There have been massive protests and controversies on whether students should be allowed to leave school or not to join in. There have been impassioned speeches about how America is a nation of immigrants. Even the tragic and sordid history of stealing land from Native Americans gets a little piece of the action. In terms of getting people worked up and organized toward a common purpose, this whole affair has been very impressive.
Too bad it’s all a smokescreen, though — a product of intellectual dishonesty. To hear some protesters, Democrats, and pundits in venues such as Air America, one would think that immigration itself is under attack with a proposal to permanently close the borders to everyone, forever. But that’s not the case. Individuals marching under the banner of “Immigration Is a Human Right” are guilty of misrepresenting the issue.
And what is the issue? The issue is illegal immigration. As my Fearless Editor Ari Noonan recently pointed out, it is reprehensible to confuse matters by rhetorically erasing the difference between legal and illegal immigration.
Of course, the idea of criminalizing immigrants who, by definition, are already outside the law seems not only pointless, but downright mean-spirited. As I’ve argued, wanting to make a living and support a family is hardly the stuff of evil. Federal lawmakers unquestionably erred in proposing something so drastic. But in all of these protests, I haven’t been able to figure out exactly what the protesters actually want as a solution. To give legal status to the millions of undocumented immigrants already here? In essence, although there is a legal process by which people can come to the United States, an exception should be made for people who chose to disregard it? It strikes me as ironic to hear that illegal immigrants want to be American citizens when these same immigrants ignore the laws of the very country they supposedly want to be a part of.
It’s Not That Complicated
But I won‚t rehash and dissect all the arguments. Frankly, I don’t think the immigration issue is as complicated as everyone makes it out to be. There is a legal process for immigration. If this process doesn’t meet the needs of the country’s businesses, government, and/or private individuals, then it should be revised until it does. Anything that is illegal should not be rewarded or encouraged. That is the principle of a society of laws, right? This is why it makes sense to expand a temporary guest worker program, but it doesn’t make sense to give any special consideration to those undocumented immigrants who have been here for many years. In other words, if the worker program includes a provision for obtaining citizenship at some future point in time, long-time illegal immigrants should not be more entitled to citizenship than anyone else. They should start on the same footing as everyone looking to come to the United States.
Bigger Fish to Fry
The most irritating thing about this whole thing is how people have put all their time and energy in protests and demonstrations rivaling that of the anti-war rallies, when there are more pressing and vital issues. A few easy examples of these include perennial favorites such as health care, education, poverty, and a soaring debt, but I could just as easily point to critical concerns about the environment (e.g. global warming and oil dependency), increasing numbers of worldwide terrorist attacks, the war in Iraq and nuclear proliferation. This doesn’t even cover domestic surveillance programs and the torture of detainees in Iraq and Guantanamo.
This isn’t to say that illegal immigration is an unimportant issue that shouldn’t be discussed at all. Obviously, there are problems that need to be resolved. But when placed into perspective, it simply doesn’t entail the same catastrophic national or global consequences. Focusing all this emotion into the issue simply plays into the hands of politicians who either benefit from the distraction from more sinister affairs, or are exploiting the issue to score cheap and easy political points.
I guess the lesson to be learned is that people are easily distracted from weightier ethical issues when their pocketbooks and livelihood are perceived, correctly or not, to be under attack.