Immigration Big News
One only has to watch the evening newscasts of late to realize what a huge deal Immigration is in the US today. No one should know this more than us Hispanics as so many of us are newer immigrants, seeking a better life through better opportunities, in the land of dreams. Recent marches and manifestations of civil protest clamoring for sensible immigration reform have dominated the information pipeline in most of the major media.
The choices, though many, are not easy ones to make. Some bills have been introduced to criminalize hard working efforts of immigrants and their employers, which thankfully it seems, have been altered to more sensible-less criminal-versions of these proposals.
By any accounts, it would appear that the two top issues in the proposed immigration reform include greater safety and security for U.S. borders, and a reasonable measure to deal with the massive flow of illegal immigraiton into the country. Some have proposed a 700 mile wall which is somehow reminiscent of Berlin, in this writer’s mind. It also leads me to ask the rather unpopular question, How can we help Mexico to bolster its economy without international corporate welfare? Is there any way in which we could support or pressure this great latin american country into creating better and more opportunity within its own borders? Is it possible in a society of have’s and have not’s to the umpteenth degree and elitist corruption, to create jobs for people that will keep them at home within their own borders.
Beyond this it must be said that their are more far-reaching implications to this immigration reform issue that goes well outside of the U.S.-Latino world. One thing I noticed in the coverage of the protests in New York was though many of the faces were Latino, many others also joined in on chorus of those asking for fairness and justice to prevail in giving immigrants a chance to make lives for themselves. Asians-of many types and races-and other people from all over the world have also joined the immigration reform choir.
It seems almost unthinkable that this great oasis of freedom and equality for all, would shut its doors to the rest of humanity on earth, but it is closer than many of us would like to admit. Economic realities and justification based on the reaction to the 9/11 attacks have triggered it in this fashion. No one can blame any of us for being a little paranoid in the age of terror. I just hope that this dose of paranoia does not cloud the thinking of the sons-and daughters-of liberty to the point of drowning out the principles of freedom and justice for all, made famous by our pledge of allegiance.
