Is Texas Following in the footsteps of Arizona?

Last Wednesday a Texas law maker Debbie Riddle who is up for election on November said she agrees with Arizona’s new anti-immigration bill passed and that she will be proposing a similar bill in Texas later this year. Similar to Jan Brewer, Arizona’s governor, her first concern is to “make sure that the safety and security of citizens is well established...” She defended Brewer and noted and criticized some of the publics' statements. She said that the idea of police stopping every Hispanic person off the street and searching them is ridicules. Each police officer must have “reasonable suspicion” and will only be stopping people if there is reason to. Riddle reasons that this bill is not racially motivated; it is motivated by the desire to protect the rights of this nation’s citizens and to combat illegal immigration. She is confident that this bill will pass because it is in the citizen’s best interest.

AZ to DC

With the recent immigration controversy in Arizona, it seems the democrats are being forced to deal with immigration reform in Washington D.C. This past week Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the Democratic majority leader, announced the Senate would take up an immigration bill. Although some Republicans like Senator Lindsay Graham of South Carolina stated the other day that he would not support acting on immigration this year. The democrats may have to move forward without bipartisan support. This is a very emotionally explosive issue, which could be bad for both parties during this mid-term election season.
Both parties agree on one thing; there is a need for better border security. There are many other issues to consider that the parties do not agree on, for instance, how to deal with the illegal immigrants already in the United States. Some feel they should be given a chance to become legal. Employers, who rely on the cheap labor and those working-class voters who see undocumented workers as threats to their jobs and wage levels, believe it is time to change immigration. There have been bipartisan talks for months, hashing out immigration issues that both parties could agree on. Surprisingly, there is well established framework for what is proposed.

• Establish "zero tolerance" for illegal border crossers by adding enforcement personnel, technology and tracking systems for departing foreigners.

• Over six years, issue new biometric Social Security cards linked to fingerprints and machine scanners to all U.S. workers and employers to verify work eligibility.

• Ease immigration for highly skilled foreign students in the sciences, and create a new temporary worker visa for low-skilled non-agricultural workers.

• Add protections for U.S. workers and wages, and grant redress to any American worker displaced by a temporary worker.

• Clear immigration backlog of close relatives waiting to be reunited with legal permanent U.S. residents within eight years.

• Register, fingerprint and screen 10.8 million illegal immigrants. After eight years, non-criminals who learn English and civics and pay taxes and fees may apply for permanent residency.

• Begin issuing biometric Social Security cards within 18 months linked to fingerprints or other biometric identifier.

• Deploy a scanner system nationwide over six years that will require all employers to verify workers' eligibility using the cards.

Along with beefing up Border Patrol, customs, immigration enforcement and judicial personnel, there would be and expand use of sensors, military equipment, transport and tracking systems. As much as they have achieved in their bipartisan talks, Republicans want to focus on the energy and climate change legislation before moving onto immigration. That move may not leave enough time this year for reform.

SB 1070

Most recently, Arizona had passed a new Immigration Law, would require immigrants to carry their alien registration documents at all times. Currently, officers can check someone's immigration status only if that person is suspected in another crime. It is estimated there are over 420,000 illegal immigrants in the state of Arizona, or don’t have papers. People smuggling and drugs main issue the state government is trying to deter. Both parties have their arguments to whether why or why not this law should be.

Democrats believe this will encourage racial profiling, which is specifically addressed in the law. Sec. 2. Title 11, chapter 7, Arizona Revised Statutes, is amended by 12 adding article 8, which you can read for yourself SB-1070. Republicans blame federal authorities for undermining the push for comprehensive immigration reform by failing to more effectively secure the Mexican border. Drug cartels are smuggling drugs and people across the border and states are left to defend for themselves.

This law grants law enforcement the right to help protect the Arizona citizens, and those of the United States, by being able to investigate individuals with reasonable suspicion. It requires officials and agencies of the state (law enforcement mainly) to fully comply with and assist in the enforcement of federal immigration laws. It establishes certain crimes involving trespassing by illegal aliens, stopping to hire or soliciting work under specified circumstances, and transporting, harboring or concealing unlawful aliens, and their respective penalties.
This law has fueled debate on both sides. It is being considered a racist bill by civil rights and immigrant-advocacy groups who are fueling the fire. There has been recent violence in the out lash by demonstrators. This is not a bill about Civil Liberties; it is about National Security and protection for the American Citizens. The borders in Arizona with Mexico are largely not patrolled. People, both American Citizens and Mexican Citizens, are being killed at an alarming rate because of drug and people smuggling. It should be very interesting to see what happens in the next few days.

Nation of Nations

Fifty percent of all Americans can trace back to at least one of their ancestors walking through the Great Hall on Ellis Island as an immigrant coming to America. Within the sixty-two years Ellis Island was in service, twelve million immigrants, mostly from Europe, passed through. America would not have thrived without the million and millions of people traveling from their home nations to settle in America. From the first explorers, to the fur traders, the lumberjacks, farmers, and even the slaves, America needed able bodied men and women to build this nation. Once the Industrial Age took hold of America, there was no going back. The population exploded; every year between the mid – nineteenth century, until WWI, millions from Europe entered this nation for the first time.

There was a lull in immigration during the World Wars and Great Depression. In 1921, the Congress passed the Emergency Quota Act, followed by the Immigration Act of 1924. The 1924 Act was aimed at lowering the overall inflow and making it proportionate to the ethnicities of the people already in the U.S. Then, the Immigration and Nationality Act Amendments of 1965 (the Hart-Cellar Act), abolished the system of national-origin quotas. By equalizing immigration policies, the act resulted in new immigration from non-European nations which changed the ethnic make-up of the United States. While European-born immigrants accounted for nearly sixty percent of the total foreign-born population in 1970, they accounted for only fifteen percent in 2000. Immigration doubled between 1965 and 1970, and doubled again between 1970 and 1990. In 1990, President Bush signed the Immigration Act of 1990, which increased legal immigration to the United States by forty percent. Nearly eight million immigrants came to the United States from 2000 to 2005 – more than in any other five-year period in the nation's history. Almost half entered illegally. Since 1986, Congress has passed seven amnesties for illegal immigrants.

Much has changes since 1620, and there are many reasons for the influx and reductions in immigration numbers. At what stage of our nation’s history did the people coming here become immigrants instead of settlers? What monumental change initiated the realization that although this was the “Land of the Free”, there would have to be a toll? This is very evident today as our federal and state governments’ legislate, reform, debate and lobby for or against immigrants. Is there no more room for more? Do they not have anything to offer? What about the welfare costs, and the costs of laborers? We look to explore further into this great debate, for we are all part of it. We may all be American citizens, but at one time someone from our families traveled from a far away nation to create a better life for themselves. Are we robbing others of the same benefit? We look to explore this question and this great debate further, because it affects us all.