Immigration: Change the rules, change the rhetoric

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By Melissa Coulter | Monday, May 19, 2008 9:20 AM CDT | () comments

“To the LOSERS waving the Mexican flag on AMERICAN soil, you don’t deserve the air you breathe let alone the space you occupy. You should be jailed for treason, be fed bread and water and have sunshine pumped to you for an incredibly long time. If Mexico is so wonderful that you feel obligated to continue to speak THAT language, wave THAT flag and celebrate THOSE holidays, feel free to go back. SOON. NOW! And take every last one of your taxpayer milking, system manipulating kin back with you!”

That announcement, capital letters and all, came from QCTimes.com commenter Big Daddy in response to the ICE raid at Agriprocessors Inc. in Postville this week.

The predictable tirades poured into the comment streams as more and more Agriprocessors workers were arrested. Whitetigress posted an entire article by David Duke (of KKK fame) about how “whites have to protect their race.” Reggie099 told all illegal immigrants to “get the hell out of my country.” Mommyme was all for punishment of illegal aliens, but implored, “PLEASE don’t crowd our prison system with these illegal scumsuckers.”

Enough of the panic and rhetoric. Illegal immigrants aren’t crossing the border for the thrill of breaking American law. We are not being invaded.

Bindlestiff explains the situation: “Decades of lax enforcement of immigration laws have created the expectation that illegal residency in the U.S. is somewhat of a ‘right.’ Illegals are recruited/ encouraged/accepted by several industries including agriculture, meat processing, hospitality and construction.

“Law enforcement generally ignores the illegals. They have minimal rights, most notably they hesitate to organize. They are frequently underpaid and have few/no benefits, so health and social service ‘benefits’ are via charity care which is paid for by our taxes.

“Due to this, the populace gets angry at these workers and families, all while the cycle continues and the profits gleaned go straight to the top.”

Our current immigration system serves neither those wanting to become citizens nor the companies who can’t get Americans to do dirty jobs. So, both bypass the time-sucking, complicated legal route for a risky quick fix. The meatpacking plant or the apple orchard gets its labor, and the immigrant family raises its standard of living. But one broken law begets another. Lack of documentation leads to driving without a license or insurance or working under someone else’s Social Security number.

Agallen123 wrote, “I’m not worried about some Mexican with little formal training taking my husband’s or my job. I’m more worried about India doing that. The problem with our immigration policy is that it doesn’t flow. It is cumbersome, slow, costly, and many Americans (and we are educated) can’t even understand the process, much less an average person from Mexico.”

We will never get a system that is faster and easier to understand until we take punishment out of the equation. What is being accomplished by rounding up nearly 400 workers in Postville? Families are torn apart. A dying town’s largest employer may shut its doors. The government will spend millions of dollars prosecuting and deporting illegal immigrants while fighting several lawsuits brought by detainees for violating their rights.

I understand every part of “illegal.” But I also understand “human,” “compassion” and “common sense.”

Marismom wrote, “It’s the same old cry of alarm any time we have a population shift. I think you should learn your host country’s language, but adding your ethnic differences to the American salad bowl (not melting pot because we don’t melt well together) can enrich the whole society.”

We’ve got to change the rules. That may cause hard feelings in the people who played by the old rules. But it saves a lot of future grief.

Melissa Coulter writes on the comments posted online at qctimes.com. Contact her at (563) 383-2243 or at mcoulter@qctimes.com.