Here's Why The Xenophobes Are Wrong

While these are just 2 stories out of 12 million plus, I think these illustrate the follies of those who are saying that we should just pack up the illegals and send them all back. Of course, there are the economic arguments, which I have mentioned before (also here), but more than that are the moral arguments. Take for example the story of the Sahs from today's Salt Lake Tribune. Here's a good hardworking family who has been here in the States for 16 years. They came in legally and then applied for asylum when ethnic tensions in their hometown threatened them if they went back. It took 10 years for the government to reject that claim, and now after all their appeals have been exhausted after 16 years in the country, they're going to be deported. The worst part of all of this is the following exerpt:

"Ken's mistake was that he played by the rules," Lawrence said. "Because he applied for asylum, he got into the immigration process. Once in, there are only two ways out: You get benefits [of residency] or you get deported."
Green River's former mayor, Dale Johnson, sides with the Sahs. "They are good people. I have watched them work their tails off," he said. "They have earned the right to stay." After a decade in Green River, the Sahs have been embraced by the community - and they have done the same. Ken is active in the chamber of commerce, volunteers at the Green River museum and helps lead a volunteer emergency response team.

That's why illegals are still illegal. We do everything we can to ensure that they will be shipped back to Mexico (or wherever) because we're into punishing. I realize that there are a lot of people who are against illegal immigration and aren't xenophobic, but the larger part of that group not only wants to kick the illegals out, they want to make it so that people can't come in. If your problem is really illegal immigration, you shouldn't have a problem with increasing immigration caps (or eliminating them all together). That will allow people to enter legally, satisfying your demands for the rule of law. Likewise, it allows them to pursue the American Dream, which, let's face it, isn't just the American Dream - it's the Human Dream. Who doesn't want life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness? It not right at all that we should deny somebody that opportunity, even if it means that they come here, just because their name is Klopek.
While we're on this kick, let's talk education. I know more than a few people who are angry about how Utah educates illegals in its public system because there is a law that says we'll do that. However, even if that law didn't exist, they'd still get their education here under the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution (Plyler v. Doe established that). If you don't like it, repeal the amendment or move to Canada. I for one am glad we have that clause. If we denied them the education that they need, where would they turn? I'll tell you where, they'll turn to gangs and hooliganism, that's where. If we actually educate them and keep them out of trouble, then we have a good chance not only of decreasing the potential crime rate, but also of churning out some superstar students like Dan-el Padilla Peralta. The Wall Street Journal had a front page story about his plight back in April. Here's one of the brightest students that has come along in a long time and we're looking at booting him out of the country. No wonder we are losing brains...it's because we're forcing them out with our immigration laws. Here's the fair use excerpt from the Journal:

The worry about what he would do after graduation -- without a Social Security number or the right to work -- had been hanging over him since he started college. His hope to build a life in the U.S., where he wants to pursue a teaching career, required legal status. The chance to attend Oxford spurred him to act. If he goes to Oxford without resolving his status, he won't be able to return to the U.S. for a decade. He wouldn't be able to visit his mother or brother.
Even if he didn't go to Oxford, he would be unable to obtain any legal employment in the U.S. upon graduating from Princeton or receive admission to a graduate school program because they require paid teaching responsibilities..."It would be a waste to give Dan-el's potential to another country," says Mr. Cowen, who hasn't seen Mr. Padilla since 1999, and only recently learned of his predicament after getting an email from him. "It is education itself that Dan-el used to pull himself out of the ghetto...The future of the U.S. depends on education."

This pulls back to my main thesis that most illegals are indeed good, honest, hardworking people. We hear about the negative examples with gangs, crime, and whatnot, but a lot of that crime is perpetuated by us. We ghettoize an entire sub-nation of immigrants, forcing them to find help from the only people who will help them - criminals. Until we radically reform our immigration process to make it easier to get a visa (i.e. raising or eliminating visa caps) and give exceptions to cases like those above we will continue to have these problems. A wall isn't going to stop this, so we might as well lose that false hope right now. Deporting them all won't solve it either, John Jacob's assurances to the contrary. Mexico may have lost 12 million to the US, but that has happened over 20 years. You can't round up that same 12 million in any kind of short time period and send them back without massive shockwaves hitting the country, affecting every aspect of our lives. We may not want to acknowledge it, but those illegals are one of our hands, and you don't just cut off the hand because a fingernail has gone bad. You fix the nail, and that's what we need to do here.