As usual with the North Co Times many comments are being left.
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Friday, April 20, 2007

Immigration requires rational discussion

By: JOHN LEE EVANS - Commentary

It's springtime in San Diego County and that's becoming the annual time for politicians and activists to talk about illegal immigration.

Where are all of these illegals? They may be in the shadows, but not in the dark.

I had a new spa delivered to my house by a reputable local company. Setting it into the right spot was backbreaking work. None of the workers spoke English.

A licensed painting contractor sent over painters. They said they were from a Latin American country.

A middle-aged man who meticulously dried off my car at the car wash practically kissed my feet when I gave him a small tip. He was probably a descendant of the Mayas.

I drove behind a battered old car belting out exhaust on Interstate 5. I wondered if it was insured.

I walked into a hospital and there were women on the night shift mopping the floors as they spoke to each other in Spanish.

Then I went to a restaurant with the kitchen in full view. The hardworking staff all appeared to be Hispanic and they were speaking Spanish.

As a patron of all these businesses, how am I to know whether they are in this country legally or not? They may all be legal, but I doubt it.

A frustrated border worker told me that they turned away one pregnant woman who tried to cross three times in the same day.

Last year Brian Bilbray campaigned on a platform of stopping illegal immigration. He painted a dire picture. At a Busby-Bilbray debate he said that one female staffer of his went to Home Depot and he said she "practically feared for her life," apparently as she walked past some day laborers. At another debate he warned that our grandchildren may eventually be "forced to learn Spanish." In this way he implicitly created a fear of some sort of "brown invasion."

Bilbray exaggerated that illegals are the greatest threat to our national security, yet to my knowledge no gardeners have blown up IEDs in our neighborhoods.

Illegal is illegal. The problem is that our society has simultaneously held up signs for "Help Wanted" and "No Trespassing." To which sign is the poor worker going to pay more attention?

Our current situation is an ideal form of "apartheid" for businesses. They entice others to come into our country without full legal rights.

We need to prevail upon Rep. Bilbray to approach this issue in a calm and rational manner. Attempting to deputize landlords makes headlines, but not results. The amnesty program in 1986 did not solve the problem either.

We need to cut off any financial benefit to employers who continue to hire illegal workers. We need to have control of our borders. We also need to come up with a realistic solution to the 12 million who are already here. All of this requires bipartisan negotiation.

It is easy for Bilbray to make undocumented workers the scapegoats of all our ills. It makes good press. But will he bring results or just more talk?

-- San Diego resident John Lee Evans is a psychologist in Poway and La Jolla.

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2007/04 ... _19_07.txt