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Part One Of Series: "Viewpoints." July 26, 2007
Part Two: "Frustrations" August 29, 2007
Part Three: "Solutions" November 28, 2007
On this first installment, I offer viewpoints regarding immigration I often hear expressed by fellow republicans, a little historical insight into the immigration issue and then some background information about me, so you can see where I am coming from in this most important, very emotional debate facing our great nation.
Viewpoints
Written by Fredi Simpson, Chelan County Republican Party Chair
Thursday, July 26, 2007
As your County Chair- and as the State National Committeewoman, I have never seen an issue divide good, intelligent, honest Republicans as I have seen with the issue of immigration.
Each side wants to point fingers at only one part of the problem. Neither side seems interested in sitting at the table with those of a different opinion with the intent of finding a common ground where real solutions can be found. The “closed border” folk want to send over 12 million illegal immigrants back to their home countries while the “open border” group wants to have an open door policy. One side keeps referring to the laws that have been broken, while the other says they need the workers at any cost.
From 1942 to 1964 we had a guest worker program called the Bracero Program (link…). Mexicans came to this country to work almost exclusively in agriculture and then went home to their families in the off seasons. Under this program, they did not fear going home because they knew they would be welcomed back to work. Some of these workers realized how great the opportunity in this country was, and they started bringing their families with them and stayed. Thus the first wave of illegal immigrants was created. In 1986 President Reagan and Congress through the Immigration Control Act (link…) gave unconditional amnesty to these workers (we had over 3 million illegal aliens here at that time). Since then nothing much has been done by our government to fix the immigration issue, and the result is the mess we find ourselves in today.
Now a little personal background information. I am of Mexican, Spanish, English, Mojave and French decent (in that order). When I am referred to as ‘Hispanic/American’ I reply I am American. But if one feels I must give ethnicity, I am American/Hispanic. American first!
I keep hearing from my liberal friends (yes, I do have a couple) that our ancestors all came from different countries. And, I love that we Americans are different because of our ancestral mix. The things that make our country the greatest one on earth (in my humble opinion) is that we are Americans FIRST! When we fight for our rights, we fight as Americans. When we fight against our enemies, we fight as Americans. I don’t care what color your skin is. I care that you love my country the way I love it, faults and all! I want to be able to stand next to a legal immigrant at a ball game, knowing that when they sing our National Anthem, they love this country as much as I love it, as this has become their country too. I don’t care what country he/she came from. I care that they are Americans, or are about to become Americans!
Well, that about takes care of this first installment. Check back frequently as I will next address some frustrations the immigration issue has caused in business, education and government services, and of course, most importantly with republicans.
Frustrations
It seems there are as many opinions on the subject of immigration as there are problems with the issue itself. The question I pose is: how are we going to get good Republicans to come together to solve the problems? How are Republicans going to become focused?
First, let’s quit pointing fingers at fellow Republicans! Why are we fighting within our own party? Why are we not fighting with the people who created many of the systems that have become the problem...the liberals? For example, they have created the current system that requires schools (at least in the Wenatchee School District) to teach bilingual classes to Hispanic children. By the time the non Hispanic student enters the 8th grade, he/she is speaking only one language while the Hispanic student who started in kindergarten, speaks, reads and writes in two languages *. One school in that District, Lewis and Clark Elementary, now has a mandatory dual language program. While I for one believe kids need to be taught foreign languages from an early age to be able to compete for the best jobs when they are older, not all parents agree and so there should be a choice.
Another major frustration created by the liberals is the amount of money we are paying through government programs that help people who are not citizens. These programs require a bilingual government employee to translate for those who do not speak English, and are seeking assistance from the government. Why? If you are a citizen and you collect any money from our government, you should speak English well enough to seek the services you are requesting, or (as in my grandparents day) arrange for your own translator! We also have programs that teach the adult Hispanics English for free while there are no programs (that I know of) that teach non-Hispanics Spanish for free.
The liberal mind frame has created the concept of “diversify” instead of “unify”. Why are we spending money on “diversity” programs that show our differences instead of showing all the great qualities that make us similar? Why do programs look at the color of our skin, instead of looking at an issue or need with “color blind” eyes? Americans come from many lands, but America has grown strong because we have always viewed our fellow citizens as Americans first.
Another outrage is when our voting pamphlets and ballots are required to be in languages other than English. If you are a citizen, you should be speaking English well enough to read the names of the candidates as well as being able to understand voting instructions.
To add insult to injury, how did we get to a place where our legal system does not even allow a medical employee to report fraud, do to privacy laws; or consider the employers delema when in our current system the Social Security Administration sends a letter to the employer saying that a Social Security number does not match a name with the number in their system, along with another note specifying that the employer CANNOT fire, lay-off or cut the hours of the employee?
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Who created this system? The illegals? I think not. So why then are we blaming illegals for taking advantage of a system Americans have created? Blame the liberals!
