Ron Bryant: It’s Time To Meet the Immigration Issue Head-On

It is time for the United States to meet the immigration problem head on.  We have ignored the problem, we have politicized it, we have obfuscated it, and we have made the problem worse by our ignorance.

American citizens, taxpayers, and voters are being ignored by politicians who smell a potential voting bloc.  To add millions of voters to the rolls is all too tempting to those who wish to stay in office at any price.  Now, those same politicians are suggesting that Americans pay out billions of dollars to provide all the services that are at least in theory, reserved for citizens of the United States, to those who are here illegally.

To add the ultimate insult to injury, these politicians want to provide a pathway to citizenship to the very people who have broken the laws of the nation from which they will benefit.  Perhaps there is a density in one’s grey matter when it comes to this issue, but in all reasonableness isn’t something wrong with this scenario?

There are tens of thousands of men, women and children who lawfully wait their turn to enter this nation legally.  Each time an illegal immigrant enters this country, those who abide by the law are given less a chance to become a citizen.  Americans have always prided themselves on a modicum of fair play; there is nothing fair about the proposition of rewarding illegal immigrants at the expense of those who wish to enter this country legally.

It is all too easy for some people to justify offering amnesty to illegal immigrants.  “Give us your tired, your poor, your huddled masses” you know the rest.  America is after all a welcoming land for immigrants, peopled by immigrants—granted, but there are limits.  These limits involve a fair and reasonable system of laws to deal with immigration.  Such laws are already on the books, but they are being ignored by both immigrants and some of our elected representatives.

Speaking of fair and reasonable, is it fair that there are American citizens who are in abject poverty, many of them not receiving the proper amount of nourishment, ill-housed, ill-clothed, and facing a life of destitution?  Of course it is not fair.  Is it fair that the children of American citizens are falling behind in learning because of funding cuts in education, but some politicians feel it is the right thing to do to spend billions of dollars on the education of illegal immigrants?  No it is not fair.

Are some of our politicians so immersed in the plight of illegal immigrants that they are more than willing to permit the elderly of this nation do without necessities so illegal immigrants can be cared for out of the public treasury?  What is wrong with us that we do not have the compassion to deal with the problems of our citizens, but have more than enough compassion to care for those who are not citizens, and have broken our laws to come here?

To the people who are here illegally, one can only surmise your motives in coming to the United States in defiance of the law.  If you want to work and make a better life for you and your family it is understandable that you want to come to America; but so do others who are willing to wait and go through the legal channels to obtain work permits.

If you want to become a citizen of this great nation you are to be applauded for that desire; but so are others who are willing to apply for citizenship and wait their turn.  No one can circumvent the legal process and become a worthy citizen of the greatest nation on earth.

To those politicians who only count votes in their dreams; you are numbered, weighed, and found wanting.  In the long run, you are doing yourselves, the illegal immigrants, and your country no good.  Find another line of work.

To the businessmen, farmers or anyone else, who knowingly hire illegal immigrants to work for them; you may justify your reasons all day long, but in the end, you have also broken the law and are liable to be punished by that law.

To the nations that encourage their surplus population to enter this country openly or clandestinely; economic and political sanctions are a definite possibility.

The United States is a nation of laws or it is not.  What is good for one must be good for the other.  What is law for one must be law for another.  If our representatives in Washington blatantly ignore the laws that are sworn to uphold, then they must be turned out of office at the first opportunity.

As a nation, the United States still has a chance to mend its broken immigration system, but not at the expense of the already overburdened taxpayer.  No one expects 11,000,000 plus illegals to go away by tomorrow, but what can be expect is that our government does not make it easy for them to remain here illegally or to throw money and citizenship at them to remedy the current situation.  If we think that money and citizenship will solve the problem we are wrong.  This “remedy” would only invite the next 11,000,000 illegals to cross the border.