Immigration

Immigration is becoming a big issue. Michelle Malkin has started The Immigration Blog, which is focused on this issue. I addition the Minuteman Project is drawing a lot of attention to the issue as well. So I thought it would be interesting to state my thoughts on immigration. First off, I do believe it is important to enforce our laws. I hate any laws that are rarely enforced or enforced on at 'prosecutors digression'. I think that any system built on such a foundation is a recipe for abuse. So we should either enforce our laws or change them to something we are willing to enforce. That is a blanket belief I have and it applies especially well for immigration. One fact that is important to remember is that a lot of people who are agitating for increased immigration control are, to put it bluntly, racists. This certainly doesn't mean that everyone in that camp is, but many are and that is a key thing to remember. Much like anti-war protesters are publicly tied to the fringe communists that make up the heart of that movement, immigration reformers are tied to racist groups and individuals. This means anyone who is for immigration reform for other reasons needs to make an extra effort to disavow the fringe elements. Personally I don't think that immigration is a bad thing. I view it as a huge tool for economic growth and a great way to attract the talent of the world to our nation. I think that the number of legal immigrants we allow should be drastically revised upwards and the process should be simpler. While I deplore the fact that we have around 10 million illegal immigrants in this country now, I strongly believe that the only way to justly deal with that situation at this point is to grant those people amnesty. We simply are not going to deport them, and keeping them in a limbo status only feeds the disreputable elements of our society that prey on these people. In conjunction with granting those people amnesty and increasing the legal immigration quota, we should increase our border security, develop a policy of deporting any new illegals, develop a process of cooperation on this between federal, state and local entities, and most importantly crack down hard on those who employ illegal aliens. This last will probably involve raising penalties and increasing the documentation requirements for employment. Implementation of a Federal ID card (yes, I can hear you Libertarians scream) may be necessary and something I think would actually be a positive for citizens as well. There are a few issues that I think get dragged into the immigration debate that really have no business being there. A big one is the idea that the number of illegal aliens represents a security threat with the idea that if illegal Mexican immigrants can get in, so can Al-Qaida agents. This is probably only thinly true. The routes a decently funded terrorist will take to enter our country are probably not the same as a poor Mexican will. While many legal immigrants of course get through, quite a few a caught and sent back (granted, to try the next day) and thus these methods which function on principle that if you try enough times you will succeed are unlikely to be attractive to terrorists. More likely a terrorist who was trying to sneak in (if they would even bother with that, the 9/11 terrorists entered legally) would choose a different method. The illegal narcotics smuggling routes would be far more attractive for example.