From the Publisher
Most Americans understand their heritage and do not want now to be “anti-immigrant.” Daniel Henninger
Immigration – Solutions, Not Laws
Immigration is all over the news these days, and it is no wonder. It seems as though there are more immigrants now than citizens.
A delivery came to our house the other day that was intended for a home going up in our neighborhood. My wife walked over to inform the men working there, but not one of them, not even the foreman, spoke English.
All over the country we see the same thing. Is this good or bad? Do we need to do anything about it?
The good side is we have a lot of work that won’t get done without them. If others were available to do those jobs, where are they?
So where is the bad? Immigration has made this country what it is. Continuing to let immigrants in is not a change; it is the way it’s always been. Most immigrants do the low-paying, dirty work, freeing those of us who have been here a while to do more desirable and lucrative jobs.
Besides that, could we stop them from coming if we wanted to? Wages here tend to be ten times what they can earn in Mexico. When you are trying to feed a family and to do your best for their future, you are going to run the risks.
Of course we could use draconian measures and stop more of them, but that is not the nature of the American people: we fight people who threaten us; we help those to succeed who are making an honest effort.
Does that mean we throw our borders open to all comers? We cannot stop a river, but we can channel it. We need to recognize that we have available work that we need somebody to do, and they need the work to earn a living. So we find ways to let them work, some as citizens and some as guest workers.
In the meantime, we go to work on the reasons they have to leave home in the first place. When hard-working people have to go through what they have to go through just to earn low wages, there’s a real problem.
The problem is not the people. If you will recall from your history book, in 1848 we purchased half of Mexico after the Mexican-American War. That land now makes up our states of California, Nevada, Utah and most of Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado.
The people in these states thrive as U.S. states. Why do so many of the people in Mexico fail to thrive?
If it’s not the people, then it is bad government that creates bad economic conditions. If we don’t want so many Mexicans coming up here, we’ve got to work with Mexico to help the people to do well enough there that they don’t have to leave.
The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is a first step in that direction.
Try as one may, he cannot hold back a tide. So let’s do the doable, let’s address the underlying conditions. Laws that attempt to force solutions are ultimately doomed to failure.
Art Hall, publisher
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