Tag Archives: Immigration

Doing Minnesota Proud

Young man haulin’ the mail!

Derek Onserio, a senior at Providence Academy in Plymouth, was accepted to eight Ivy Laegue schools. Onserio has four siblings, two of which also attend Ivy League schools. He is the son of Kenyan immigrants.

You go boy!

Where The Syrian Refugee

Syrian Refugee

Much discussion, emotion and hand wringing is due the issue of the refugee fleeing  home due to the war in that nation.

The question is – “What do we do with these people?”

There is only one answer – “Let them in.”

There can only be one answer that America can offer when the world is confused and is searching for the way forward.  When people everywhere don’t know what to do, when they doubt themselves and others and are in a desperate search for the noble, the honorable and the compassion – they always, whether they like it or not, look to America as the beacon that shows them the way.  That shines through the storm clouds and leads them to safe harbor?

And why is this the case, always the case?

Because it is who we are.

Period.

It is normal and easy to be afraid; the desire to close the gate and lock the door is common, understandable.  But we are UNcommon.  Ours is not the easy way – our way has always been fraught with peril and dangers.  And we have always, ALWAYS demonstrated the strength of our will and our way.  It is why people who are afraid come here – it is why the world immigrates to America and not the other way around.

Now, can we take steps to be more safe than less?  Sure.  Should states have rights in who they let in?  I think so.  Are there methods that we can employ to make this easier?  Absolutely.

If we are afraid of the militant – we can require that any refugee be part of an intact family.  We can accept mother, father and children.  It could be said that the most at risk Syrians are the widows and the orphans – the families who have lost their men due to the conflict.  Certainly the widow and her orphaned children can be accommodated?

Further – we know that we can’t take ALL the refugees fleeing Syria.  There are very real concerns that an immigrant population may grow to a size that makes assimilation next to impossible.  It has been forever a unique American experience that anyone can become American.  The corollary to this phenomenon is that there is an implicit expectation that the immigrant make every effort to hustle that process along as fast as she can.  So we take those that we are able and pray for those remaining outside our door.

But we take those that we can.  Because, to fail in this regard is to walk away from the very thing that makes us great.

Truly great.

I am reminded of the charge of the gentle craft that brings me comfort monthly:

Remember that, around this alter, you have promised to befriend and relieve every brother who shall need your assistance.  You have promised, in the most friendly manner, to remind him of his errors and aid a reformation.  These generous principles are to extend further.  Every human being has claim upon your kind offices.

Do good unto all.

Enforcing Federal Laws

Federal vs State

I don’t like strategy of individual states introducing, perhaps passing, legislation codifying a crime to enforce federal laws.  The rage right now is, of course, those laws referring to the enforcement of any federal ban or restriction on  gun ownership.

The latest version that I’ve seen is in Texas:

AUSTIN, Texas –  Under a measure advancing in the Texas Capitol, local police officers could be convicted of a crime for enforcing any new federal gun control laws.

Rep. Steve Toth, a newly elected Republican from the Woodlands, said his proposal would prevent officers from carrying out any future federal orders to confiscate assault rifles and ammunition magazines.

Toth’s proposal would create a Class A misdemeanor for police officers enforcing any new federal gun regulations. It also would establish cause for the state attorney general to sue anyone who seeks to enforce new federal gun regulations. It is one of several states-rights measures being offered by conservative state lawmakers nationwide in response to federal gun control proposals.

I think this is a dangerous path to go down.  We can’t have states running around claiming not to enforce federal laws.  The confusion it would create is massive.  Not to mention the continual lurching back and forth as one party or another assumes the role of majority and passes legislation that would enforce said law.

Untenable.

With that said, I have to admit that I feel a bit of “tribal yelp” as I see the states reacting like this.  And I have to work hard to subdue those passions are work to look at the goal objectively.

