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A statement of principles

Pete Chaney, Editor--Faye Moore, Business Director
Steve Burton, Graphics Director--Jim Stevens, Promotions Director
 

Commentary

April 9, 2010

Ducking the immigration problem

Nowhere has our government failed us more miserably than it has in an immigration policy—or the lack of one.  The people voters sent to Washington have turned the other way and done nothing about the invasion illegal aliens.  They have left it for some future generation or later administrations to handle.

Jimmy Carter, who would have made a better benevolent parson than a president, goes down in history as the one who gave away the Panama Canal.  But his impact on America and especially Florida is even greater with his flinging wide open the door for unrestricted immigration from Cuba.  He was no match for Fidel Castro’s cunning.  The Cuban dictator emptied his prisons, insane asylums and streets of undesirables and gave them a one-way ticket to America.

The constant influx of immigrants stealing in from Latin America has been quieter and less noticeable.  But it has been more significant.

There has always been a need for migrant labor.  Individuals or whole families came across the Mexican border during harvest time.  They picked the crops and were paid a salary less than what an American resident would work for.  Then they went home.

These people came here and worked.  They did not come asking for a free ride, or their idea of getting a “piece of the American dream.”

The first influx in America came from Europe in the 1600s.  These sturdy souls were looking for a better life and freedom.  But they weren’t looking for an entitlement.  None of them expected to have anything except the chance to work hard and make a life for themselves and their families.

These are the people who made America great.  These are the ideas that made America the greatest nation in history.  Prosperity wasn’t handed to anyone on a silver platter.  All they had was the opportunity of work for their future.

Some historians have credited America’s success with the presence of natural resources.  It took more.  Other nations on other continents have an abundance of natural resources.  They have not utilized them as much as Americans in a free enterprise system.

Only a few decades ago, Latinos became more and more visible on our streets.  They came to work.  They took the jobs no one else wanted.  They did the work plants could find no one else to do.  They were at the factory gate at daylight waiting to get in.

Some still do.

Others learned the soft spot in American’s system.  They could get free medical service if they showed no income.  They could get free food stamps if they applied.  These people staked their claim to their “American dream.”

A recent newspaper headline bemoaned the fact illegal aliens are not a sufficient part of the Obama Health Care plan.  That is the epitome of a giveaway philosophy.

Davy Crockett is recalled by TV audiences as “the King of the Wild Frontier.”  But he was an efficient member of congress before that.  His colleagues thought him heartless when he voted against a government pension for a Revolutionary War widow.

He explained that he would take money out of his pocket to help the widow.  But he did not feel he had the right to take money from the American people through taxes to give her.

Shame we don’t have some of that ideal in congress today.

If someone wants to give free food or services to someone, that is fine.  Let them do it with their own money.  Don’t ask another to work and give what he earns to someone who is not even in the country legally.

If someone is in this country illegally, they have no legitimate standing here.  If they want to become citizens, there is a process in place.  Citizenship is not something to be stolen.

But—you can blame the whole dilemma on those elected to sit in the seats or congress and in the White House.

They have come up with no program.  And they have nothing sensible on the table.  Their dictates go from one extreme to the other.  Round up all the illegal aliens and send them back or, at the opposite extreme, make them all citizens immediately, forgiving their unlawful border crossing.

As a starter, the government could document them as temporary guest workers as long as they—and their employers—could pay their way.  This time should not count toward residency for citizenship.

If they can’t support themselves, they need to go home and take advantage of whatever entitlements are available there.

Almost any plan would be better than nothing to solve the immigrant status.

But it often seems we ask too much of our government to do something that makes sense.  They will likely just pass the problem on to future generations.