Wave after wave they have come, all helping to transform, revitalize and improve this land. America is as exciting and as vibrant as it is because of it's willingness to take in new people, and let our our culture adapt and expand to accommodate them.
The first generation is very hard working, but may stick as much as possible to their native tongue and culture. The second generation may know both their parent's language and English, and slowly adopt some more American ways. The third generation may not even know the mother tongue, and have only a nostalgic view of the ways of grandpop and grandma. Such is the way and path of each wave of immigrants.
Sometimes this period of transition can be prolonged if a large enough group tends to live together in isolation from others. But even that breaks down over time, or at least soften at the edges.
Sometimes there may be crime elements that come over in the early part of the wave. But that, like any criminal activity, should not be tolerated and broken up.
Immigration reform is about how to make this natural flow that has so benefited this country take place as smoothly as possible. I agree with those who think that a comprehensive approach is best. No single solution is going to achieve anything.
A fence in some areas might be helpful. But we cannot create Fortress America. It goes against everything we have tried to achieve in this country. I don't want to live in a place whose first instinct is to keep everyone else out, a huge gated community that almost takes on the aspects of a prison.
More border security might be helpful. I don't think you could beef it up to the point of stopping everybody, but it could be done in a such a way that it is a boon to both sides of the border.
Deportation might be helpful, although we are at record levels of that already.
A path to citizenship is a must. We cannot kill dreams in this country/ We must leave an opening for those who are willing to work hard and follow a vigorous procedure to obtain citizenship
There is no reason to take things out on the children of illegal immigrants who have lived here all their lives and know no other place. The Dream Act is absolutely essential in preserving what the true meaning of America is.
All of these elements of immigration reform are vital. But to me, they pale in importance to this final thing I mention - we MUST crack down on employers who hire illegals. They wouldn't come here in large numbers if there were no jobs that employers were willing to give them. And they want to give those jobs to illegals because they want to pay sub-standard wages. If you just enforce labor laws, increase and strengthen the minimum wage, then the number of illegals will go down dramatically.
I don't like the idea of people being stopped on the street and asked for papers. I don't mind the idea of people having to show proof of citizenship to get a job. I don't mind guest worker status as long as they're paid a decent wage.
There is no excuse for paying any person, regardless of immigration status, culture, creed or race, less than a living wage. If a person can't support a family on the wage, than we need to rethink the whole thing. We can't have a society where everyone lives like Donald Trump (thank God!), but we must fight for one where working people don't have to live in abject poverty.
So here's to hoping that Republicans and Democrats get together and pass the common sense immigration reforms we need.
And here's to hoping that employers will take a second look at the attitude that it's okay to pay a group of people substandard wages, because somehow, they're different than us and don't have the same goals, dreams and needs as the rest of us.
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