Now, I might be wrong, but I think there’s a very important word missing from this “immigration debate”. That word, of course, is “illegal“.
Here’s the text intro to a photo slideshow on MSNBC.com called “Home and Sanctuary“:
While the immigration debate has put a spotlight on border states like California and Texas, other immigrant communities continue to grow across the country. From young Somali cross-country athletes in Minnesota to Vietnamese refugees in Kansas and Hispanic shopkeepers in Idaho, foreign-born residents from all over the globe are shaping America’s culture and politics. Here are images from some of the towns and cities where recent and not-so-recent arrivals to the United States have made their homes.
The photos show a great cross-section of immigrants from various places, including one illegal alien from Mexico. That’s all well and good, of course, as long as we don’t lose sight of what “the immigration debate” is over. That slideshow has fifteen images.
This debate is not about immigration.
Exactly one of them, the one of an illegal immigrant, is directly related to “the immigration debate” that’s suddenly getting so much attention. Do not let anyone fool you. This is not about embracing, accepting, or tolerating other cultures. This is about the people who are here, for one reason or another, illegally. That is, against the law.
Some Americans think that it matters whether people here are here legally or not. Those who are here illegally, along with some of their friends and family, don’t like the fact that they may be held accountable for breaking the law. Sometimes they bite their tongues. Sometimes they don’t.
Here’s a front-page story on MSNBC.com: Arizona politicians in a tizzy over immigration. Get that? It’s a “tizzy”, which according to Merriam-Webster means “a highly excited and distracted state of mind“. Now, they may actually be in a “tizzy” for all Murdoc knows, though it seems more like a headline meant to demean or belittle the concern the politicians have for the issue. But, if you’re not paying close attention, that headline might give you the impression that the issue the politicians are in a “tizzy” about is “immigration”. How would the headline do this? Well, to begin with it says so outright.
But “immigration” is not the issue. This debate is not about immigration. This debate is about people who are not supposed to be here demanding the same rights and consideration that those who belong here get, and they’re upset that they might be treated like criminals simply because they intentionally broke the law. It appears that many of those who are upset would remain upset even if they were granted immediate citizenship. They aren’t interested in being Americans. They just want the benefits of being Americans. As long as they can get them on their terms.
Do not let anyone waste your time by telling you all about how America was founded by people from other countries and how America is the great melting pot and how America can be strengthened by certain aspects of other cultures. Not when discussing this issue. None of that has anything to do with “the immigration debate” we face today.
UPDATE: Oh, and it won’t be long until the major theme becomes “Why do xenophobic white Americans HATE Mexicans so much? Is it because they are insecure in their own selves?” I give it ten days tops. Don’t say Murdoc didn’t warn you.
The first step in solving a problem is admitting that a problem does, in fact, exist.