Georgia Wants Them Out of Their Schools

               Two years ago Arizona enacted its bill that allows police to arrest citizens if they suspect they are an illegal immigrant; the state has since received criticism from every aspect of life. From senators, to average citizens, to bands refusing to play shows or go on tour in the city. Even though the bill was met with such criticism many states have followed suit making America more and more dangerous for illegal immigrants to reside in. In Georgia, Republican Gov. Nathan Deal signed a copycat bill into law in 2011, making his state the third to give police such wide powers to investigate the immigration status of suspected undocumented immigrants. “This legislation I believe is a responsible step forward in the absence of federal action,” said Deal.

               While this action alone is enough to provoke plenty of hate and animosity towards the state, but Georgia went a step farther and made all of the public university check for illegal immigrants in their school by issuing a mandatory audit to all of their students. After discovering that there were, in fact, illegal immigrants at all five public schools locations for the University of Georgia, the school board voted 14-2 in favor of banning all illegal immigrants from attend college in Georgia’s public schools. The school succeeded in strengthening the states boarders from illegal immigrants but it did hurt the institutions in another way, major collegiate sports. Salon.com gives this example “High school football star Chester Brown of Hinesville, Ga., had a rude awakening. For months, he was courted by the University of Georgia football team to join its legendary football program. He even got a UGA tattoo on his left forearm. But the October 2010 vote made it so that the Samoan-born athlete would automatically be denied admission to UGA. Now Brown is likely to be recruited by big-name schools out of state.”

               This action caused an even greater uproar from the Hispanic population and still Senators made an attempt to get every major college in Georgia to ban illegal immigrants from their schools. This bill unlike the Arizona SB 1020 is a bill that I don’t necessarily agree with. These immigrants are at a major, well respected college trying to better themselves and serve our nation. The biggest problem with illegal immigration is that we are allowing undesirables into our nation most of the time. When the few that aren’t so undesirable arrive and attempt to stand out by attending college they should be congratulated and allowed to stay. They should not be allowed in-state tuition, but they should still be allowed to attend.

An entirely new dilema

               There’s a large hate bandwagon for the government, the police, and border patrol because for some reason it’s become cool or hip to do so. Most of the time all there reasons are based on isolated events or based on complete lies but every now and then there are events that tarnish one of these departments image. For the government it would be senators and governors lying or taking bribes. For the police it is usually police brutality or racism. Recently a subject has brought negative attention to the border patrol and that would be the treatment of the mentally ill. Cases where an illegal immigrant crossing the border with mental illness provides no easy answer, sending them back to Mexico where they could be taken advantage of again or keep them confined to the holding cells with all of the other criminals which isn’t much of a better alternative.

               The Bakers Field Californian estimates that there are around 30,000 illegal immigrants in our nation’s detention centers and approximately 1,000 of them have a serious mental illness. What to do with them is the question. Putting them back in Mexico doesn’t appear to be the right answer because it is more likely they try to come back to America or they get caught up in all the crime. Keeping them in holding cells in detention centers is what we have been doing recently and it clearly isn’t working. One suggestion is to make a hospital for them in America; however this would have to be funded by the American taxpayers and would only give these immigrants what they want. Another fear of using this as an alternative is that immigrants could abuse this and claim to be mentally handicapped when they are not.

               This dilemma is one that involves our emotions as much as it involves our money. The cheaper alternatives appear to be morally wrong while the morally right choices will put a greater strain on an already problematic economy. The mentally handicapped cannot be treated like the average criminal that crosses our boarder, there has to be an exception. In my eyes, communication with Mexico could provide both countries with a solution. Perhaps extraditing these mentally ill immigrants to a hospital in Mexico where they could receive proper care. However the Mexican government has plenty of problems of their own and isn’t always easy to communicate with. If Mexico could be more like Canada or any other self-sustaining country this would not be an issue, but if that were true, illegal immigration as a whole wouldn’t be an issue.

Form hard nosed criminal to weary traveler

               The LA Times followed an illegal immigrant by the name of Luis Montes trying to cross the border along the Texico (Mexico-Texas) boarder. “Luis Montes slipped across the Rio Grande and had started crawling through a field when a U.S. Border Patrol agent nabbed him. It was a Saturday and the 32-year-old illegal immigrant figured that by Sunday he would be deported back to Mexico, where he would promptly try again to cross into Texas. Instead, Montes was put on a plane, flown halfway across the country and bused to the California-Mexico border. At 2 a.m. Tuesday, U.S. border authorities took off his handcuffs and escorted him to a gate leading to the desert city of Mexicali (Mexico-California).”

