IMMIGRATION

With the arrival of 52,000 children as illegal immigrants in the first 6 months of this year, a  national debate is raging over immigration. Here are a few of my thoughts on the subject to start my debate with Lauren on this subject.

I am in favor immigration but I am opposed to illegal immigration. Logically, there has to be a limit to how many people the United States can absorb into it's economy without causing social and economic disruption.  What is that limit?  I don't know but simple logic would indicate that the US cannot absorb all the poor from Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Brazil, etc. without major disruption of of our infrastructure and economy. If one accepts the premise that a limit is necessary, than it is the role of our government to determine and enforce that limit. 

Why am I in favor of immigration? We grew as a nation by immigration and I see no reason why we cannot continue to grow as a nation by permitting legal immigration. Legal immigration will help us in several ways:

• Immigrants will help bring needed skills to the US to help us grow.  It is no secret that the education of US children is badly lagging many other nations in mathematics and science. We simply aren't educating enough engineers, doctors, and scientists to meet the changing world. Legal immigrants will help us fill that gap.
  
• Immigrants will help us keep wages lower and thereby become more competitive on a global basis. 
  
• I also believe that immigrants will help to continue to invigorate our culture.  Many immigrants have a "hunger" that is at times lacking among certain segments of our own populace.

To summarize, I believe that legal immigration can continue to have a positive influence on our country, just as it did in the 1800's and 1900's.

How should we determine who can enter the US legally? My belief is that we need a set of standards by which we evaluate potential immigrants.  But, those standards need to be broad enough to accommodate people with a variety of backgrounds, not as President Obama has said "the best and the brightest."  

Why?  My grandparents immigrated to the US and while they were decent, hard working people, I'm not sure they would have been considered the "best and the brightest." Lack of a college degree or a lot of money should not bar people who wish to come to the US to become a functioning part of our society.  I believe we should allow people of all educational and economic strata to legally immigrate to the US. 

What should be included in our immigration standards? In my opinion, our immigration standards should include the following:

• Limits On Public Assistance--My grandparents came to the US before the growth of all the public assistance programs that are in existence today.  They came with the expectation that they would have to work for a living to support themselves and their families. We need to limit all forms of public assistance programs that immigrants can receive.  We should bar all people who want to come to the US who cannot demonstrate that they can be become a contributing member of our society within a reasonable period of time.
•  Willingness to Assimilate--One of the strengths of our culture has been our ability to assimilate disparate cultures into one more or less homogeneous culture. I understand the need to maintain cultural heritages.  But, immigrants to the US need to assimilate into our society and not "Balkanize" into separate cultures.   One of the greatest problems facing the world today is the Balkanization of countries into separate regions, frequently based upon religious beliefs (Iraq) or ethnic background (Ukraine and significant parts of Africa).
• Learn our Language--Immigrants to the US should be required to learn English as their primary language within a reasonable period of time.  They should not be entitled to citizenship until they have done so and failure to do so should result in deportation.  That is one way to avoid the Balkanization process.

I'm sure there are a lot of other requirements that are necessary but these are the most important to me.

To improve legal immigration, the immigration process needs to be revised and streamlined. Based on my experience with Robin's immigration process, the process is too complicated, too long, and too costly. 

It is a difficult decision as what to do with respect to the 52,000 illegal immigrants who have arrived in the US this year that are children. Having 3 children, 9 grandchildren, and 2 great grandchildren, my heart goes out to the needs of these children. But, as previously noted, there is a finite limit to what our nation can do to help the poor of other nations.  There are millions of children around the world who live in poverty and whose countries are embroiled in conflict of one type or another.  The refugee camps in Turkey, Jordan, and a variety of African countries are just the latest in refugee problems that have existed for centuries.  We simply cannot absorb all the world's refugees without a serious displacement of our economy.  I'm afraid that if we grant these children asylum in the US, it will set a dangerous precedent.  It will only encourage further illegal immigration from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and other Central/South American countries.  Therefore, I believe these children (and the parent's who accompanied them) must be deported.  

OK Lauren.  Those are my thoughts.  Let me hear your thoughts and let the debate begin.