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Zonie63 -> RE: Car Wash Managers Indicted in Immigration Raid (8/21/2013 5:51:22 AM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: tj444
Yes, believe it or not, there are illegal immigrant business owners and while they might not have it as bad with ICE cuz they can hire a good lawyer.. if they are told to leave, they are a lot easier to find and be deported.. unlike those illegals that can easily disappear..
Yes, this does seem like a difficult situation, and I'm not sure that there are any easy answers. That's what makes the entire immigration issue so complicated, since it affects the lives of so many people, both immigrants and natives. There are sharp divisions over immigration, going from one extreme to the other. The debate itself can get very ugly and nasty, and yet, it's still something that needs to be addressed on a national level. I also don't think that handling it on a piecemeal or patchwork basis is really going to address the issue for the long term. But as it stands right now, both sides are so entrenched that any real compromise seems almost impossible.
I also find that, within the immigration debate, there are different sub-factions which tend to complicate things even further.
On the pro-immigration side:
1. Those who believe that America is a land of immigrants and for that reason alone, immigration should be unfettered - just because. This is a position that either liberals or conservatives can take, as this is more an aspect of Americana (e.g. the Statue of Liberty) embraced by both major ideologies.
2. Liberals who feel a sense of compassion towards other humans coming from squalor and wanting to improve their lives, so they support immigration for largely humanitarian reasons.
3. Businesses who actually profit from employing people under the table at below minimum wage and enjoy having a somewhat powerless labor pool which is unable to report any violations of labor laws, OSHA requirements, etc. They're the ones who profit the most from the current status quo, so they're the ones who would likely stand in the way of any kind of immigration reform - one way or the other. (That may explain why nothing ever really changes, despite all the public debate and clamor for reform.)
On the anti-immigration side:
1. Those who believe that America was a land of immigrants but that we're now "full." No more room at the inn. It's the opposite view from #1 above, although it doesn't seem to fit in the typical liberal-conservative divide.
2. Blue-collar workers and liberals who sympathize with them might oppose immigration because it is perceived as hurting native workers and lowering their standard of living. They largely reject the notion that immigrants take the jobs that Americans don't want and consider that to be a smokescreen for cheap employers who aren't willing to pay a decent wage to their employees. Generally, the fiscal liberals have been ideologically allied with their social liberal counterparts noted in #2 above, although this distinction may complicate things in the liberal camp over the long-term. It's not that they're unsympathetic to the plight of immigrants, but they also have their own problems and feel that the government is neglecting them and their needs.
3. The social conservatives whose viewpoint is centered around cultural and religious matters, in contrast to their fiscal conservative counterparts noted in #3 above. This group seems to be where most of the extremists come from - the Minutemen, Ranch Rescue, American Patrol, CMA, and similar organizations. This is where the support for SB 1070 came from. This faction seems to be an embarrassment to the fiscal conservatives (aka neo-conservatives), so there seems to be some internal friction over this and similar issues. But since most people aren't billionaires, the neo-cons need this group as part of their core support, so they can't really come out and alienate them too much. That's their dilemma at present.
The immigrants themselves are also a mixed bag, as not all of them are of one like mind, nor do they all come here for the same reasons. There are legal immigrants who jumped through all the hoops, filled out all their paperwork, paid their fees, and entered this country the legal way, so they also might feel that it's unfair that there are those who don't follow the rules yet manage to get away with it.
There's a further complication which is not so much about immigration, per se, but about the history of relations between the United States and Mexico. It's an underlying issue which isn't mentioned much in the formal debate, although it still seems to weigh on some people's minds. What is now the Southwestern United States used to be part of Mexico, and the Mexicans haven't forgotten that, while many Americans still remember the Alamo.
In other words, the whole issue is quite a mess of conflicting agendas and factions. I don't see any workable solution in the short run.
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