               In the eyes of the United States Border Patrol, Mexico is Mexico no matter which part of the country they are in. Many people feel this is almost a form of police brutality because if Mexico dropped a Californian in Texas he probably wouldn’t know where he was going. The article, which seemed to sympathize with illegals, depicted Montes as a weary traveler who was displaced in an unknown, uninviting part of Mexico. Quotes like "”Is there a lot of crime here?" he asked.” Show how clueless he is to that part of Mexico. This is exactly what the border patrol what’s and in my eyes it genius. The story above clearly indicates how Montes was going to make another attempt at crossing the border in Texas, now he’s been reduced to a wandering nomad who just wants to find his way home. The first thing he did instead of contacting his coyote, was call his wife and have her transfer him a few pesos so he could eat something. No doubt he will need more to get back home, this entire trip has cost Montes time and money that I doubt he will want to spend again for such a useless task. This encounter is going to obviously make him think twice about crossing again because what if they had dropped him in an unfriendly area? What if they had dropped him the middle of nowhere? These questions are and should haunt Morales especially when he thinks about crossing the border again. This entire plan was concocted by the Alien Transfer Exit Program, which tries to disrupt immigration patterns and so far they have been succeeding. Through a combination of fear and confusion the program is able to keep most immigrants from trying to cross again.

Look We're Not Alone!

If you thought America had the only problem with illegal immigrant then think again. Thousands of illegal immigrants cross from Turkey into Greece at Kastanies, Greece each year, often traveling from there to other parts of Europe. What is Greece’s response you may ask? Build a fence! A thirteen foot high fence, that is, topped with razor wire and monitored by night vision cameras.  The fence is supposed to stretch from Kastanies, to the Greek village of Nea Vyssa, near the northeastern town of Orestiada and will cost upwards of $4 million. The fence will cover a 125 mile space mostly follow the river Evros, a river that provides a natural border between the two countries. The Turkish government has not argued against the proposition nor do they show signs of doing so in the future. The New York Times interviewed someone trying to crossing the border where the fence is supposed to be built, one of the men who identified himself as Said, 24, said that they had been walking for seven days, and that he hoped to reach an uncle in Hungary.

This story is a testament to two things in my mind. One is that we as legal citizens underestimate the hardships illegal immigrants face. The war in Syria has made Said leave everything he owns and walk for more than a week and he hasn’t even arrived at his destination. I ran two hundred meters for track and almost passed out. These illegal immigrants aren’t much different from those in Mexico; companies don’t just hire illegal immigrants because they will accept lower wages, but also because they are almost always harder workers than many U.S. citizens. Farmers in Alabama complained when many of the illegal immigrants were deported because they claimed that U.S. citizens couldn’t do the job half as well as the illegal immigrants could.

The second thing this story is a testament to is that a fence clearly is the proper course of action if other countries are building their own. If it was such a poor course of action then I feel that America wouldn’t have built one in the first place and I’m sure Greece wouldn’t have made the same mistake. It’s quite obvious that things that work are used by everyone. The light bulb works, that’s why everyone uses it, the car works, that’s why everyone uses it, and a fence works, that’s why everyone is going to use it if they start to have problems with illegal immigration.

If You Don't Want a Fence Then What Do You Want?

          An interesting website has caught my attention; the website is www.buildbetterthanafence.com, a charitable organization that is advocating something better than a fence along the U.S. Mexico border. The group claims to be a charitable organization and they ask for money to, as the name states, build something better than a fence along the border. After spending a half hour on this site I concluded that they don’t actually come out and tell u what they want build instead of a fence. It appears that $114 of my money will go to some random kid along the border and that will be his magical ticket to an actual education. That’s what they want to replace the fence with, an education system. I think anytime you can improve someone’s education then you should as long as they are a U.S. citizen or at least trying to become one.

