It seems that each year we move more and more to the extreme, to the point of being ridiculous in our attempt to be "politically correct." I am fully aware that our country was founded by "immigrants" from the British Isles. All of the following immigrant groups, be they Irish, Italian, or Eastern European, came to America to escape economic difficulties and religious persecution back home. An influx of Chinese laborers were the first Asian group that came in the 19th Century, followed by Japanese, Korean, and other Asians. But, as I have noted in some earlier blogs, there were Asian (Chinese and Filipinos) living in America as early as the days of our Revolutionary War. There are records of Chinese volunteers in the Continental Army and in the War of 1812, there were Filipinos as well. So, although our country was founded by immigrants from the British Isles, it wasn't long before there were other ethnic and racial members in our infant society. By mid 19th Century there was quite a large population of Africans who were brought over as slaves. Although they were not "willing" immigrants, they nevertheless became part of our society, especially after the Emancipation Act.
There is no question that we are a nation of immigrants and that America is truly a melting pot of cultures and races. But, as proud as we may be of our immigrant "melting pot core" as a nation, we mustn't forget that all of these immigrants arrived on these shores "legally." Except for the early settlers, like those who came on the Mayflower, later immigrants came from the European continent and entered America via New York or came from Asia through the Golden Gate of San Francisco, they all came as legal immigrants. To be sure there were those who entered illegally. That has always taken place regardless of country and will continue to take place, but not quite in the numbers that we have seen in the last couple of decades!
I am personally keenly aware of the problems posed by illegal entrants into this country through our southern border. I first witnessed a nightmarish scene back in the early 1980s when I visited the San Yisidro border crossing at the invitation of U.S. Border Patrol. It was relatively peaceful during the day, although quite busy at the border crossing points with the traffic of legal border crossers. But once it was dark, I was taken to a location not far from regular border crossing point to an open field. It was like a scene out of Vietnam War as illegal border crossers scrambled across the open area like an NVA assault! Border Patrol helicopters hovered above and Border Patrol vehicles were racing all over the field trying to stop and apprehend the illegal border crossers. It was like a battle scene out of a poorly conceived and directed war movie! I was later to learn that such scenes took place regularly each night!
For the next twenty years or so, things did not get better, if anything, it got worse! My final tour of duty in the Foreign Service was in Tijuana, Mexico and there, the problem of illegal border crossers was even more apparent. We had constant meetings, numerous task forces, committees, all designed to stop the flow of illegal immigrants. These various working groups and task forces were made up of U.S. Customs, U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, U.S. Border Patrol, U.S. State Department, FBI, California Highway Patrol, San Diego Country Sheriff's Office, San Diego Police Department, and half a dozen other agencies and organizations! It was and is a tremendous expense in time and money! Despite many other important jobs that we had on our plate, the illegal alien problem took up at least half of our time, sometimes all of our time!
I do have sympathy and empathize with many of these illegal aliens. I have seen conditions under which they live in their home country. I have witnessed horrible injustices and graft that takes place in those countries and the hopelessness that so many unfortunates face. Sadly, it is the uneducated, the poor, that suffer the most and they are the ones that seek to enter America illegally. But seeking to enter our country illegally is not the answer, and allowing them to enter as we have (owing to lack of control!) is not the answer either! The problem has to be fixed at the root, where it exists. But graft and injustice is so deeply rooted in those countries that it will take some doing to get rid of it. In the meantime, we have people who have slowly changed the attitudes of many by insisting that it is wrong to refer to these people as illegal aliens, they are undocumented immigrants! If my interpretation is correct, "illegal" is something that is not legal, something that does not abide by the rules of the law. An alien is someone or something that does not belong naturally. It does not refer to some evil creature from outer space! Therefore, calling someone who is not a legal resident or citizen of this country and is here without proper authorization an "illegal alien" is perfectly correct. An undocumented immigrant would suggest that someone legally immigrated into this country but does not have documents on hand, a small matter, just get the proper papers or IDs! To me, that definition or designation is totally inappropriate for someone who scrambled across the border "illegally," evading proper authorities in the process! This to me, is akin to calling a thief a "borrower!"
The more recent "softening" of the label of illegal aliens is the term of "dreamers," those young people who arrived in this country illegally as children. The thinking is, of course, that as children they had no choice, it is their parents who dragged them into this country. That may very well be, and our law makers should come up with some sort of a solution for these dreamers, but lets not burden the U.S. tax payers! It is not the U.S. tax payers responsibility to care for and pay for their schooling, etc. But, it seems there are those who think otherwise. The latest news is that Prescott College in Arizona, a Liberal Arts college, will be charging all students a $30 fee which will go into a scholarship fund for "dreamers!" There is another school, Loyola University that is also doing the same thing. Now these schools are private institutions so they say that they can do what they want, that they are not using any state or tax payers' monies. That is not entirely true! Prescott College's student body is heavily dependent on federal aids and grants. Seventy five percent of students receive federally insured student loans and many receive federal scholarship grants. The $30 that they all have to pay more than likely comes from federal grants or federally insured student loans!
So now we are going to start "taxing" legal resident or citizen students to pay for the education of illegal aliens? The explanation is that, of course, being illegal, the "dreamers" are not eligible for student loans for state and federal grants, therefore, they need assistance. Well, foreign students who are here legally with proper student visas do not qualify for federal and state grants and assistance, shouldn't they be also included in this "freebee?" After all, they entered this country legally, unlike the "dreamers!"
It is interesting that in most countries, you have to have legal status in order to register to go to school. In Mexico, you cannot enroll in their universities if you do not have legal status and you most certainly cannot receive any financial aid if you are not a Mexican citizen! But we are very generous, we not only allow illegal aliens to attend our schools, but now are on the way to finding a mechanism for funding their education! Talk about political correctness! What a country, America!
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