I am sorry to see Lou Dobbs go. I am also glad that he is paying a price for his mistakes. Let me explain.
I firmly oppose illegal immigration. I think every illegal immigrant in the country should go back to their native country and go through the legal, cumbersome, humiliating, irrational and arbitrary system. Did I mention corrupt?
I have some experience. My recently former wife is a Russian and I did the paperwork to secure first a fiancé visa and then to obtain for her permanent residency. It was a grueling process. It was expensive, it took much time and research, my phone bill was significantly higher thanks to being put on interminable hold at one government office after another. Along the way we spoke with immigration officials who ranged from rudely arrogant to gracious and kind. Most were indifferent.
But, we went through the process, paid the cost and did it all above board and without getting our dear congressman to bend the rules.
So, I have no respect for those who slither across the board under cover of darkness, whether they are Mexicans, Columbians, Russians or my beloved Germans. Makes no difference, the law is there.
But, the law needs to be changed. We are still the most attractive country on earth for people who wish to get ahead in life. We should take advantage of that. Let us pick the best in the world to come here just like we would pick the best first in a pick up ball game. We don’t. Plenty of businesses complain that they need engineers, or scientists or some other individual of great skill, but the visa quota has been used up. Instead, what we get are kitchen workers, laborers and other low wage, low skill workers, because other businesses are happy to take advantage of cheap and vulnerable labor. To their credit, the low end workers who seem to be the majority of the illegals they have fought to get here. They should be given points for determination, but sent home to go through the process. Businesses that hire them should be fined, heavily.
Many people complain about the process and they should, but there is a fundamental reason the system is broken: excessive demand. We have the number one destination in the world for economic migrants. Most of us are here because our ancestors saw America as the land of opportunity. It still is. Go to any consulate and the lines are long just to get in to the waiting room, hundreds daily show up at every consulate we have overseas. They fill out papers and then go home, perhaps a hundred or so miles, to wait for a call back and another three days away from work. Applicants are then judged as to whether they are likely to overstay their visa and become illegal when they finally get here. Applicants are more likely to be approved if they have strong reasons to return: a good job, children left behind, a substantial bank account, land, a nice apartment. How would you feel if you wanted to travel to England to see a few castles or visit your aunt Arbothnaut and had to prove that you are likely to come back. I think we would rebel at the thought.
So, the reason we have so many Mexicans and Salvadorans here is they need only walk across, or perhaps swim. Otherwise, we would be awash with illegal Russians, Romanians, Slovenes, Mongols, Thais, Phillapinos and Nigerians, just to mention a very, very few.
So, as someone who went through the process I prefer the flawed system to being overwhelmed with wave after wave of immigration. We can’t sustain it or manage it. In fact, that was the biggest problem with the Mexican wave, just too many of them in too short a period time. As a nation we can assimilate quite a few new immigrants a year and should welcome them, but the millions of Mexicans who stole across the border were just too many too quickly. It was excessive, as was at times Lou Dobbs rhetoric. His mistakes were celebrated by the pro-immigrant advocates and that is the problem. Get your facts right if you are a journalist, otherwise you allow the opposition to undermining your arguments and discrediting you. Lou, a good man and a veteran of TV news, made mistakes in his enthusiasm and is now paying the price. His point, however, is well taken: illegal immigration is simply illegal.
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Tags: Illegal Aliens, illegal immigrants, Lou Dobbs
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By far, one of the best reads on the issue I’ve ever come by! Yes, the process to be an American citizen is long, hard and cumbersome – but the reward is so worth it.
I’m a first generation American and am thankful to be a part of such a great nation. My father and his family immigrated in the early 1950s, and the process back then, was tough too – and look how many jumped the hurdles and played the waiting game in order to attain the prize of citizenship. They were eager to start a new life after my grandfather was shot up by the Russians in WWII and my grandmother was put in a work camp because of her faith. My grandfather came to the States months before his wife and children. He had to be sponsored by a US citizen and find adequate housing and employment. It was only then that this family was allowed to come to the U.S. My father was 8. He started school in kindergarten, because there were no ESL programs to help him with the language. He describes his first year in the U.S. as difficult – being ridiculed in school because he was the only kid in lederhosen and spoke only German. He was called little Hitler. But he pressed on, learned the language and the culture and quickly advanced to where he should be in school.
He became a contributing member of society – going on to college and eventually going into education. He’s a father, grandfather, husband and patriot. He loves the U.S. He is a U.S. citizen and proudly so.
He does not take his citizenship for granted. The hard work was worth it. The ridicule was worth it.
The best things in life are those that you work hard for.
Jbabe, many of my friends are found at the Fort Wayne Sport Club and the Mannerchor. They went through the same tough situation as your parents and grandparents. Many were helped by sponsors, people like Charles Colligan, to establish here. Most of them have flourished. Another friend is a Romanian refugee who escaped in the dead of the night from communist Romania. He is a multi-millionaire and has never taken money from the government to accomplish his feat. I am proud of all of them for what they have done and who they are. And, occasionally, during Germanfest, I can be found in Lederhosen, auch.