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It would be a fertile field for a critic to take
on the immigration policy the American government is following—if you
could find it. There are
regulations on top of regulations as to who can and can’t come to
America. There are strict guidelines, especially after the terrorist
attacks on the World Trade center.
But no one is doing anything about them. Strict laws in the early days were enacted and
enforced on immigration from foreign shores to America.
White northern Europeans were preferred in a classification of
ethnic bias. Southern
Europeans were less in favor, but stood ahead of Africans and Asians.
Quotas were set. Lost in history is the immigration policy set by
the earliest settlers of the North American continent. If the theory prevails they came over from Asia via the
Aleutian Islands and were the first here, the original inhabitants
certainly had immigrants come and either welcomed them or set their own
quotas by either refusing the newcomers or killing them. In Christopher Columbus generation, the American
Indians were the occupants of the land.
They welcomed the newcomers—until they kept coming and moving
the Indian tenants farther inland and closer to extinction. We can only conjecture what the makeup of
American civilization as we know it would have been if the
“discovery” voyage had come from the coast of Africa or India or
Japan instead of Spain. After
word got out of the land Columbus bumped into on his way to India,
everyone took to sail. The
British, French and Dutch became major players. When there was plenty land and strong back were
needed to do the manual labor of clearing land and killing off wildlife,
immigrants were needed. As
the need dwindled, the doors partly closed. Not until recent decades did the doors open wide
again—unofficially but just as wide.
A flawed welfare program made it easier and more profitable for
someone to stay home and draw a check than to work.
Low paying manual labor jobs were unfilled.
The Hispanics answered the call of the paycheck.
They came to do the work Americans didn’t want.
They stood at the doors of the chicken packer, anxiously waiting
to go to work. They worked the looms of mills and poured the hot tar to
patch a roof. The money
that wouldn’t please the average American was heaven sent to the new
immigrants. It didn’t
matter if they came legally or not. One man said a young Hispanic woman wanted him
to teach her to drive. It
didn’t matter that she had a Social Security card and a driver’s
license, with the forgeries still damp.
It didn’t matter that she was here illegally.
She was here. And
the industries thriving on low wages welcome her and her kin.
American culture changed. Schools
had to teach lessons in Spanish to accommodate the non-taxpaying
residents. Hospitals had to
locate staff members who could speak the language.
The look of the landscape began to change.
Towns like Dalton, Ga., began to look more like Mexico City. Not only did the new workers not participate in
paying the bills that fund the roads and pay for services, they drained
the resources needed to keep the system running. An immigrant once had to prove they would not be
a burden to society and someone here could support them. Now one of the smart first steps for a new arrival is to get
a card to provide them with free food.
It’s not unusual to see a couple ahead of you in the grocery
checkout line speaking Spanish and geting their food with a piece of
plastic with an American flag on it. Somebody has to pay—and is paying.
The American taxpayer. Those
who benefit don’t pay. Certainly
not the immigrants. Certainly
not the industries who employ them. Maybe the time has come to change that. A computer can take a plastic credit card and
immediately add or subtract funds from an account around the world.
The same could be done for the new labor pool, many of which is
undocumented. Issue them
cards when are here legally to keep track of the work and payments.
Let the employer pay their bills for schooling, medical services
and the rest of the burden carried by taxpayers.
They could pay the portion a resident pays into the IRS account. If someone is here illegally and doesn’t have
proper ID, he or she can’t work.
If they have to be deported, find a way to let them pay for the
deportation instead of giving them a free ride.
There used to be work farms where society’s offenders slopped
hogs or raised vegetables to pay for an offense. Instead of tailoring our system to suit the new
residents, require them to adopt to what we have and, first of all,
learn to speak English. Nothing wrong with immigration. It enriches the blood of a nation. But we need those who come here to join in the building of
the future, not those who want a free meal at the table.
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