Immigration in the United States

Immigration in the United States

"This bill we sign today is not a revolutionary bill. It does not affect the lives of millions. It will not restructure the shape of our daily lives." - Lyndon Johnson

These words, spoken by President Johnson in late 1965, detail the lack of foresight shown by the previous administrations of these United States. Prior to 1965 the United States experienced a period of approximately 25 years of net emigration. After the passage of the Hart-Cellar Immigration Bill the pendulum of migration began its fateful swing the opposite way. This bill, in my opinion, was originally introduced into legislation solely as a rider to the massive wave of civil rights propaganda and legislation being passed around Capitol Hill. This was an appeasement technique to help secure some votes for more than likely several politicians who were trying to gain support from their constituents. The immigration pattern that resulted from this legislation has inadvertently led to the waste of millions of dollars of social and economic resources over the past forty or so years.

What these politicians did not realize is that by opening the floodgates to 290,000 new legal visas each year, we also were allowing uncountable numbers of illegal immigrants into the country as well. The Center for immigration Studies states, "the unexpected result has been one of the greatest waves of immigration in the nation's history -- more than 18 million legal immigrants since the law's passage, over triple the number admitted during the previous 30 years, as well as uncountable millions of illegal immigrants" ("Three Decades of Mass Immigration"). Now, finally in the year 2006 the administration is beginning to readdress this mistake that its predecessors made. Our elected leaders are finally beginning to try and fix or undo the harm that has been caused. I look at the topic similarly to a polluted waterway, once the ecosystem is destroyed it is near impossible to fix; but we still do find a way to fix it and nurse that ecosystem back to health. Hopefully our present-day leaders and their successors will be able to nurse our country back to health from the pollution that invades our banks every day.

In the recent elections there were several pre-election polls as well as exit polls which asked the general public their views on immigration reform and amnesty. The results came back at almost two to one against amnesty. This November, voters in Arizona voted in what I consider to be the foundation of a political and legal precedent which many of the other states will be paying very close attention to. The voters of Arizona "approved four tough immigration-related ballot measures by huge margins. The measures, all approved by about three to one, will deny bail to illegal aliens, bar illegals from winning punitive damages, bar illegals from receiving state subsidies for education and child care, and declare English the state's official language. The people have spoken,

indeed" (Krikorian, 33-35).

President Bush is a big proponent for comprehensive and tangible reform coined as the Secure Fence Act which he recently endorsed and sent to Congress for ratification. He states,

"Earlier this year, I addressed the nation from the Oval Office. I laid out our strategy for immigration reform. Part of that strategy begins with securing the border. Since I took office we have more than doubled funding for border security -- from $4.6 billion in 2001 to $10.4 billion this year. We've increased the number of Border Patrol agents from about 9,000 to more than 12,000, and by the end of 2008, we will have doubled the number of Border Patrol agents during my presidency...The Secure Fence Act is part of our efforts to reform our immigration system. We have more to do. Meaningful immigration reforms means that we must enforce our immigration laws in the United States. It is against the law to hire someone who is here illegally. We fully understand that most businesses want to obey that law, but they cannot verify the legal status of their employees because of widespread document fraud. So we're creating a better system for verifying documents and work eligibility, and in the meantime, holding people to account for breaking the law" (Bush).

I support my President in this matter. It is past time that something is done to control the overwhelming amount of immigration we are encountering here in this country. The Secure Fence Act not only proposes the enforcement of our borders with static influences (fences), but also with dynamic troops in the form of National Guardsmen and Border Patrol Agents. The act also provides for a work permit program for those aliens already living here in this country so that these aliens can contribute financially into the civil economics and benefits they are enjoying as they live and work here.

The opposition would have you believe that the millions of immigrants that migrate here each year contribute greatly to our society and economy. I wonder how? From what I can see, those illegal aliens waste our hard earned tax dollars in welfare and free healthcare. They take jobs from American citizens and by doing so throw off the balance of supply and demand economically. Yes, to give one example, I believe that if an American taxpayer was picking our fruits and vegetables they would be more expensive, but our infrastructures and healthcare systems would not be suffering from lack of funding from taxes due to the overwhelming nature of free education and health resources being handed out quite generously and even "gratis."

The Hart-Cellar legislation piggybacked in one the civil rights movement and over time has created a new civil rights movement. The influx of people who do not seem to have an interest to share our culture, or to join in on our "melting pot" of cultural influences; creates the problem I see as growing into a new segregated diversity. Here in south Florida, I witness it almost everyday. The cultural prejudice I witness is almost heartbreaking considering everything this country went through in the 1960s to integrate our communities. The African Americans led by such men as Dr. Martin Luther King and Malcolm X made an impact on our society, but we as a country went through a long period of civil strife to accomplish it. If our recent history has taught us anything, should it not be to avoid the strife as easily as possible? The easiest way to