Perception is everything in this world. Vincent Parillo talks about this in his book "Understanding Race and Ethnic Relations". This directly applies to a major news story that came out last night and early this morning that is the President's new suggestion for illegal immigration. Since November, when Congress (the house side) passed a bill that made it a crime to be an illegal immigrant or help an illegal immigrant, there have been thousands of "immigrants’ rights" protests. The Los Angeles Times has reported on some of the biggest protests because of its interest in the problem, being that it is a Southern California paper. The President is now saying that he will tighten border security by placing members of the United States National Guard on the border. Something that is definitely, to quote one headline, "throwing the hawks a bone". The problem, however, still remains, what do you do with all the illegals already in the country. Last nights speech from the President did not specifically address, but in the past he has said that he would rather let them remain then make them leave.
Personally, I do not have a problem with immigrants in any way shape or form. My great-grandfather immigrated from Russia to Canada (before that they immigrated from Holland to Germany to Russia, although this took place over several generations) and was accepted with open arms. Immigration is not the issue to me in this case. The issue is breaking the law. The United States has laws that are pretty clear as to what you need to do to get into this country, yet we have an estimated 12-20 million illegal immigrants, many of Mexican or Hispanic descent. I’m all for trying to get a better life but I think you should have to do it legally. The problem then becomes the governments of various states want to deal with the problem differently. In Oregon, for example, the Governor has state funded illegal immigration help seminars and police are not allowed to ask the official status of a person when they are pulled over for a police stop. Other states have stricter laws but Oregon seems to be more the norm than the exception. How do we stop the inflow? Follow the president’s ideas, it’s the best one I’ve heard. How do we stop the problem? We never will, the United States is a place many people want to go, for the economic benefit and quality of life increase. Until the appeal leaves illegal immigration is here to stay.
Info gathered from Parillo's book and LA Times news story found here.
