws and process, and 80% of illegal immigrants are Hispanic, then a large number of Hispanics will be affected. That is just common sense reasoning. I realize that for some people, race is a factor, but for most Americans (including the people of Arizona), race has nothing to do with it.
3) My understanding of the Arizona law is that it basically mirrors federal law, only Arizona has decided to do something the federal government has decided not to do, get serious about enforcing the law. For that people from other states are now planning boycotts of Arizona. If the Arizona law is basically the same as the federal law, shouldn't people also be boycotting the federal government?
4) Speaking of boycotts, it sounds like the main problem people have with the Arizona law is the presumed use of profiling. Profiling, at its core, is forming a stereotype or "profile" of a group of people and then assigning that stereotype or "profile" to an individual. So what do you call it when a city council like the one in L.A. boycotts an entire state, randomly affecting individuals throughout that state? Are they not profiling each and every person in Arizona as being responsible for their new law?
5) What exactly do the naysayers really want? I heard one congressman on the news say that we should fine illegals and tax them. No mention about how we identify them in the first place without being accused of being racist, no mention about sending them back to their home country, no mention about how difficult it is to track most of these people to make sure they are paying their fines or taxes. Besides, paying taxes is no different than what ordinary citizens do, which I would guess is the whole point. Embrace illegal immigrants as though they are already citizens.
This might be one of those things where I can't understand the latino angst because I am not latino. When they demonstrate in the streets though, what exactly are they asking for? If it is amnesty, or for Americans to welcome illegal immigrants with open arms, well that's just crazy.
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