I’m just about sick of hearing all these people complain that we need immigration reform. The way I see it, Congress will not be able to reach any sort of compromise to do anything about it. And even if they do, it will be meaningless. I’m more interested in why this even became an issue in the first place. Could it be that Bush wanted this to become such a large issue, only to take attention away from himself?
There seem to be two sides of this argument: one that wants to build a huge wall across the southern border and keep everyone out, and those who want to offer some method of making illegal immigrants somehow legal. Both sides have fatal flaws. A huge wall will eventually be defeated, through either tunneling under it, climbing over it, hiding in a truck and being transported through it, or finding some other way around it. Making illegal immigrants legal doesn’t seem to offer any benefits either. What would they have to gain by fessing up that they are here illegally?
The two sides couldn’t be any more transparent either. The “huge wall” supporters are blaming all our problems on them, appealing to our security fears. The other side is clearly pandering to agri-business and the Hispanic population. Either side can bring out examples of people doing exactly what they say. So don’t bother with it. Anecdotal evidence doesn’t imply a trend.
As with all issues, I think a solution lies somewhere in the middle. One of the issues that has been discussed is that some illegal immigrants do not pay any taxes. Well, a way to fix that is to scrap the income tax in favor of a national sales tax or value added tax. Pay taxes on everything you buy. Illegal immigrants need to buy stuff here, right? So pay taxes that way. Just a thought.
So where do you stand on the issue? Round them up and ship them back? Or make them all legal? Of course, I would expect most people to be somewhere in the middle.
[tags]immigration reform, tax reform[/tags]
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One reply on “Immigration “Reform””
well, having worked for the past 2 years doing stuff to help “illegals” become “legal” (and what the hell makes a human being ILLEGAL anyway?), my opinion may be slightly biased. the way i see it, for the vast majority of us, our ancestors were immigrants somewhere along the line, and we wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for the acceptance (tolerance?) of immigrants. given this country’s history, and frankly, our reliance on immigrants, i really don’t see what the problem is in letting people legalize their immigration status. “illegal” immigrants still have access to certain public benefits – why not let them have access to jobs with taxed wages to help pay into the system?