Immigration and Illegal Immigration - A Summary of Thoughts

Well I’ve been asked to put together my thoughts on illegal immigration and immigration as a whole. They are two seperate issues and I can’t throw them into one category no matter how hard I try.

The issue of illegal immigration as I’ve pointed out on the air and in my writings, really has to do with the first word in that term: illegal. If something is illegal, I believe we should not tolerate it. We live in a society which does not respect right and wrong. Society does not respect the letter of the law, and I’ve got a problem with it! That automatically is going to irritate a few people. Does my stance mean I have always followed the law? Nope. Does it mean I always do what’s right? I wish I could say yes! My point is not to judge those who break the rules, instead I want to get after those who don’t believe there should be any rules in the first place! I have an intolerance for the tolerance of what is wrong!

Whew, I’m glad I’ve got that off my chest. I just had to summarize it in very simple form, and now we can talk about the issue of immigration.

When it comes to immigration there are a wide range of things to be considered. I’ll try to break them down in to different categories. Fasten your seat belt, here we go!

National Security
I think first and foremost we have to consider the security of our country. We live in a much different world since 9/11. I know there are people out there who would just assume that terrible attack didn’t happen, but it did and we ought not forget it! My hope is you feel the same way as I do. I love our country and I believe we need to put our national security near the top of the list when it comes to political priorities. Wide open borders, and a lack of enforcement on international visitors who have overstayed their visas scares me. This is not because I think everyone who comes from another country is bad, in fact most are good people. My concern has to do with the fact that those who may want to harm us (IE; Al Quaeda, Iran, North Korea, etc…) could easily have access to our country. How unreasonable is it to think that a terror cell could be forming in a neighborhood near you? How unreasonable is it to think that a foreign national from a country we have strained relations with is spying on our military secrets? Wait, both of those have happened in the recent past! It’s scary isn’t it?

The Economy
What is the effect of immigration on the economy? Frankly I don’t know. I’m no economics professor and I haven’t studied sociology much. Honestly I hear a lot about the loss of American jobs, and I don’t want to sound unsympathetic to those causes, but I do believe in a free market and I do believe in competition. I’m not that afraid because I have faith in my ability to work hard and my ability to use my God given talents to succeed. I know there are many unanswered questions, and I know my dismissal of this issue will anger some, but until I see more research that shows we’re all going to end up living in card board boxes I’m a little reluctant to believe it. As far as low wages are concerned, look at what Wal-Mart’s doing and it doesn’t seem to be killing our economy does it?

Charity and Families
It’s no secret, I’m a Christian, and I believe we should love our neighbors. Whether they are black or white, American or Mexican, Christian or Muslim, I believe we are called to love others and it is through that love that we show the character that built this nation to be the great country it is. Another tennet of Christianity is following the law of the land. I believe in peaceful enforcement of the laws. What I mean by that is the use of excessive force or terror should be avoided when dealing with crimes like illegal immigration. There’s no reason to terrorize a community or tear apart a family over immigration violations. I understand there are exceptions when dealing with tougher crimes such as drug dealing, murder, rape, etc… Protecting the lives of the authorities is also vital to succesfully enforcing the law. Now that I’ve made that clear, I want you to know that I don’t think anyone should aid and abette law breakers. I think that the right thing to do would be to encourage law-breakers to follow the law and go about trying to become a legal citizen. Let me give you an example that has been shared with me many times: A child is born in the United States to illegal immigrants, that child is a citizen based on his or her birth in our nation. The parents are deported but the government decides that the child stays. This is wrong, the parents should make the decision for the child, not the government. The child should be sent home with the parents unless the parents agree to let the child stay here with a guardian.

Conclusion
The details behind immigration law, and dealing with undocumented workers are beyond my total scope of knowledge. I’ve outlined what I believe are the basic principles that should be considered when drawing attention to either of these issues. This is obviously a hot topic, which is why we’ve brought it up on Hot Talk. I want to encourage anyone with other thoughts and ideas to please share them and let’s have a civil discussion on these two issues of illegal immigration and immigration.