Immigration

Immigration is, to state the obvious, an extremely divisive and volatile subject in our country. The other day in the local section of our newspaper, The Glendale Republic (of the Arizona Republic), Dave Howell wrote what I thought was an interesting opinion piece on the subject. He has given permission to me to reprint it here. (He told me he received a lot of hate mail for it so rather than bothering him with it, you can write any comments you'd like on this blog!)

Republic Column
David Howell
Guilty or Not Guilty

In the increasingly vitriolic debate over undocumented immigrants in the United States, there are actually a few things upon which virtually everyone with an opinion on the subject, which is just about everyone, can agree.

One of those points of agreement is that anyone in this country without proper authorization is guilty of entering the United States illegally. They are guilty of breaking U.S. immigration laws. Actually, they are guilty of much more.

The vast majority are also guilty of trying to find a better life for themselves and their families. They’re guilty of wanting to find a better job, more opportunity. And they’re guilty of having the courage to take huge personal risks in making the journey to get into this country.

They’re guilty of wanting to escape extreme poverty and environments that offer little hope.

They’re guilty of wanting to help the families they left behind by sending home a significant percentage of the money they make.

They’re guilty of speaking another language, primarily Spanish. Many of them are guilty of having skin that is a little darker than white.

They’re guilty of being willing to do almost any job, no matter how physically difficult or what hours are required.

They’re guilty of bringing a slice of their culture with them in their food, their music, they’re tastes and customs.

Some are also guilty of other criminal activity, and this is another point where we all agree. Those individuals need to be apprehended and prosecuted to the full extent of the law; and that means more than simply dumping them back across the border where they can continue their criminal career either in their home country or, as often happens, reenter the U.S. and resume it here.

Yes, some of them are also guilty of having children….and of wanting those children to be healthy and get an education and have more opportunity than they had growing up.

They’re guilty of thinking that the United States offers more of that opportunity than the countries they come from.

They’re guilty of paying taxes in the United States and also guilty of not claiming all the refunds for which they might otherwise qualify.

So the question is what to do about all these people who are guilty of so much. What punishment is appropriate? Opinions vary widely, and for those who want to stop the conversation after that first “guilty”, the answer is simple. They are in this country without legal permission, send them home. Good riddance.

For some of us, however, it isn’t quite so simple. For decades this country has, for better or worse, also been guilty of facilitating undocumented immigration. We have, in a very real sense, been co-conspirator. But we have also been a benefactor.

The vast majority of the several million undocumented immigrants in the U.S. today are hard-working, courageous people. In short, they are exactly the kind of individuals, and exactly the kind of immigrants, we have always attracted. They are, in fact, the kind of people this country has attracted since before it was a country. They represent the kind of new blood that has kept this nation great and growing since its birth.

We need to create a system that ensures those in this country are here legally, punishes those who are not, and enforces our employment laws. But that doesn’t mean we should summarily turn out those whose presence here has been made de facto legal by our complicity.

There are proposals on the table, both in Arizona and Washington, D.C., that would take steps in that direction. They would identify and punish those currently in this country illegally, but the punishment would fit the crime. They would also continue the efforts to strengthen our borders and would create a system to admit and monitor temporary workers.

For the moment most of those proposals don’t seem to be headed anywhere. The political environment right now, especially in our state, has emboldened the most virulent of the anti-immigrant voices. And the intimidation and headline grabbing tactics used by many in that group have effectively pushed the issue off the election year table.

In many ways it is reminiscent of the final days of legal segregation in the Deep South; and like then, the ultimate conversation is not about what is legal or illegal but about what is right and just….and what is, in the long term, best for this country.