Politics again

Politics
and this time it might be lefties who want to come back another day as I'd hate to lose all my readers over my political views and as a moderate I know that is possible as I tend to agree with conservatives on some things and liberals on most.
The thing is I don't even enjoy writing about politics. This particular issue is one that makes me sad more than angry. Writing about it is a lose lose for me as it offends some readers and doesn't begin to convince the others; but I feel an obligation to address things I think are important-- popular viewpoint or not.

Every so often an issue arises that puts me squarely on the opposite side of an issue from my liberal friends. United States border control is one of these. Arizona has stepped firmly into the immigration mess and aroused the anger of liberals and yes, surprising as it might be to liberals, some conservatives all the way across the world. [Civil Rights Advocates Attack Arizona's Immigration Law]The assumption is that this new law demanding people carry proof of citizenship is about racial prejudice, and Arizona will have to pay the price by boycotts and the anger of the country for what it has done.

The thing is the issue of immigration has not been addressed by the country. Most of those who want an open border with no controls haven't stopped to think what that will mean. It sounds noble and charitable even to open your door to everyone. I am not sure it's very practical.

Others have less noble reasons. They want open borders for reasons I have mentioned before-- it's more profitable not to address it. The result of the United States policy is something that has been escalating in a very frightening way. Mexico's problems are not the problems of Wisconsin, but they are the problems of all the border states. Arizona is on the front line of this issue. It's not abstract down there and frankly it impacts legal citizens no matter what their origins.

When you see things like-- Phoenix kidnapping capital of the country? or Seven Ciudad Juarez policemen killed in ambush, I suspect it doesn't worry people who don't live along the border. Heck those kidnappings only happen to those involved in the drug traffic. The fact that in Mexico kidnappings also can involve successful citizens isn't worrisome. Hasn't happened here yet. It might not even worry those who live in what they consider safe regions of Arizona. It should.

I don't really know that the new law that will take effect in August will pass Constitutional muster. It might not be a fair or good approach. They estimate there are almost half a million Mexican people in Arizona illegally. Many more than that in California. Farm Boss and I were guessing possibly a hundred thousand or so in Oregon (not all illegals come from south of the border) although many of those in agricultural work come and go. Statistically experts are guessing there may be as many as twelve million in the country as a whole.

Illegal immigrants got here because the border has not been protected. They, and those who buy illegal drugs, are part of what has been growing along the border as coyotes bring across human and illegal drug cargo. The end result has been escalating violence.

If we do make a path to legal citizenship, this alone won't change the illegal traffic at all. It will do what it did during Reagan's era-- legalize a lot of people who are already here. Their jobs and position in society will be replaced by new illegal citizens.

Sadly, there is a reason it's profitable to keep a considerable population here illegally -- it's called cheaper service and agricultural jobs. A lot of people profit from the illegals and they aren't all coyotes. Some just want a maid at a low wage or they want workers in their yard or they like cheap food.

I agree with what Obama said about this. What Arizona has done might have been wrong, might be unenforceable, definitely will hurt Arizona, but it happened because the federal government has failed to act.

Obama suggested a several prong approach which would mean stricter border control, a functional legal worker program, and a path to citizenship for those already here. Not all who work in the United States want to be citizens. A legal path to coming here for work would end the profit in at least that part of the coyote business. BUT if we don't stop the border traffic, the violence down there will spread.

When we let half a million people in say Arizona have citizenship, enable them to qualify for all the social programs that citizens can file for, we will find a big change in everything for awhile. Perhaps it will mean less access to doctors, more expensive groceries, but maybe it has to happen because other generations failed to act. If we don't control the border though, this problem will grow and legalizing people already here won't solve it.

Nobody on the left will probably like what I am going to say next, but I also think we have to end the policy of giving citizenship automatically to any person born in this country. It only serves to break apart families. I don't think you'd be automatically a citizen of any other country just for being born there. If at least one parent is a citizen, then your birth would make you one; but when it is as it is now, it lets a child be pulled apart from parents or people come across just to have their child born here. We can't undo what has been done with the current law, but we could change it for the future.

And I think we probably have to face national ID cards. Many countries in Europe, like France, already have such regulations and do request ID to be carried and shown when an official asks to see them. I resisted this idea, have felt it was going to be a government infringement on our freedom but without that then we are necessarily targeting only certain people for having to provide proof of citizenship.

There is evidently also something called veri something or other which could validate for anybody hiring someone whether they have a legal right to work here. It can be done if people want it done. With green cards permitting legally working here, people coming up won't have to use the coyotes. They also won't have to hide and be afraid of reporting it when they have been criminally victimized as the situation is now.

In Arizona there are many Hispanics who have lived there longer than any European settler. Everybody came from somewhere sometime. In my family some of them came in the 1800s and others in the 1600s but they all came over from somewhere. Immigration has been our history, but the thing is when it's illegal what is it doing to our country? When it involves a criminal class to bring in the people, what does that do to us? That is what Arizona has faced to so much condemnation.

When I go back to Arizona this time, I plan to take proof of my citizenship with me in my passport. Whenever I drive down toward the border, actually when I cross into Arizona, I can and have been asked for such ID. Anytime I have ever gone to Canada, I have had to carry birth certificates for the whole family (even before the law changed for getting back into the US requiring a passport). I don't feel it infringes on my freedoms to have it or to be asked to show it. I will have to get used to the idea that neither does a national ID card. I have not liked it one bit, but I like the alternative less.