Arizona: Paving The Way For A Barbed Wire Fence

According to a recent Gallup poll, 88% of Americans have heard about Arizona's recent legislative action to allow law enforcement personnel to check suspected illegal aliens for proper documentation (USA Today article). 

What is not touted in the media is that, according to the same Gallup poll, 59% of Americans who know about the bill support it.  Only 39% do not.  Interesting, considering how the media has effectively announced that Arizona is an un-American state with this bill and that no sane American is in support of it.

As usual, celebrities have jumped into the fray, denouncing Arizona lawmakers and lambasting the policies that it seeks to enact.  But let's take a quick breath and think about the effects that this bill has.  I am not an educated political scholar, but I think that the bill would be beneficial to America as a whole.

Arizona is a state where illegal immigrants are known to cross the border into the Land of the Free and Home of the Brave.  They bring hopes, dreams, ambition, hard work ethics, and, frequently, drugs and weapons.  The first half of the list is what we want in future Americans.  The latter two items, though, we could do without. 

While it is in the the Second Amendment that we have a right to bear arms, and I am in full support of that policy, the guns brought in are not registered, nor are the bearers licensed.  They can do whatever they want with them and law enforcement agents have no method of tracking down the actual owners in the event of a murder.  How does that make America safer?

Financially-challenged immigrants have been the backbone of this nation's growth.  The Brooklyn Bridge, Empire State building, the entire New York subway system, among other famous structures and systems, were all built with the blood and sweat of people trying to feed their families and make a life in the Land of Opportunity.  I have immigrant ancestors who struggled and prevailed, and I am proud of that heritage.  But the nation has shifted from the conditions under which the immigrants of the past earned their living.

These days, we have equal opportunity employment legislation.  This is a very good thing.  We have Worker's Compensation programs, another great measure designed to help those of the working class.  We have unions, guilds, and other associations that ensure that exploitation in the workplace becomes a thing of the past.  Medicare, Medicaid, WIC, and other programs have helped keep the disadvantaged from slipping into complete destitution.  America has realized that all citizens deserve fair and just treatment as well as a fair chance to succeed.  Both are major strides in human and civil rights.

However, despite good intentions, illegal immigrants are straining the government programs.  They do not mean to be a problem, but the government is spending a lot of money with little-to-no return, i.e.: taxes.  I have many friends who are honest, hardworking people, but do not have a fully-legal status in this country, though many are working towards that.  But they do not understand the concept of taxes, the importance of them, and therefore do not file them.  Taxes are a source of income for the government, which is then channeled into various programs, initiatives, and other costs of running a country.  The average tax-paying citizen, while their taxes may not be very substantial in the overall scheme of things, are at least some amount of help for the government to keep up with their expenses.

With no malice intended, these illegals immigrants are leeching off of the system.  Sure, they take jobs doing tasks that are often undesirable, but legal citizens are still unemployed.  If we were stricter on illegal immigration, those jobs would probably end up being filled by someone who has a social security number, official allegiance to the country, and is obligated by law to pay taxes on their income.

Also, recently, Congress passed the healthcare bill.  This granted the millions of Americans who did not have health insurance the opportunity to sign up under a policy.  How many of those who will be covered under this new bill are not legal citizens of the United States of America?  Also, how many of those under Medicare and WIC programs are not documented citizens?  How much money is the government spending on programs that are not required to differentiate between citizens and illegal aliens and therefore giving the latter parties the opportunity to continue taking advantage of our government?

Is it honestly wrong to say that suspected illegal immigrants should be checked for documentation?  Is it wrong to be less welcoming to those who knowingly sidestep our laws to gain access into our country?  I can understand that racial profiling is an inevitable side effect and that it is not fair for Americans of ethnic heritage.  I am in full support of developing policies to prevent that.  But in all reality, it is primarily those of ethnic heritage that are sneaking across the border.  If we overlook that point, we are only kidding ourselves.