The website claims that the border cities have a much lower crime rate than the cities in the United States and they base all of this off of an article someone read in the USA Today magazine. In fact, the entire section titled “cause” is completely copied and pasted from the USA Today article titled “U.S. border cities prove havens from Mexico's drug violence.” They talk about how safe border cities are, now when I thought of border cities I thought of cities in Mexico. Instead they are talking about the cities in America and obviously they are safe from the violence in Mexico because there is a fence! Everything they told me in their very informative video was that our border patrol and our fence are doing their jobs. I think it’s well known that the border cities along the Mexican border IN MEXICO are some of the most dangerous cities on the planet. In my eyes, we should build an even bigger fence which was something I hoped this group would be advocating. To my dismay they want better education in America, well that nice but don’t you think that’s the states job and not yours? I certainly do, the group gives some rather insulting quotes from politicians on Arizonan education but guess what, we’re in a depression. Every depression America has been through education, among other things, has suffered. Education will come back but not until the economy can. This group wants to divert the resources going into border safety to education and that will help prevent illegal immigration. By making our cities better, that will keep the immigrants out. I fail to see the logic in that statement.

The group, which consists of four named and credited people, none of which appear to be from Latin-American dissent all hail from Arizona or at least have spent significant time in Arizona form Arizona appear to be people you can trust on a topic like illegal immigration. However, I tend to think a little less of them when their argument only strengthens my respect and admiration for our border patrol and shows me that all the money going to the fence is doing are worth it. If having an argument that completely contradicts their purpose doesn’t shake the foundations for your trust in them, the hopefully having an argument that completely contradicts their purpose copied and pasted word for word on their website should. The fence along the border is something that we need because illegal immigration is at a level that is much too high. We are spending valuable recourses on this wall because it is for an even more valuable cause. Education is something that is governed by the state and should be left to the state, the border cities are safe and they need to be kept safe, don’t sacrifice something big to save something small.

Is it Good Police Work or Racism?

Alberto and Eduardo Vielma were two undocumented illegal immigrants living in the United States. One day, Alberto was accused of shoplifting and the police were forced to intervene. When the police arrived, Alberto’s brother made his way to the store, accompanied by his boss, to the store just down the street from where he worked. When he got there, the policed asked to see the Vielma brothers’ identification, just the Vielma brothers. Nobody else at the scene was asked and nobody else was a Latino. The brothers are now awaiting deportation and the police officers are being accused of racial profiling by immigration supporters. To see the story in greater depth, go to http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08259/912299-455.stm.

               Ever since the Arizona SB 1070, Latino Americans have complained of profiling and racism. What they fail to realize is that illegal immigration is a racial dilemma. Caucasians are not the ones crossing our borders and neither are any other races other than the Latino population. Nobody is going to ask the Canadian or Indian if they are illegal immigrants because neither race has been documented crossing our borders illegally even though it would actually be relatively easy for the Canadian. The Pew Hispanic center estimates that 78% of illegal immigrants are from Latin American countries which show that clearly it’s impossible not to profile when dealing with illegal immigration. If you were to line up nine Caucasians and one Hispanic American and as any average American which one was the Illegal immigrant, most would point to the Hispanic. Not because they’re racist, but because that’s the decision that the facts would back up.

               Something else being overlooked here is that the police officer was right when he asked for the Vielma brother’s identification. How come we aren’t calling this good detective skills or good police work. If profiling like this gets results then we should stop complaining. Everyone in America has others judge them as they judge others, because that is what we do as humans. If you want to go to a place where you won’t be judged then move to a country that still practices Communism although that could be quite the adjustment. In the story, the writer depicts the Vielma brothers as you average human beings but what matters is that they are here illegally and the law is the law. Profiling is something that is going to happen and if a Latino American is here legally or is a United States citizen then they have nothing to worry about.

Why is This so Hard to Stop?

Traveling down the United States/Mexico border you'll come across big, burly, highly trained officers with revolvers in their holsters and you wonder "why is it so hard to stop illegal immigration when we have such a strong presents along the border? The answer is that it isn’t necessarily the border patrol that is failing it’s the economy and the funding that is failing. The entire section devoted to protecting our borders and naturalizing immigrants is underfunded and doesn’t have the resources to adequately deal with illegal immigration. In fact, the recent attempt at slowing down illegal immigration is like trying to close a revolving door. By Tamar Jacoby, an editor for the New Republic compares illegal immigration to the prohibition saying: “The problem with Prohibition, as every schoolchild knows, was that it was so out of sync with reality, so remote from human behavior and established economic patterns, that it had no hope of succeeding. It's not that alcohol is beyond government control. Realistic regulations--liquor licensing, blue laws, import duties, and the like--work effectively to keep both sales and use in check. But, by overreaching, Prohibition did far more harm than good, producing a national black market, a many-tentacled web of international smuggling, widespread criminal activity by otherwise law-abiding citizens, and underworld violence of a kind not seen before or since”

