Thread: True immigration is not just seasonal

http://www.delawareonline.com/apps/pbcs ... 08/OPINION

True immigration is not just seasonal

By KEVIN WADE DELAWARE VOICE

As Americans, we are fiercely proud of our immigrant roots.
Faded photographs of determined faces, family stories shared at Sunday dinner, simple mementos carried across oceans and passed through the generations are reminders of our honored origins.

Today there are some who, crassly, describe the smuggling of illegal aliens as immigration. This mocks our nation's immigrant character and insults our own family histories; your family's and mine.

Finally, it dishonors the commitment of today's respected legal immigrants. True immigrants, unlike the illegal aliens, are not seasonal Americans; sometimes here, sometimes there.

The immigrant's deep permanent commitment to a new American life is a fresher version of our own.

Business voices say illegal aliens are an "economic necessity."
They use low cost labor as a prop to our national prosperity.
This sadly echoes the 1850's rationale of the "peculiar institution" of human bondage in the southern states.

How would President Lincoln measure the morality of any prosperity supported by an underclass working in the shadows?

How would Lincoln's view of human dignity see the smuggling, transport and dark commercial exchange of men and women for use as cheap labor?
The story of America is about the long upward climb of our families into the middle class.

Who would promote a step back in time by recreating a 19th century underclass numbering millions in a 21st century economy? Who benefits? The luxury hotels? The poultry industry?

The real costs of this "economic necessity" are paid by everyday Americans.
The real costs are found in overcrowded schools, chaos in hospital emergency rooms, gang violence, uninsured drivers and burgeoning prisons.

A bill addressing this issue will shortly come to a vote in the U.S. Senate. It is described as a "Compromise Bill for Immigration Reform." It will, in final effect, issue legal papers to 12 million illegal aliens.

One of the bill's co-sponsor, Sen. Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts, is said to be offering the legislation at this time because he wants to strike the iron of immigration while it while it's hot.

But Senate Bill 1348, will only serve to singe the social fabric of this law-abiding nation.
Woven by the patient hard work of generations of legal immigrants, now in the hands of the U.S. Senate, that sturdy honest cloth is at risk.

Our respected Delaware senators need to remember that their oath, when taking office, was allegiance to the American people.

Will admitting 12 million illegal aliens save jobs at the Chrysler plant in Newark? Will it save jobs at Avon? Will it reduce our use of foreign oil? Will it lower the price at the pump? Will health care improve for our own poor?

Will it lower our electric bills? Will it resolve the struggle in Iraq? Will it win the War on Terror?

These are the urgent needs and concerns of Delawareans.
The social fabric of many generations is in the hands of Sens. Joseph R. Biden and Thomas C. Carper. It's priceless, don't harm it. Vote no on S.B. 1348.

Our president wants us to decrease the us of gasoline and oil. Deport all the illegals and the usage will go down. We don't owe illegals anything but a trip to the border.