Immigration Thoughts II
from Jack's Substack at jacksotallaro.substack.com
We could not agree more. (Subscribe to Jack’s Substack here.)
One of the real strengths of the US is that all the nationalities that came together to form this great land had their individual ethnic practices and customs in the home; in public they were American. That was a great part of growing up here, that you could sample all of the national dishes and practices and customs of your friends and they could find out about you, while out in public we were all punks. American punks, but punks nonetheless. We weren’t Puerto Rican or Black or Italian or Irish, we were Americans. It’s not that way anymore, and it’s a pity.
With the influx of illegal aliens the immigrant has come under suspicion just because he or she is different. When you cannot tell legal from illegal it’s easy to lump all foreigners into the illegal bucket, and unfortunately that’s human nature.
Other, more tangible things cause our citizens to mistrust immigrants as well. Remember Roosevelt said “There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, is not an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag ... We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language ... and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people.” Yet how many times have we seen demonstrations where immigrants (or citizens in some cases) are waving foreign flags and shouting through megaphones in a non-English language? What about multi-language forms to file with the government or business? Whatever happened to immigrants learning English? The government never had Gaelic or Italian forms when those immigrant groups were the majority coming here. What’s changed?
We believe that rather than being the great melting pot the US once was, we are now a big stew pot. Instead of each ingredient melding with the others, combining and forming a new entity, we now have a stew. All the ingredients are there, separate, uncombined with the other ingredients and maintaining their own individual character and flavor. That’s not the way it was supposed to be. Multiple languages prevent good communication. Differing cultures can make life dangerous.
An example is the honor killing. Honor killing, also known as shame killing, is the murder of an individual, either an outsider or a member of a family, by someone seeking to protect what they see as the dignity and honor of themselves or their family. These killings occur with regularity in certain parts of the Middle East and South Asia, and lately occur more often in the US as well. These killings typically target women whose actions violate the honor of their families, which is thought to depend on the sexual purity of their female members. So teens do what teens do and it gets the girl killed. That isn’t how it’s supposed to work here. It doesn’t show a trend towards assimilation when these customs survive the first generation immigrants, but more and more today they do.
Immigrants are holding on to old customs and practices more now than ever before. Where the enclaves of Irish and Italians and Germans broke up many years ago, the enclaves of the newer waves of immigrants (legal and illegal) are growing bigger each year. There’s even a development planned for illegals being built. Not only will they enter illegally, but they’ll have a place to live with other illegals. This has gone too far.
If the Republicans want cheap tomatoes and the Democrats want new dedicated voters, that’s no reason to give the country away. Immigration laws are there for a purpose; enforce them, all of them, or let Congress repeal them. It seems the lawmaker’s response to every bad thing that happens is to pass a law. The open Southern Border is a prime example – pass a law to solve the problem. How about enforcing the laws we already have about illegal entry? If we did, you’d find the immigration problems would be much smaller. If we close the border and actually close it – not just say we did – the number of those deported who came back into the country would be immensely smaller. Without a porous border to enter through they couldn’t come back easily.
Find illegals and send them home, all of them, no passes. The FBI, NSA, and Homeland Security have lots of experience in surveillance. Put it to use by looking for anomalies like duplicate Social Security numbers or large numbers of driver’s licenses issued to the same address or any of the other indicators that something is amiss. If there is a suspicious situation investigate it. Not only is illegal entry a crime, it is potentially a national security issue.
Remember, if civilian flying schools had wondered why a bunch of alien student pilots didn’t have any interest in learning how to land we might have prevented 911.
There are several regulations or laws that make illegal immigration easier or at least make staying here easier. Most of these are the result of trying to do good with unintended consequences, and should be repealed or changed.
The most abused law is the 14th Amendment to the Constitution. This amendment was made to protect the citizenship rights of ex-slaves, stating that “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.” Now we have people who come here to have their babies just to provide a way to stay. Repeal the 14th Amendment to get rid of anchor babies; it is no longer needed to protect ex-slaves.
Require at least some English to become naturalized.
The United States must again become a nation of laws; one justice system for all, no exceptions for anyone. You break it you pay for it.
This country has a First Amendment which, among other things, allows you to speak truth to power. Just remember, if you speak in a language other than English power doesn’t need to understand you.