If you have a pulse, you have probably heard about the National Day without Immigrants, full force in the Lower 48, advocating boycotts against work and school.
Excuse me for one moment, but I'm confused.
So, let me work this out.
Illegal immigrants want the rest of America to see what an economic impact they have on the American economy.
Illegal immigrants are not going to work or to school today in order to prove this to the Legislature.
Illegal immigrants are refraining from shopping or consuming products from any type of company or store in order to prove this locally.
Illegal immigrants are asking U.S. Lawmakers to approve citizenship for 12 million illegal immigrants working in the United States.
Companies, notably in the Midwest, are closing their doors today in assumption that enough of their illegal workforce will not show up for work in observance.
Ok- I'm still confused.
The word I am getting caught up on is: illegal. Illegal means prohibited by law. So one that has been born and raised on American soil is wondering: WTF?
Organizers spearheading this action is actually a coalition of several groups from Des Moines called United for the Dignity and Safety of Immigrants. The "boycott" or "demonstrations" have been called "peaceful"and "positive", organized to raise awareness that this country has a broken system for illegal immigrants. This was pushed into high gear after immigration reform faced recent stalls in Congress. Midwesterners aren't the only ones paying attention, but in Iowa alone 50,000-75,000 illegal Latinos are estimated (out of a state population of almost 3 Million).
One person quoted in the DMR article,
"undocumented immigrants should return to their home countries and go
through legal channels to re-enter the United States. She said she has no
sympathy for any who flout the law."
A cold, hard perspective and I hate to say it, but I agree. Why should illegal immigrants be granted the rights to work in this country if they did not come here in truth?
One restaurant owner in Des Moines said:
"most undocumented immigrants do not have a legal way to remain in the United
States. Many people think that they just simply are not following
the steps," Sanchez said. "There are no legal channels."
So once illegal immigrants have successfully migrated into the country, then there is supposed to be a legal system that will help them achieve citizenship? OK- so they deserve credit that they were smart enough, tactful enough, to get past the Border Police.
Immigrant: 1
USA: 0
Maybe America could push for the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Department to open headquarters once a week to register illegal immigrants. They could line up and declare their oath to American citizenship. Of course, they would need to pass the test (I am fairly sure one still exists) in English (because that is the American tongue), and would have to register to vote (because if they would like to right to protest, they should exercise the right to vote), and swear on the Pledge of allegiance and National Anthem that they will never, ever again commit any other illegal acts again, or they risk losing their American citizenship and will be immediately deported.
Then, they would take a skills test to find out where they really could make the best impact on the American economy. Large companies will submit their requests for the new legally illegal immigrants and the government could hire a new legally illegal immigrant to spend a majority of their time matching skilled workers to jobs that are in dire need of filling. (mostly, of course meat packing plants, restaurants and huge manufacturing businesses.)
This would also cut down on the potential hiring of real illegal immigrants by large companies, and they would not have to close their doors during National Day without Immigrants because they, too are indeed breaking the law by using this workforce to fuel their company.
I think I may be on to something.
Of course how this all works logistically, I have no idea. That is not my department. I work in Creative and Brilliant 501. I know someone you could ask- but they are not working today.
Update: May Day 2006 Around the World - in words and pictures http://www.infoshop.org/inews/article.php?story=2006mayday2006
2 comments:
Hey Mindy, The media is really twisting this issue out of reality. Our immigration policy is inadequate and does not allow the number of immigrants we actually need. We have had a need for 50,000 to 100,000 migrant workers per year for the past twenty years. Lawmakers were unwilling to spend the money to create the infrastructure to accomidate this level of immigration, and they were unwilling to starve our economy of the labor it needed. So lawmakers did not fund the enforcement of the inadequate immigration policy. Migrant workers have been coming to the US, working, starting families, churches, marrying citizens and giving birth to citizens. If the current law were enforced families would be seperated and twelve million workers would be removed from our economy. Enforcement of the current law is impossible. Xenophobic and racist groups are using the war on terror to create a second class citizenry that can be exploited with out the protection of law in the US. This is not in the spirit of our constitution, is inhumane, and leads to the antisocial behavior of the civil rights movement of the 1960's. The volume of oppressed workers has reached a critical mass and must be addressed as a civil rights issue not as a legal issue because our policy has been to ignore our own laws for twenty years. This is our fault and we will have to fix it. Hope to see you soon! Love your blog. D. Matt Duncan
Interesting. Obviously the media is paying attention. Do you think Washington is too?
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