Immigration Lock-Down

The border is a nightmare. Anyone who even vaguely looks hispanic dreads going through the checkpoint. The officers scrutinize their passports and ask for green card from the darker skinned people. Paler tourist-looking people can basically drive right on pass the booth with only a nod at the officers. Hispanics are watched here, but further down the line, twenty aliens are crossing on the Coyote with their luggage. The United States has to work on their immigration restrictions. The House of Representatives and the Senate have made their own bills in 2006. Some of the measures listed in these bills are a little extreme, such as making drunk-driving a deportable offense. Some things like the 370 mile triple layer fence or 700 mile double layer fence that will span the Mexico-US border does not seem that reasonable. All that they achieved was bringing the Congress to a virtual stand-still. The next bill, which was considered to be a compromise of the two previous ones, encourages the illegal aliens to "self-deport" to their respective countries. This is absurd; who would report themselves and have themselves kicked out of a country that is at least marginally better? Even if there is a faster way to get a visa, they will still be detain for a while. The idea of immigration reform promised by President Obama was at first received by enthusiasm. However, this sentiment soon waned when this reform led to thousands of deportations. Word that there are deportaion quotas, even after they were said to no longer be guided by such goals, has led to many people holding protestations in front of immigration agency offices. Eliseo Medina, an executive vice president of the Service Employees International Union, went so far as to say, "It's pretty clear that our optimism about a change of policy was misplaced. What they are doing makes no sense, so we are just basically mobilizing to fight back." It is obvious that some change have to be made. The changes in the immigration reform policies are not helping. In fact, they are only adding oil to already well-fed flames. Turmoil is sweeping the country due to this reform. it must be amended to prevent any possible future riots and still be effective. President Obama has said that "the American people deserve a solution" to the immigration problem. though this is true due to the 11 million illegal aliens in the country, there should be a better way to go about it, seeing that the attempted legislative crack-down birth a multide of protests and counterprotests. As Obama said, these types of events only undermine the notion of fairness and the trust between communities and the police force. He agrees that that we met start "fixing our broken immigration laws."

Yes, immigration must be dealt with. they way to go about is what is in dispute. Perhaps is the best parts of the House and Senate bills were combined with the needs of the people, we could have a working plan of action. Restrictions can only do so much. the one that we have now do only that, restrict. We are a nation built on immigrants. Whether they are legal or not, they are still a integral part of the nation that cannot be removed without dire consequence. Our goal should not be to remove them, but to help them become a legal part of the whole.

Preston, Julia. From Senate Majority Leader, a Promise to Take Up Immigration Overhaul. The New York Times. 10 April 2010: A21 http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/11/us/politics/11immig.html? scp=3&sq=immigration%20reform&st=cse 1 May 2010

Silva, Mark. Obama Presses For Immigration Reform. The Chicago Tribune. 23 April 2010 http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/sns-dc-obama-immigration,0,6984153.story 1 May 2010