When I was a kid in middle school, many foriegn faces started showing up in school. Mainly people from southest-asia. Cambodia and Vietnam in particular. The spoke a strange language and had very different customs but it was ok – they were people just like me. I remember where the families lived. I recall that, to my 12-year old brain, the houses seemed to have many people in them but overcrowded really wasn’t a term I would have used – although adults did. I don’t remember if the “boat people” of south-east asia were illegals or not but they did assimilate pretty quickly and moved into mainstream society in short order. This experience has always been my yardstick for the current immigration debate and I have come to the conclusion that it is a bad metric.
The immigrants from Cambodia and Vietnam had, by and large, no intention of going home. Ever. They were escaping the killing fields of Pol Pot and the chaos of newly-unified Vietnam. They weren’t going back there so their bones could bleach in a jungle somewhere. The immigrants from Central and South America are a very different lot from my childhood and, in fact, share much more in common with immigrants from the turn of the last century. See, some non-trivial percentage of latino immigrants will never assimilate. As it turns out, this isn’t bad or even different: in an earlier migration wave it is estimated that ~40% of italian immigrants went back home in the 1900’s. America and Americans need to and do generally welcome immigrants. I don’t believe that most Americans care much about the immigrants who are here legally. The assimilation process is long and generally difficult until the second generation but they will either become Americans or they will go home. That is up to them. Americans love to cheer for an underdog and generally applaud those with the strength of character to undertake such a journey.
However, the big difference between then and now is the number of people who are here illegally. The illegal segment of this migration wave has turned this from a large but manageable problem into a train-wreck at the local level. Municipalities are so desperate to get a handle on this issue that they are willing to pass laws that they know will draw the immediate attention of hordes of lawyers (including some of whom their tax dollars pay). Cities and Counties nationwide are willing to plunk down local tax dollars to enforce federal immigration law. Communities are tearing themselves apart as their demographics shift so fast that it turns local officials from ribbon-cutting automatons into fire-fighters trying to keep the whole house of cards from falling down.
All the while, the Federal government sleeps. The “grand compromise” of months past failed. The borders are still wide-open. ICE doesn’t have the money to run it’s 287 program effectively. “Homeland Security” is funneling billions into finding and deterring attacks in large cities nationwide yet Satan himself could walk accross the southern border with anything he cared to bring. I suppose the part about this that bothers me the most is the damage done to our social fabric – the legacy of neighborhoods first devestated by overcrowded flophouses and then abandoned by the dozens when localities turn up the heat. Hospitals bankrupted. Schools overstressed. Legal immigrants viewed with suspicion. This legacy does no good for those on either side of the debate as our communities continue to disintigrate and the rhetorical intensity cranks up.
The blame for this legacy lies directly at the feet of the Federal Government. This is the one piece of our governmental structure that could actually solve this problem. That good-natured Uncle named “Sam” has become more of a drunken, abusive parent and I am sick of it. Sick of municipalities enacting a hodge-podge of desperate laws that Sam will challenge using lawyers we pay for. Sick of Sam enacting laws that require localities to spend their money to enact. Sick of Sam doing nothing but burning trillions elsewhere while our infrastructure collapses and our communities falter. Sick of Sam not enforcing his own laws. Sick of Sam for letting this get so far out of control that immigration is now a dirty word.
It is time for Sam to step up to the plate and get something done. Forget Iraq Sam and come to small-town America to see what you have wrought.
August 5, 2007 at 9:28 am
Andy, well thought piece.
Something to consider though. Even if the feds decided to try and crack down on this issue now, the problem has gotten so far out of control that local and state governments would STILL have to get very much involved in enforcement. Its gotten to the point where even the federal govt. can’t do it alone, even if they wanted too.
Thats why I am very supportive of the 287g program.
Keep up the good work on council.
August 5, 2007 at 2:32 pm
Andy, many of us share your frustration.
As you noted, local and state governments are, by default, being
forced to deal with primarily a Federal responsibility. (The latest
poster community is Carpentersville, Illinois – highlighted this weekend
by both the New York Times and USA Today. While every
locality is different, the core themes relating to the impacts of
illegal immigration resound again and again across America.)
Washington inaction is allowing our bridges, levies and laws to falter.
August 5, 2007 at 9:00 pm
Great post Andy. Thank you for writing it. Del. Jackson is correct that the locals must help the Feds clean up their mess. The key is that we must help them help us! It seems to me most localities are eager to do more than their share but the Feds just sit on their hands. Without Washington’s help all the work of locals will do little.
August 6, 2007 at 7:48 am
Andy,
You know how much I share your frustration. The Fed could screw up a two-man parade. If this problem is to be solved, it will be from the bottom up. Groups like HSM, working with local governments have forced the states to begin acting. Georgia’s anti-illegal alien laws are a good example. With the States acting, the Fed will eventually be forced to act. Hopefully this will begin with border enforcement.
Illegal Immigration will be the most pressing issue of this local/state election cycle, and I believe that this will continue into the ’08 cycle. It won’t be the war. It won’t be Roe v. Wade. It won’t be guns or gay-marriage. It will be illegal immigration. Mr. and Mrs. John Q. Public are PISSED with a capital “P”, and you can see this very well at the local level.
August 8, 2007 at 8:45 am
Andy,
This is a good analysis of the current situation. I think you are right to point out that the current wave of immigrants is not all that different from previous waves. It usually takes a generation for immigrants to really assimilate – and it always has. The key difference this time is our country’s unwillingness to manage the flow of immigrants and to be clear that we expect them to assimilate. This is partially due to the increased difficulty of managing immigration from a country with a land boarder with us, as opposed to across an ocean, and partially due to political correctness. But the immigrants themselves are not significantly different than the flood of Irish, Italian, German or even Chinese immigrants that this country has handled before.
I also think it is worth noting that very, very few societies in history have been able to assimilate large numbers of immigrants in only one generation. This is especially true if those immigrants are ethnically, religiously or linguistically different than the host county. One generation is remarkably fast by global and historic standards.
August 8, 2007 at 9:20 am
Andy:
You hit the nail right on the head! You are absolutely correct. The Federal Govt. (DHS) is totally responsible for immigration enforcement and Bush and Chertoff and his gang have abdicated totally their responsibility. Having served for over 30 years in the US Border Patrol and Immigration, I know whereof I speak.
We do not need new enforcement immigration laws, they are all there! We need a White House and a Congress with some cajones. It is frustrating to see Congress defy the clear will of the average American citizen. We don’t need mass deportations -believe me-if you invoke employer sanctions and eliminate free schooling/medical etc. the illegals will depart!!
Hugh Brien
Chief, United States Border Patrol (retired)
September 2, 2007 at 1:24 pm
I couldn’t understand some parts of this article Sick of Sam, but I guess I just need to check some more resources regarding this, because it sounds interesting.