The tea party just seems loud and racist. But that's a generalization so instead of arguing that let me crystallize my position.
I'm not a citizen so I won't comment on the "right way" to do reform.
Fine, the senate bill S.744 CIR sucked. OK. But the right thing to do is to see why it sucked and modify it accordingly. Not sing platitudes for a year and do nothing about it. "President won't enforce laws"? That's the stupidest excuse in the world. With that logic no law is worth passing because you can always accuse the federal government of not enforcing it.
No Amnesty? OK. Then come out with some concrete proposal of what to do with the millions already here. Compromise with what the other guys want, and pass something.
Just ignoring it is having the exact opposite effect. Do republicans think their majority is permanent? What happens when both houses have democratic majority at some point? Complete amnesty, with no compromise.
There IS no point in changing laws if laws are being ignored by those tasked with enforcing them. That is axiomatic and unarguable, not "the stupidest excuse in the world". An administration that does whatever it likes, ignoring the law, is going to do the same if we change the law to meet its current desires.
Second, there is no reason to do anything with the millions here. Stop the flow, then demand integration or deportation on an individual basis. Just like how one eats an elephant - one bite at a time. Currently we're growing the elephant much more quickly than we can eat it, with the result of millions of new residents who do not self-identify as Americans. Ask any nation which has faced this problem how it works out. Hell, ask the native Americans.
And third, even if the Pubbies pass mass amnesty there is nothing to stop the Dems from making immigration even easier when they are once again in total power.
How about he does his god damn job and no more?
The authority and responsibility of the executive branch is to enforce the laws AS THEY ARE WRITTEN!
Its not his job to implement his Secret New Law every year without approval from congress first. It damn sure isn't his job to radically reinterpret the existing laws so he can do whatever he feels like.
Well said.
Why didn't the unregulated immigration of the past lead to an impoverished America?
Three reasons. First, because we could use the excess labor. This is no longer the case, and new immigrants are increasingly displacing the existing populations. With automation and outsourcing we don't need as much labor as before, yet we're drastically increasing our pool of workers - especially unskilled workers.
Second, we were not then a nation of entitlements, so new arrivals had to work. Obviously this is no longer the case.
And third, the new immigrants were from quite disparate cultures - Mexicans, Brits, Germans, Swedes, Chinese, and many others. That allowed the new immigrants to coalesce around one culture, which in most but not all areas was British culture, which changed to make our own unique culture while still encouraging every culture to adopt the common tongue and adopt the major tenants of the new polyglot culture. This is no longer the case as the new immigrants overwhelmingly speak a common different tongue and share a lot of culture. Thus the new immigrants tend to self identify as Mexicans or Latinos rather than as Americans.
I could add a fourth reason as well. The previous waves of unrestrained immigrants were looking for opportunity, nothing more. They had no culture of being owed anything. (With the obvious exception of the Africans obviously, who were originally brought here against there will - rather a different thing.) Those immigrants from Mexico have been raised on a government diet of America owing them for stealing their land, and many, many Latinos have adopted that same attitude as race-based even though they are not one identifiable race but rather a diversity of races speaking a common language. I simply left it out because we've developed such a culture of entitlement on our own that theirs stands out only by virtue of being based on different factors.
Facebook
Twitter