Sunday, July 4, 2010

Immigration - at the Basic Level

You have worked all your life and built a nice home. It's comfortable, fits your needs and you feel safe sitting in your living room or working in your backyard. One day, a man from a neighborhood a few blocks over takes a short cut through your yard. It upsets you a bit and you grumble to your next door neighbor but that's about it. Soon he has worn a path in your well manicured lawn and occasionally grabs a deck chair and once even took a steak off the grill as he passed by. You call the Cops who sympathize with you but explain that they are really too busy chasing real criminals to put any effort into catching this guy.
One day you come home to find him rummaging through your refrigerator and medicine cabinet. This time when you call the Cops, they don't even bother to come as the decision was made to no longer enforce trespassing or breaking and entering laws in your town. The man is pleasant enough as he provides a list of groceries and medical needs that you should pick up for him because he's going to be staying in your spare bedroom for the forseeable future. And since he is now considered to be a resident of your home, if the need arises, you are responsible for putting him on your health insurance and supporting him until he can find a job.
You continue to complain to police and the mayor who sometimes sympathizes with you but never seem to do anything. All your efforts have now caught the attention of the folks who live up the hill in the fancy gated community. Without bothering to discuss the situation with you, they use the local newspaper as a platform to explain why this guy deserves to live in your house and you should be proud to provide for him. When you write a letter to the newspaper editor asking why the man can't live with the folks in the gated community, he refuses to publish it as it is too imflammatory. During this whole situation, you have been subjected to ridicule for your selfish, uncaring and even racist attitude.
In an attempt to be understanding, you ask the man why he wants to live in your house when you know he has one of his own. He simply explains that your house is so much more comfortable and in a safer neighborhood. Life is just so much easier in your neighborhood and besides his kids are out of control at his house and he can't do anything with them.
Throughout this whole situation, financially things are getting tough. You are no longer able to save for retirement or your kid's college fund as you must pay for not only your family's expenses but those of your new house guest. Soon it becomes obvious to you that something has to change or in the near future, you may have to let the house go back to the bank and then no one will have a decent place to live.
Over the years, the immigration issue has become very convoluted by politics and sometimes by legitimate debate. But when you actualy break it down to its simplest level, the obvious situation surfaces.
Obama's administration plans to sue Arizona over its immigration law stating that it is the Federal government's responsibility to set immigration policy. Apparently it is the Obama Administration's "policy" to not enforce existing immigration laws already on the books. To add insult to injury- the planned lawsuit was announced not by official letter to the authorities in Arizona or even in a national press conference but by the Secretary of State while on a visit to Ecuador.
Meanwhile many areas of federal land in Arizona are off-limits to our citizens for safety issues due to the illegal human and drug trafficking and the violence such activities bring to these areas. So in effect Mexican drug lords are controlling parts of our country. There seems to be very little concern in Washington over this invasion of American soil.
It is very obvious that the administration's actions are steeped in some strange brew of liberal politics, elitist guilt and practical ignorance and not in its constitutionally ascribed responsibility of law enforcement. If a fraction of the money, time and effort that will be spent on a lawsuit against the state of Arizona was actually spent on border enforcement in these federal lands, maybe taxpayers could actually enjoy the use of these areas that they pay taxes to the federal government to maintain.

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