Immigrant Nation

Last week, President Bush outlined his plan to deal with illegal immigrants. On the most vital issue of granting amnesty vis a vis deportation, he claimed that he would tread a middle ground, wherein illegal immigrants won't be granted automatic citizenship, but rather will have to wait in line along with others and pay penalty in terms of taxes and learn english. If paying taxes and learning English were a penalty, then I guess lawful immigrants and citizens of this nation have been burdened with this penalty for years. And if illegal immigrants have to wait in the same line as the legal immigrants to obtain citizenship, then what is the reward for those who legally enter the country or should I say what is a deterrent for those who don't ? If this is not amnesty, then I probably don't use the same dictionary as the president.

Living in Los Angeles, a city with close to 30 percent of its population of Hispanic descent, and where more than 500,000 people marched downtown to protest the immigrant reform, it's hard not to ponder or converse this issue everyday. I dont have even an iota of doubt that the city of Angels would come to a screeching halt in the absence of illegal immigrants. I have met numerous people who at sometime or the other have hired an illegal person to trim their hedge or retile their bathroom. And why would't you ? It makes economic sense, and it seems like a really minor infringement of the law, if any !

Deportation and criminilisation of the illegals would have an adverse effect on the economics, and that probably was ruled out by economists much before the politicians realised it. On the other hand by granting them citizenship, you are being unfair to those who enter this country legally and pay taxes .

Some claim that the guest worker program might be a solution to this problem. But then, would the guest worker program qualify only to Mexicans ? And if it qualifies to other nations, why wouldn't China & India fill it up ? And if it gets filled up by other nations, why wouldn't people across the border who were deprived of it, jump the fence ? Building the fence and increase the border patrol might be a solution, but then protesters claim that it's impossible to patrol 2000+ miles of border and it increases the strain on the taxpayer.

I saw a documentary today on CNN, which talks about a real estate agent from Atlanta who hates the illegal immigrants and is an active proponent of the immigration reform, but at the same time earns his living by selling houses built by them. Often, when you talk to people regarding a controversial issue, they have a firm stance on it, irrespective of whether their right or wrong. However, the problem of immigration is highly involved, and its riddled with so many contradictions, that no one seems to have an effective solution. The dilemma was best brought out by Ann Coulter on Bill O'Reilly's show where she jokingly remarked that the US-Mexico border can be built only with the help of Illegal immigrants !