We have immigration procedures.  They are there for a reason.  We have a border patrol, both employed and volunteer.  It is there for a reason.  We spend billions of dollars on national defense.  We do that fora  reason.  We have ICE.  It is there for a reason.

Why is it that Arizona, under states' rights, establishing a harsher procedure for identifying illegal immigrants is a travesty?  We cannot rely on federal agencies to micromanage the country.  Allowing a state to delegate those responsibilities, albeit under strict enforcement policies, sounds like a good idea to me.  It is not racist.  It is not un-American.  It is enforcing our established laws and legislation.

Congressman Mike Rogers: "Boldly Saying What No Man Has Said Before"

Recently, in a congressional hearing, Congressman Mike Rogers (Michigan), spoke up boldly against Pres. Obama's infamous Healthcare Reform Bill. He essentially said that the bill is destroying what makes America great. More specifically, by giving the government "unprecedented power" to "rip you off your own individual [insurance/healthcare] plan." (click to view the video)

He cited statistics from the National Cancer Intelligence Center of the UK and the Canadian Cancer Registry, which conclude that those who were diagnosed with cancer, under government-run healthcare, have a lower chance of survival than if they were on private healthcare plans.

While I personally think that some of this feels a bit dramatic and fatalistic, I am still not a major proponent of a government-run healthcare system. In America, we are constantly bellyaching about how inefficient it is to do taxes and other bureacratic processes, yet many of us are actively promoting the idea of that same government running our healthcare, or in another sense, our physical well-being. I am not saying we will be owned by the government- no, I am more moderate than that- but I am saying that we will be subjected to the irksome processes that the government excels at creating. Am I right in thinking that this suggests that we may, as a public body, have some masochistic tendencies?

One point that Congressman Rogers brought up that sounds very logical to me was the percentages of the population affected. According to Rogers, and this is paraphrased, 15% will benefit from this plan, while 85% of Americans will be the ones taking the hit. I agree with his logic, and that of Abraham Lincoln, whom Rogers quoted in saying, "You can't make a weak man strong by making a strong man weak."

Do we know that the 15% that do not have healthcare even want it? I recall a news story I saw a while back where they interviewed a number of young adults who did not have healthcare. They expressed that they did not because they were young and were not planning on having significant healthcare concerns, ergo they chose not to pay premiums for a plan they felt they would not need. How many of the 46 million Americans, a number declared by Rogers, are of a similar sentiment?

Another point that Rogers brought up that I am beginning to agree with regards the underlying message that this bill suggests; that we, the American public and its government, no longer have faith in the private sector. We have given up on private companies and decided that it would just be easier to have the government deal with everything. How have we come to this point?

I feel that this has become the situation because we are losing the desire to take the initiative. Why are people dissatisfied with private healthcare plans? Probably because of the financial demands they make, the fine print, and the fickle nature of their customer service. But how can this be changed, one might ask. In a true free market, the public's boycott, or at least significantly decreased patronage, would force companies to be more competitive and offer better plans. But it seems that we have grown too tired to fight for what we want. We are willing to relinquish our freedoms, albeit gradually, and push the problem to someone else.

Imagine for a moment, what life would be like if our Founding Fathers had this same attitude. Something I admire about Pres. Obama is his ability to stir within us a sense of patriotism, of pride. While I may disagree with policies that he makes, he is still the president, and as a US citizen, it is my duty to support what I agree with. I support his efforts to make us proud to be Americans, to be the kind of people that we ought to be- better, to build our communities, and to strive to make America great. Those are ideals that our Founding Fathers desired us to carry on. Had we kept this in mind, perhaps many of our current problems would have been mitigated.

Congressman Mike Rogers was not afraid to speak his feelings about the healthcare bill, but he did so in a respectful, rational (though admittedly impassioned), non-aggressive manner. I think we can learn from his example how we ought to try to improve legislation. Let us all do so through proper channels, and refrain from attacking individuals. That only creates civil strife, and as Abraham Lincoln wisely said, "A house divided against itself cannot stand." I hope that we all find within ourselves the will to improve the country around us and take responsibility for our actions.