               This is the case with illegal immigration as well because like the black markets of prohibition, illegal immigration has created a black market however it’s much worse than just selling alcohol. They are selling people. The human trafficking business has become a manipulative tool to exploit the hopes and dreams of many innocent Hispanic Americans. The only way the government could put an end to the black market was to put an end to prohibition. The real way America can put an end to Illegal immigration is to make naturalization an easier process. By reinventing the process and making America an easier place to enter would solve illegal immigration and the human trafficking business it has created. As easy as it sounds it will create a problem, without a strict borders, unwanted people can enter the states like terrorists. Especially terrorists. The borders are tight for that one reason, and that reason is terrorists. The tradeoff is here, would America prefer large amounts of illegal immigrants or just a three terrorists and the consequences they will bring. This is why Illegal immigration is such a difficult problem, every major course of action America takes will have a potentially dangerous reaction to it and until America can find a non-consequential course of action, then illegal immigration will always be a problem.

The Pew Research Center

 

If you’ve been following this blog then you’ve probably recognized one of the sources I’ve consistently cited is the Pew Hispanic Center. The Center was founded in 2001 as a nonpartisan research organization to collect statistics and data on many controversial issues that they list on their “about” page on their website: http://www.pewhispanic.org/about-the-center/. The entire organization is founded by a charity organization called the Pew Charitable Trusts centered in Philadelphia. The Pew takes their information from a vast amount of sources across the nation, then rewords it and provides visual aids to help support their information and help the reader understand what is being said. One of the Pews largest sources or places where they get their information would be the 2000-2010 United States Censuses. This is an indisputable source that is provided by the Government which a great reason to cite the Pew as a source. They also conduct many public surveys and researches surveys to gather data from what the “average” American feels on a specific topic.

The actual headquarters is located in Washington D.C. and the Chairman is Donald Kellerman. Kellerman, a radio broadcaster from Brooklyn has bounced around the country from enlisting in World War II, to being hired as a producer for CBS. Then he spent five years as the Chief of Staff for U.S. Senator Jacob Javits, after that he co-authored a book and finally, settled down as the Chairmen of the Pew Hispanic Center. In 2010 he passed away and left his large quantities of money and wealth to his grandchildren.

What amazes me about this site is that they can provide so much information without taking a strong stance on any particular subject they inform you about which is why it is such a good source. The Pew considers themselves “a fact tank,” a large data base that will provide the readers with everything they need to make a decision on either side of the fence. If you continue to read this blog then there is no doubt that you will see more citations from this site, I strongly encourage looking into this site as well.

Another stupid quote from a politician

Everything politicians say is under heavy scrutiny; many times it isn’t fair how often they criticized however there are times where they set themselves up. Take Ron Paul for example, while he was campaigning in Nevada one of his goals was to appeal to the Hispanic American population but he did a little more than just that. In fact, he might have alienated all others who are opposed to illegal immigration. What quote could have done this? Well, on Thursday Ron Paul released this statement: “Illegal immigrants were being scapegoated in a manner similar to Jews in Nazi Germany because of tough economic times.” This comment without a doubt was an over the top attempt to woo the Hispanic population of Nevada to his side. This comment has drastically lowered my respect for Paul considering nobody, not even he, believe what he just said.

Johan Hohmann, one of Paul’s campaign managers said this about the quote “Paul’s focus on winning over these voters also reflects his more professional operation compared with his presidential run in 2008, when he garnered 14 percent of the Nevada vote to finish second. He is trying to expand his traditional base of hard-core, small-government libertarians.” I feel this quote is just another thing that these politicians are spewing to appeal to the Hispanic population. Nobody agrees with either of these quotes and nobody in their right mind should ever try to defend a quote such as this. To compare the United States Border Patrol and our very own law enforcement to child killing Nazis is completely outlandish. Paul also went on to say things like: “If an individual is found to be breaking the law, serious consideration should be given for them to return. But I would think 99 percent of people who come here come because they believe in the American dream.”

This is a classic example of why I’ve never wanted to go into politics because they give up all loyalty they’ve ever had for each vote. From Rick Santorum wearing and Iowa shirt then an Iowa State sweater vest the next day, examples like this show that politicians are the last people on earth that we should be trust however we make them the most powerful people in our country. Unfortunately, power corrupts so this isn’t really a problem worth trying to solve considering it’s completely impossible to get politicians to act like normal people. I suppose that’s the big message behind this post, politicians never mean anything they say or do.

