Thread: Political football of immigration

Political football of immigration
jdnews.com/opinion
September 13, 2011 9:00 AM

A protest in Charlotte has solidified the line drawn in the sand between advocates of tougher policies and those who would soften the U.S. position against illegal immigrants.

Last Tuesday, 15 students were apprehended during a protest held near Central Piedmont Community College to focus attention on current government regulations against undocumented aliens. Students say they want changes in deportation laws, policies that restrict the student status of the children of those who enter the country illegally and what they see as the federal failure to pass the DREAM Act, legislation that would benefit certain children of illegal aliens.

North Carolina, with a 2010 population of just under 10 million residents, reported a statewide percentage of Hispanic residents at 8.4 percent, with Onslow County having a higher percent of its population as Hispanic at 10.1 percent and Carteret a lower one at 3.4 percent.

Both counties have farm laborers, but many Hispanic families that live in this area are long-time residents or serve with the U.S. military. While there are doubtless some individuals in Eastern North Carolina are in this country illegally, it is more likely they are concentrated in the more rural communities and doubtful that most of them took part in the census. Thus, North Carolina, like much of the country, has no true picture of the status of its undocumented aliens.

Many in the Congress oppose passage of the DREAM Act on the basis that many immigrants spend years earning their way into American citizenship. There are those on both sides of the aisle who believe a policy aimed at those who were brought illegally to the United States when they were children is unfair.

Meanwhile, the Obama administration has instructed ICE not to deport these young people when they do not have criminal records.

The solution pleases no one. Those who oppose the idea think the Obama administration is merely pandering to the Hispanic community and trying to beef up its voting machine in anticipation of 2012. Those who want restrictions relaxed believe the same administration has also left them in limbo; while they’re not being deported, they also don’t have a clear path to citizenship or its benefits and still risk deportation at some future time.

Immigration is a thorny issue and will certainly play a part in the 2012 elections. As policies currently stand, no one is being well served.

Perhaps it’s time to bring this debate out of the political realm and into the practical (i.e., what America can afford) and humanitarian (should kids suffer because of their parents’ choices) arenas. These decisions will not be simple ones, but they are important and deserve to be more than political footballs.

http://www.jdnews.com/opinion/percent-9 ... ldren.html

I don't know if any of the GOP candidates REALLY understand how complicated the immigration issue is. For example, even if we deported illegals, and they took their kids with them, in a decade or so they all could start coming back, assuming they had at least one US citizen child. Then we have the regular attacks via birth tourism. Plus the ongoing expense of border control, immigration and customs enforcement, citizenship services, fraud control.

Oh my....they are going to need their own czar to get all of this under control.