Immigration Reform, Illegal Aliens and Who Gets Left Outt

I am my family’s historian.  It isn’t the job I wanted, but it is a job I have grown into.  The Blaisdell branch of the family (my maternal grandfather) has been in this country since 1635.  My grandfather Blaisdell’s people came to Minnesota via Canada.  They left Massachusetts for Canada at around the time of the Revolutionary War.  A little creative intelligence tells me that those ancestors (about 9 generations back) were probably British sympathizers.  My other three grandparents were immigrants, two from Norway, one from Poland via Germany. 

            Most of you out there are probably thinking that what my ancestors did makes no difference to how I should be judged today.  I am a free standing being, making my own choices, my own decisions and my own mistakes.  For all of which I should be accountable both publicly and privately.  You are right, though I feel a certain obligation to my ancestors to carry forward a worthy genetic product.   

            We are now in the midst of a mammoth immigration reform movement.  Of course, none of this legislation has anything to do with real immigration.  That is covered by a long list of laws that allow around 2 million legal immigrants into this country each year.  What we are talking about is what to do with illegal aliens.  There are millions of them in this country and more coming all the time.  Since most of these illegal aliens are from Mexico, Central America and South America it is impossible to talk about this issue without including a side discussion of people from Latin America. 

            As a group, Latinos are a wonderful addition to our country and a natural source of strength for the Republican Party.  While no groups of people are monolithic, conforming to a single standard, it is still a fact that societies self select the characteristics they want in their society and as a group they will reflect some generalities.  Latinos are family oriented, hard working, respectful of education and religion and take pride in being self sufficient.  These are my kind of people.  We do need to find a way to integrate the Latinos that have come to this country, made a home for themselves, and are already behaving like good Americans, into this country. 

            But there is a problem that no one seems to want to discuss.  I have not heard it mentioned one single time in all of these discussions.  We do not have unlimited jobs, unlimited schools, hospitals, social welfare agencies, housing or welfare to deal with all of the people who want to come to the United States.  We settled on the current 2 million yearly quota because we decided that was a number that could be optimally integrated into the American system.  So here is the nut of the problem:  

            I want someone to point to a map of the world and point to the

            country that we are going to limit immigration from so we can

            accommodate illegal aliens who are now going to be entered

            into the system.  Whom are we going to exclude?  What families

            are we going to delay, remove or reject?  Who gets a, “No” so

            others can be told, “Yes.”

No one seems to want to take this step.  Why?  Too many politicians want the electoral advantage of this new voting bloc, but they don’t want to deal with the reality of economic and societal integration.  My ancestors gave me many things, and one of them was the ability to smell a rat when one enters the room.   Sniff! 

Look at problems honestly and keep the faith.