Alright, so I know I over simplified the immigration issue in my last post. The issue is definitely more complicated than I initially portrayed it, and I know that now and I knew it then. The underlying issue of how do we deal with folks who get into this country illegally is one that has me torn. Of course, illegal is illegal but it isn't as cut and dry as that. On the one hand, you've got to think about the folks who are sneaking in here to find work to help support their families back home. On the other, you have to think about the people who come in legally by following all the appropriate processes to do the same thing. What is the underlying issue for why these folks need to sneak into the country? Are our immigration policies so out of whack they don't address the needs of our economy?
Like I said, I oversimplified before and I still am now. There are so many different facets of this issue that are really hard to wrap your head around and come up with a clear solution. My last post really talked about the racial issue, which I hate to play the race card. But it seems like race has been a major talking point of this whole thing. A lot of focus has been placed on those individuals who are coming in from the country south of us. What about the people sneaking in from Canada? What about the human smuggling rings that are sneaking people from Asia? How do these proposed bills and laws affect them? The part of the proposed immigration reform that is absolutely ridiculous is anyone in the country is automatically a felon and anyone who provides them assistance of any kind is also considered a felon. Nice.
Anyway, I should just get back to talking about music and food, those subjects are so much easier. But, my last thought on this topic. Don't demonize everyone who has come into this country through other than regular channels. There are a lot of honest, hard working men and women who are providing a valuable service to our economy. If we could find some way to get them out of hiding who they are we could do things like providing them with valuable services like unionization, legal protections from employers who don't pay them for their work, making sure their working conditions are adequate, etc. Things that we take for granted. At the same time we need to revisit our immigration policies so that people don't see that they have to enter the country illegally.
Just my two cents on the issue. Feel free to disagree or add additional views on this topic, I'd love to hear what you have to say.
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