I could go on and on about the problems of illegal immigration. As you can see, the entire system is broken! A pointing fingers mentality will not solve the problem we are now faced with. We must take action! Next time, I’ll present my opinions regarding solutions. Fredi
*Personal note: When my son was starting kindergarten, we were sent papers from the school asking if we wanted him in ‘bilingual’ classes. We said ‘yes’ but because he was not considered ‘Hispanic’ he did not qualify for these classes. When entering eighth grade, he started his first second language class in Spanish at that time. Most of the kids that started kindergarten with him were Hispanic and already speaking, reading and writing, two languages. He was just starting his second language. This, to me, is reverse discrimination.
Solutions
This is my third and final installment of opinion articles regarding the immigration issue.
To begin, I believe solving this emotionally charged subject means we must stop pointing fingers at the parts of the problem that only personally effect us. We must instead look at the whole picture as this issue is multifaceted in scope. Secondly, as I have mentioned previously in this series, let’s stop pointing fingers only at Republicans!
The immigration problem is much broader than the simple fix of putting up a fence (on only one side of our borders) and giving stiff penalties to the employers who hire illegal immigrants. Yes, we need a stronger border patrol system, and, we need a stronger immigration policy that gets rid of all of the ‘loop holes’ and legal maneuvering which prevent our officials from having a clear understanding of how to deal with illegal immigrants. We need to start focusing on what I feel is genesis of this whole issue….the liberal mentality of accepting anyone into this Country. As long as liberal community leaders decide to make their cities into what Bill O’Reilley (link…) calls “Sanctuary Cities” we will not solve this problem. Some examples of what I am referring to are sited in California, where most illegal immigrants live and where many cities are now considered Sanctuary cities (as is Seattle). San Diego has signs on the freeways that show a family representing a family of illegals crossing the freeway, similar to our deer crossing signs. As long as we have government officials wanting to provide services to all people (legal or not) and companies such as banks (Bank of America) (link…) offering programs to everyone regardless of their residency status, we will continue to have a system that encourages people from other countries to take illegal advantage of our system.
I strongly believe we need a comprehensive guest worker program, and the President is right on this point. The orchardists, farmers and other businesses employing seasonal labor need to be able to hire the best workers they can get. With the unemployment rate as low as it is in this Country, it is true that some employers are finding Americans do not want to do some jobs the migrant is willing to do *. But, I want the Government to know who these seasonal workers are. This means we need to document any worker who comes into the U.S. and we need to have a better system of cross referencing social security numbers to names for positive identification. The Departments of Licensing in the various States can do this identification check in minutes and if our governmental agencies were utilizing a unified computer system, the local employment services departments should be able to do this also. These services should not be a burden to employers.
In addition we should look into tamper-proof biometric ID cards (link)… for anyone entering the Country. A comprehensive guest worker program could do all that. Migrants should be allowed to come here to work, then (as I said before) they must go back to their home country. If they wish to come back with their families, they must go through the proper channels for entering this Country again. Also, I believe we will continue to have immigration problems until U S citizens stop wanting the best job done, for the least amount of money (day labor). We all share in this problem, and the solution may well require that we pay more for qualified contractors to do our building, etc. rather than having illegal immigrants do the work. This would also benefit the economy in that increased wages in these fields means greater investments and spending.
Finally, we need to critically evaluate the influences of social engineering. Liberal elements in our society have demanded that we ‘diversify’ instead of ‘unify’. As individuals we need to show more pride in our Country. We need to truthfully ask ourselves why a legal immigrant would want to become a part of our society when we don’t encourage unity? It is not a good answer when the response might be: to have benefits they can’t have in their own country or to just earn more money. Years ago, immigrants who came to this Country, felt the need to become part of our society. They heard the love of this Country in our music. They saw it in our movies. They could breathe the taste of freedom and they wanted to be a part of the greatness this land had to offer. Instead, they now listen to past Presidents and some Democrats apologizing for all of the bad things they believe America has done or are doing to the rest of the world. The immigrant sees famous liberal actors making heroes of dictators like Hugo Chavez. They see liberal organizations like the ACLU saying we can’t pray or show any religious emblems on government property, but we can require the teaching of Islam and the Koran in our schools. Immigrants of today see a society no longer proud of its leaders. They see leaders who don’t believe our citizens are capable of achieving their highest goals without the help of government. Changing the laws (without loop holes) is only one way to turn the immigration problem around.
Changing how we feel about our Country is another matter for us to work on. We need to show that we are proud to live in the greatest country on earth. If someone wishes to immigrate to the U.S. they should not demand we learn their culture, they instead should be excited to learn ours. The difference between our great Country and others is that while we or our ancestors come from all over the earth, we join together as Americans first. This is the message we should be demanding from our immigrant friends and workers. We are not a ‘melting pot’ as some like to say. Instead we are more like a stew. We go in looking like a carrot; we come out looking like a carrot. The same can be said of the potato, beef and onion. But the blend of our flavors is what makes the stew great, just as the blend of our cultures makes us great Americans. But Americans, FIRST!
Well, that wraps up my series of articles on this issue. I look forward to discussing this and other subjects with anyone passionate about making a change. Thanks for taking the time.
*In the Chelan/Douglas County area, the children of our orchardists do not want to take over the family orchard; there are too many government regulations to deal with! These children are instead going off to college to get what they call a ‘real job’, and as a result many of our orchards are being sold to Hispanics. They love the land, know how to work the land, and are not afraid of the hours and pay to get the job done.
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