Arizona Immigration Law on Hold

Just passing this along from Reason.com and the Wall Street Journal:

http://reason.com/blog/2010/07/28/federal-judge-puts-arizona-imm 

I’ve read the entire Arizona law and frankly, I can only find minor issues with it.  It’s basically just enforcing federal law through local law enforcement.  What I have a problem with, is federal immigration laws.

Objectivist Roundup for This Week

It’s over at Musing Aloud.  Check it out!

Follow Up on TV Programs

I finally got around to catching up on my DVR programming, including the O’Reilly Factor and Stossel shows about immigration.

I don’t even know why I bothered to record O’Reilly.  He’s so annoying.  He barely let John Stossel get a word in, kept interrupting him, then claiming Stossel wasn’t answering his question, when he clearly was.  I finally just deleted it.  It was useless.

O’Reilly’s points were that the trespassing, human trafficking and drug smuggling problems were so bad, that the border fence is the only solution.  Stossel countered that granting work visas to most immigrants and ending the drug war would solve those problems.  O’Reilly interrupted and said that he’s all for a guest worker program, but what about the aforementioned problems?  I guess he didn’t get it. 

The Stossel show on immigration (which will be available in its entirety on Hulu soon per his Tweet today) was much better and far more enlightening.  I recommend you check it out on Hulu.

The “Tired-Immigrant”

Ever since I remember, I loved America. Growing up in India, at first America symbolized "cool stuff". When I was a little older, it symbolized "rich country". As I understood the cause of that wealth, it symbolized all the greatness that was possible to an individual if only he had the freedom to work hard without asking permission from petty bureaucrats. America symbolized more than just freedom; it was the place where people felt like human beings, not like a statistical cogs in a wheel; it was a place where there was hope, where one could dream the impossible dream... it was the land of the "uneaten alive".

The above paragraph was taken from Tired-Immigrant’s blog post titled, “The America I Love”.  Please click on the link to read the post in its entirety.  It’s an extremely moving story that forever changed how I view my government, the philosophy of this once-great nation and American immigration policy.

Mexican Immigrants: Assimilation and Jobs

I’d like to respond to an article written by John Stossel which appeared on The Atlasphere yesterday.  In the article, Stossel talks with two guests, Heather MacDonald of the Manhattan Institute and Jason Riley of the Wall Street Journal. 

Jason favors letting free markets determine rates of immigration and Heather believes we should only let highly skilled or highly educated, English-speaking immigrants come into the US.  She also states that Mexican immigrants don’t fit into America’s modern economy. 

Jason responds to this by saying, “(T)oday's immigrants coming here are not different in terms of their behavior patterns, in terms of their assimilation levels. They are simply newer.”

He’s right.  Assimilation takes time.  It takes time and effort to learn a new language, adopt new traditions, educate yourself, improve your job skills, and so on.  All of our immigrant ancestors went through the same thing, some more successfully and more rapidly than others, but they all went through it.

And if they don’t assimilate, who cares?  By stagnating (not learning the native language, not improving ones job skills, etc.), the individual is only hurting himself.  As long as he’s not violating anyone else’s rights, we have no right to deny him his right to move about freely.

MacDonald also states, “We should have an immigration policy that accentuates our natural economic advantage in the 21st century, which is as a high-tech, high-science economy. ... (T)he overwhelming number of immigrants that are coming in largely illegally are extremely low skilled.”

First, that is the case with nearly all immigrants.  If a person were thriving in his native land, there’d rarely be a need to immigrate!  They’re coming here to start over, to work their way up and to prosper, like most American’s immigrant ancestors did. 

Second, there is obviously a market for low skilled labor in the US.  You can see Mexican immigrants working all sorts of lower skilled jobs all around us every day.  There are few jobs (skilled or otherwise) in Mexico and the economy there is a socialist nightmare.  These immigrants are coming here because there are better jobs and better pay at their skill level than they could find elsewhere.  This fact is evidenced by the reversal of immigration from Mexico during 2008-2009.  When the US economy tanked, unemployment soared and everyday Americans tightened their budgets, there was actually a reversal of the immigration flow between the US and Mexico.  It’s all about supply and demand.

This is the reason I agree with Jason Riley on the subject of free markets (or capitalism) in immigration.  Just like the economy, our schools, our health care and our retirement, if the government would let free markets do what they do best without interference, there’d be far fewer problems than we have now.

Objectivist Round Up for This Week

Is posted over at http://3-ring-binder.blogspot.com/2010/07/objectivist-round-up-158.html  Check it out!

Immigration Fund Raiser a Success!

This past Saturday, I organized a fund raiser for my Ecuadorian friend who is trying to stay in the US and eventually get citizenship.  Although only 10 people came to the event, we raised nearly $1000 for his fall tuition.  Yea!  If he can raise another $2000, he can stay in the US on a student visa.  A few of his other friends are having fund raisers for him as well and I plan to attend those and help out.

It’s really sad and pitiful that a productive, happy, healthy and law-abiding person has to go through this nightmare just to stay in the US.  Furthermore, if the US recognized same sex marriages, applying for a visa then citizenship would be much easier for my friend, albeit not guaranteed.  (Yes, our government deports spouses for no good reason!)

http://immigration.change.org/blog/view/7_months_pregnant_wife_of_us_citizen_in_deportation 

I would like to post more personal immigration stories on this blog, so if you or anyone you know is willing to share their story for Mother of Exiles, please email me at kellymcnulty@gmail.com.  Due to the nature of the INS, anonymous posts are welcomed!

Stossel’s Show This Week About Immigrants

I have yet to catch up on my DVR recordings since returning from vacation a week ago, so I cannot comment on the O’Reilly show on immigration yet, but John Stossel usually does a pretty darn good job tackling the tough topics so I expect his show this week to be a good one!  Here’s a link to his blog post about the upcoming show.  I plan to record and watch it as soon as possible! 

Objectivist Roundup for this Week

It’s over at Rational Jenn’s blog.  Check it out!