[Vision2020] Why do we need immigration reform?

[Kenneth Marcy]

On 7/28/2013 10:53 AM, Scott Dredge wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I haven't followed the brouhaha regarding immigration reform.

It's not a new type of issue; similar situations have persisted for 
millennia.

> What exactly are the problems that are at issue?

Just the usual greedy, illogical, control freaks unable to respect for 
what they are differences they perceive in others, and attempting to 
arrange situations so that the others will continue to be subservient 
to, if not outright dependent upon, the continuation of a dominance 
relationship by the majority.  The problem is the control freaks lack of 
imagination concerning how society could be improved with a regularized 
and regulated system of individual passages back and forth across 
multiple-port legal membranes to achieve higher qualities of individual 
lives and collective social functions.

Obviously there are differences among those who wish to become legal 
citizens.  Some are more intelligent, better educated, and have higher 
ambitions for themselves within the society they seek to join.  Others 
are not so bright, not so well educated, and may be illiterate not only 
in the language of the nation's majority, but in their mother's native 
language as well.  Some of them may have participated in criminal 
activities, and, knowing their limitations to work within legitimate 
society, even if they were legal, may have the idea that criminal 
activities may be more profitable for them than whatever legitimate work 
they might be able to or allowed to do.

The facts of the matter include that millions of such individuals are 
already within the country, and are highly unlikely to magically 
disappear.  Our society must find a set of ways to deal with the 
challenges they present, and achieve over time not only some degree of 
legitimization of their existence, but also recognition of their 
abilities, and where and how those abilities may be of use to the 
society of which they wish to be a part.  It's too expensive to try to 
just throw them out, and, even if it weren't too expensive, it just 
won't work anyway.  Their natural survival instincts will draw them 
toward concentrations of resources.  We need to regulate equitably 
access to those resources for all our benefits now, and in the future, 
when they may be in the majority, and with historical memories as long 
as ours.

> We already have a vast array of student and work visas that could be 
> leveraged IMO.

Student and work visas may have places in the world, but they are not 
substitutes for recognizing and solving social issues that are orders of 
magnitude larger and more complicated than various visa-regulated 
opportunities.

> Beyond that, it's obvious that the more immigrants that achieve full 
> citizenship will be voting for the Democrats.

They may be voting for Democrats for a generation or two, but after they 
have achieved some degree of success, and have some assets and positions 
and social standing to lose, they may become as conservative as any of 
the existing right-wingers.

> Thus, a good middle ground would be a path to Green Card which 
> provides most rights except for voting rights.  Green Carders might 
> like that even better since they'd not need to be burdened by the 
> civic duty of sitting on a jury.

So, when the local constabulary detains a recent immigrant, with or 
without probable cause, a jury without recent immigrant participation 
has how much chance of being perceived as a just, equitable 
representation of peers?


Ken
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