Congress has been debating immigration reform, and like all political “reforms,” the word means different things to different people. Health insurance “reform” means federally provided, affordable insurance to everyone, or to no one, or somewhere in between. Budget “reform” means cut spending, increase taxes, both or neither. Tax reform means make taxes simpler or fairer or lower or higher.

But what does immigration reform mean? Does it mean fewer or more immigrants? Does it mean an easier or more difficult procedure? And more importantly, what is the goal? Is it to:
–Protect our nation from terrorists and other enemies?
–Protect American workers from competition?
–Protect America from crime?
–Save our limited resources?
–Keep American white? Or Christian? Or English speaking?
–To relieve an overcrowded America?
–Just keep Mexicans out?

For example, consider Rep. Steve King, an Iowa Republican who wants to end automatic or “birthright” citizenship for all children born in the United States. What is the benefit to America? He says it’s to prevent non-citizens from coming here on a visa, and intentionally having a child, thereby circumventing immigration laws. Aside from the probability the number of such people is small, what is the problem? What if some women do that? Who has been harmed? How has that diminished America?

Or consider those Republican lawmakers from southern states and lawmakers who wish to copy Arizona’s harsh law. They would give police the massive job of screening all suspects for immigration status. Why? They claim the undocumented immigrants are too costly, using medical and educational facilities without paying taxes. But how true is this really? What percentage of undocumented immigrants do not pay taxes? And what would be the police costs and the court costs and attorney costs and the logistic costs of pursuing all these people, trying them and deporting them, only to have them return again and again? And what would be the cost in human suffering, or do we now consider undocumented immigrants to be something less than human?

These lawmakers claim their goal also is to protect their states from crime, but do undocumented immigrants cause more or less crime than citizens?

Rather than allowing the xenophobes, who wish to create a “fortress America,” to coopt the word “reform,” perhaps those, who still belief the words on the Statue of Liberty, might wish to define reform in our own terms. How about if “immigration reform” means make immigration much faster and easier? How about recognizing that going through danger, cost and effort is prima facie evidence of people who truly want to be Americans, and such desire might make them more loyal and more devoted to our nation than those lucky enough to be born here?

Surely, we can protect America without building a North Koreanesque barrier. Is Mexico our enemy? Are the great open plains so crowded? Is the American worker too weak to compete? Are resources truly limited to a Monetarily Sovereign nation that at the snap of an finger, can spend trillions on the world’s greatest war machine? And don’t immigrants actually contribute to our resources? My immigrant parents did.

Yes, let’s have immigration reform. Let’s open the welcoming arms of a great, confident, powerful America, rather than hiding behind the barbed wire curtain of a crouching, fearful, mean spirited bunch of petty losers.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
http://www.rodgermitchell.com

No nation can tax itself into prosperity. Those who say the stimulus “didn’t work” remind me of the guy whose house is on fire. A neighbor runs with a garden hose and starts spraying, but the fire continues. The neighbor wants to call the fire department, which would bring the big hoses, but the guy says, “Don’t call. As you can see, water doesn’t put out fires.”