The current immigration debate—DREAMERS—and all other “illegal” and legal immigrants, is being debated and publicized, thanks to social media and fake news replays. We are constantly being reminded of the wide American and global political divide on the subject. As a White-European immigrant myself, I thought it only fair that I weigh in and summarize some of my extensive writings on the subject in Custom Maid Knowledge for New World Disorder (2007) and Custom Maid Revolution for New World Disorder (2014).
The title of this blog is the wording of one of my favorite posters from the 60’s Chicano Movement. Really, who are the illegal aliens? Judged by whom in what historical time-frame? More importantly, what were the laws then and how and why do they differ today? Today America’s immigration laws and enforcement policies are a mess, irrelevant and outdated for the 21st–wired–century.
America is a country of immigrants and was and is being built by immigrants — legal and illegal. The fact is we are all here legally and illegally!
America’s immigration system is a politically manufactured deliberate mess, one We The Maids have to cleanup.
Immigration is a polarizing red-hot button issue. A red flag to a bull. It sends the hard-liners in both parties to the trenches. This impasse led to the three-day government shutdown earlier this month and unless resolved by February 8, will lead to another shutdown.
The White House is focused on the 800,000 approved for DACA, while the Democrats and some Republican Senators want to protect up to 2.1 million DREAMERs from deportation according to the Migration Policy Institute.
In exchange for providing a way for 1.8-million Dreamers to become citizens, President Trump made it clear in his first State of The Union address that he wants limits on family-based immigration, an end to the visa lottery program that offers visas to people from countries underrepresented in the U.S. and an allocation of $25 billion to fix and expand the wall on the U.S.-Mexican border.
“It is not practical to fence a 1,933 mile border that more than 350 million people cross legally each year” I wrote in Custom Maid Revolution for New World Disorder.
“Tightening border controls and immigration laws have failed to keep several hundred thousand illegals a year out of America. U.S. immigration policies have backfired. America has to find a way to ensure that illegal immigrants in America — and those on their way — don’t forever remain marginalized and victimized. Why not accept them as taxpayers?” I asked then and ask again now?
Mr. President, your new re-election campaign ad that accuses Democrats of being complicit in every murder committed by illegal immigrants” is a bigoted lie that ignores data showing that the foreign-born, legal and illegal, are less likely to commit crime than native born Americans – and is not helpful in the ongoing debate in Congress.
For the first time in five years the Senate is having an open debate on the floor on the DREAM Act and immigration, something we have not seen in years: constructive bipartisan conversations.
We have been here before. In 2013, immigration legislation won widespread support in the Senate only to be roundly defeated in the Republican-led House.
Then-House Majority Leader Eric Cantor lost a primary election to an unknown newcomer, in part over his willingness to consider help for the very youngest Dreamers, those in kindergarten. Then House Speaker John A. Boehner quickly abandoned the immigration bill but he too was later pushed to resign by his party’s conservative flank.
The sad reality is that no bill that passes the Senate with Democratic support is likely to pass in the House of Representatives. I reserve the right to be wrong and hope I am.