However, while I don’t think states should willy nilly decide which federal laws they will or will not enforce, it is important to point out that this is in direct response to Obama’s decision to restrict states from enforcing federal laws that HE disagrees with.  Namely, states trying to enforce immigration laws already on the books.  Let’s not forget the battle in Arizona where the Obama administration sued Arizona.

So, while the logical conclusion of this activity is undesirable, that conclusion was set in motion by Obama.

The Constitution

The Supreme Court will have heard two of the most contentious cases that have been heard in the Obama administration by the end of this week.  The first, of course, was the case of Obamacare and now the second, the Arizona immigration bill.

I find it fascinating that people are looking at how the court will or should act not based on the legal standing or constitutionality of the laws in question but rather on the policy of the law.

Continue reading

State Issued ID

I moved to North Carolina in 1999.  Today marks the first day that I can remember where I have left my property without my ID on my body.

See, it’s my job to get the kids ready for school in the morning.  I do this by rustling them out of bed and getting them to the door, drop them off and then come home.  After which I begin my day; calls, reports, e-mails and the normal whatnot.  When I get a break, I shower, get dressed and make my way to the office.

Continue reading

Alabama Immigration Law: Working As Designed

An occasional commentator and Economics Professor here in North Carolina recently posted that the Alabama Immigration law is suppressing jobs in that state.  As proof, he cited this article:

(CNN) — Fierce critics of Alabama’s controversial new immigration law — and one of its staunchest supporters — are pointing to the arrest of a German Mercedes-Benz executive last week to make their case.

Police in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, pulled the man over because of a problem with the tag on the rental car he was driving, and then detained him when he didn’t have proper identification on hand, according to Alabama’s homeland security director.

Somehow, this is sufficient evidence that immigration laws in Alabama are keeping jobs out of the State.  However, even the article doesn’t think that’s the case:

[Senator] Brewbaker told CNN that requiring immigrants and foreign visitors to carry identification is common around the globe.

“I know a good many people with Hyundai and companies like that have gone to live in Korea. They say, ‘We’re expected to carry our papers with us because we’re foreigners,'” he said. “That’s the standard worldwide. I don’t want Alabama to be any more onerous on visitors, as long as they’re legally present, than anywhere else.”

Yes, of course.  Let us not forget that it’s a Federal Offense not to carry paperwork demonstrating that you are in America legally.  A Federal Offense.  It’s against the law.  If you are in America legally as a foreign visitor, you are breaking the law if you don’t carry paper work on your body.

But I get the point.  After all, the Mercedes executive was Hispanic and we all know that the Republicans are just racist haters:

For state Sen. Dick Brewbaker — one of the law’s backers — the arrest shows that officers aren’t racially profiling and that the state is enforcing the same types of requirements other countries have.

“This police officer in Tuscaloosa, he sure didn’t pull that guy over because he looked Hispanic,” Brewbaker told CNN. “He was just enforcing the law.”

See..?  Wait?  What?

The guy was pulled over for a crime, was asked to provide documentation and then arrested and he WASN’T Hispanic?

Stop it.

But I’m sure he was thrown into prison, tortured and has yet to be released.  Right?

“The incident was resolved when our colleague — who was visiting from Germany on business — was able to provide his driver’s license and other documents to Tuscaloosa Police,” the company said.

What a burden!  The man had to show documents proving he was who he said he was.  And then released.

If anything, the Alabama law is CREATING jobs.  Alabama farm workers are leaving the state in droves creating a shortage of harvesters.  A shortage that the farmers are unable to fill with native American workers.

Indeed.

Tar Heel —- Purple?

Check out this video of Libertarians discussing immigration, gay marriage and abortion.

Add to FacebookAdd to DiggAdd to Del.icio.usAdd to StumbleuponAdd to RedditAdd to BlinklistAdd to TwitterAdd to TechnoratiAdd to Yahoo BuzzAdd to Newsvine

Where the Right is Wrong: Gay Marriage

Liberty.  What is it?  What does it mean?  To me, it means being able to make choices and decisions regarding my self and my property.  It means that both my decisions and my labor is my own.  It means I am free.

Continue reading