Illegal Immigration by the Numbers

The Pew Hispanic Center conducted a survey that posted these striking results: “A majority of undocumented immigrants have lived in the US for 10 years or more. The study estimates that there are 10.2 million unauthorized immigrants living in the US.  Of these immigrants, about two-thirds have resided in the U.S. for more than 10 years, A third of the immigrants have lived in the U.S. for 15 years or more, nearly half of the immigrants are parents to minors.” These statistics are trying to support the mass amnesty of illegal immigrants in America, or at least the idea of such an action. Currently this idea would never be passed because of the sheer cost and lack of support from many of the Border States like Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas. These states don’t support automatic entry to citizenship; however, most agree if Illegal Immigrants pay a fine then they should be allowed access to citizenship.

Giving all illegal immigrants citizenship is something that is much more serious and much more delicate process than people may think. Not all illegal immigrants are hardworking people that have been here for decades, some are drug dealers working for the many gangs of Mexico and giving these people citizenship would only increase the drug trade. Not to mention they would be open to all the benefits that come with being a citizen like you and me. In my eyes, an illegal immigrant should apply for citizenship and bring someone who can prove that they have been here for more than a certain period of time and then show that they have never committed any kind of felony. For those that cannot do this, the option to join the United States armed forces should be offered to them. However, they shouldn’t be allowed to serve overseas because we don’t want drug dealers representing our country in other countries.

Newt Gingrich said in last week’s debate that “If you’ve been here for 25 years, and you got three kids and two grandkids, you’ve been paying taxes and obeying the law, you belong to a local church, I don’t think we are going to separate you from your family, uproot you forcefully and kick you out.” Now those aren’t exactly the criteria he is going to look for but the message is still the same. If Congress can set a criteria, a black and white criteria where your either in or out, and a relatively speedy process then I feel that illegal immigration will be much less of a problem than it is now.

Yes he said it, a holiday for white people

When it comes to illegal immigration, Arizona is considered one of the toughest states on the subject hands down. From the Arizona SB law forcing profiling on all Hispanic Americans in the state, to Governor Jan Brewers finger waging at President Obama when he came to visit, Arizona’s image has been tarnished over the recent years. However there is one man that is proposing a new way to rebuild Arizona’s image by creating a new plan for the people of Arizona. This man’s name is Cecil Ash, a Republican from Mesa, Arizona, and his plan is to create a holiday…..…for white people. Yes, just for white people, Channel 10 from Tampa bay, or WTSP, took to the highly educated streets of Mesa and interviewed a few people about the idea. One person said “it’s a crazy idea.” Another said "Good idea. Like they have Cinco de Mayo for Mexicans. We need something for whites." When he proposed it, Ash only intended to get a few laughs but now he is actually defending his latest claim.

 Now Ash didn’t just step up and say he wants a holiday for white people. The topic was originally over a Latino-American Day, Ash then stepped in and said that “When we (the Caucasian population) become the minorities that we get our own holiday. This outlandish claim, in my eyes, is an unbelievable statement because it is not going to reshape Arizona’s image, if anything it is going to worsen it. Arizona and America for that matter, needs to focus less on differentiating people and focus more on bringing them together. We have American holidays for Americans, not black people or white people or Hispanic people, for Americans. Believe it or not, some other people are actually proposing something similar, Tumblir, a social networking site, is boasting a Caucasian History Month and no I’m not kidding.

When people like Ash make jokes and then try to defend these jokes it makes more people than just himself look silly. Anyone who supports this ridiculous case is just asking to be accused of being racist or intolerant. Especially when the woman that agrees with your argument backs up her claim with: "Good idea. Like they have Cinco de Mayo for Mexicans. We need something for whites." First of all, dear God, Cinco de Mayo is much more of an American holiday than it is a Mexican holiday; this woman clearly had little to no reasonable knowledge of what she was talking about at all and while it would be easy for me to make various blatant accusations about her tolerance I will refrain and just assume that her painfully ignorant statement would make sense to someone else who shares her lack of awareness. This outrageous idea is clearly never going to make it past the floor and thankfully there are more intellectual people representing Arizona and hopefully they step up and help bring the states diverse population together.