There currently is an estimated 11.5 million illegal immigrants now residing in our country. This phenomenon has sparked a national
debate about immigration. The debate has ranged from the ineffectiveness of current federal immigration laws to the possibility of amnesty for those who
are already here illegally. The Senate even created a bipartisan committee,
comprised of four democrats and four republicans, referred to as the” Gang of Eight.”
They worked to draft legislation that would revamp our antiquated immigration
laws. Despite the efforts of this group, any kind of comprehensive immigration
legislation has yet to be fully passed by Congress and signed by the President, which
leaves these illegal immigrants to continue on here without documentation.
Even if new laws were passed or amnesty granted, many of the underlying issues
dealing with immigrants who came here illegally would still need to be
addressed. These issues would better be answered through a national debate on integration
instead of immigration.
Immigration deals with laws pertaining to how people are allowed
to enter the country where integration deals with how those people will become
contributing members of our society and become a beneficial good for all parties
involved. Immigration is what allows people to come here and integration is
what keeps them here as contributing members of our society.
Immigration is an issue of the federal government. The
founding document of our country, the US Constitution, clearly set forth in
Article 1 section 8,
establishes that congress is to enact the laws governing naturalization of
immigrants to this country. Congress began establishing these laws as early as
1790.
Through the Constitution, we the people allow Congress this right, so that we
can equally share among the states the burden of regulating the kind and type
of people we would want to come into our country. Even though we relinquished this right to the federal government to determined and establish specific immigration
laws, we (the states) did not give up our right to regulate how people are
integrated into our melting pot.
Furthermore, because congress retains this right to enforce immigration laws,
the states don’t have any recourse against those who have broken these laws if
the federal government refuses to enforce the immigration laws. The evidence that
the federal government has refused to fully enforce immigration laws can be
seen by the fact of the estimated 11.5 million who are currently here in our
country without proper documentation.
Recently, Arizona took steps to enact laws dealing with immigration that would basically force
the federal government to enforce their current immigration laws. The federal
government immediately initiated a law suit against the state for infringing on their duty to enact and enforce laws
pertaining to immigration. This action was justified by the federal government through
the constitution, but they still have a duty to uphold the laws which they
obviously have not completely accomplished. If Arizona had changed their focus from enforcing
immigration laws to creating integration laws, their argument could be debated
on a different front.
Integration is not an acceptance of amnesty. It sets a
benchmark for those who would like to come here. The early founding of our
country was based on the immigration of people looking for a brighter hope of
opportunity in a new land. Many others came fleeing from the ravages of tyrannical
governments and dictators. They came to
a land that generally recognized the rights of the people to pursue happiness
through their hard work and ingenuity. Has the purpose to come here changed? These
are the individuals that we want in our country and as our fellow citizens. People
coming now still want to have hope and an opportunity for success that will not
be ripped away from them without consent. These are the people that add benefit to our country with new ideas and new hope for a better future. Integration debate focuses our attention back to the people it affects and not just on the laws that were broke. The statistic for immigration show that a largest majority of immigrants are still coming from Mexico as well
as Asia. These people are fleeing their repressive governments and economies in
order for an opportunity of hope in our land.
In the 1980’s, during the Reagan era, a similar problem of illegal immigration was approached with an almost
full amnesty for those that were already here illegally in the country. This action
resolved much of the problem of people being here illegally by simply changing
their designation, but did not establish a clear reasoning for these people
coming here in the first place under the terms that they did. This move continued
to bolster the hopes for many more, currently 11.5 million more, that believed that if they could just make it across
our border, that they would eventually be able to stay and be taken care of
like their predecessors. This is failed
immigration policy, but integration laws could set an upfront standard for
those people wishing to come here to acknowledge before they made the attempt to
come across the border without going through the proper channels.
Debating integration instead of immigration allows the
discussion of issues to happen on a local level. Each area of our country is different in
its population diversity and amount of immigrants legal and illegal. Therefore, the laws that are right for one area may
not be the best for another area of the country. Keeping the law making more local
can further debate and provide more particular solutions to this issue.
Integration can provide an atmosphere for debate of the
immigration issues where solutions can be discussed and decided. Immigration is
very limited in its scope of issues where integration can include the regulation of issues like English as an
official language, how immigrants can get work here or start businesses and
begin to pay their share of the tax burden, and how these people are dealt with
in regards to American entitlements but on a state-by-state basis and level.
The current immigration laws have obviously not deterred very many
from the dangers of crossing our borders, but tough integration laws could
encourage only those who are willing to live by those laws to enter with the
full knowledge that if they can meet the necessary criteria, they will be
granted an equal opportunity just like the rest. Meeting these initial laws could relieve some of the burdensome restrictions of those wishing to eventually become citizens of our country.
A discussion of integration provides and atmosphere for a
discussion of solutions to the issue of immigration. We have learned that immigration
is a federal government issue that has taken years to develop and may take many
more years to fix to the liking of a majority of our representatives. Until
that time, we the people have retained the right to regulate the integration of
particular aspects of immigrants into our society. Tough integration laws will
further persuade only those who are truly interested in meeting the criteria of
those new laws to come to our particular states and cities. Integration laws
can be created on a local level, which would be more beneficial for each
particular area of the country. These laws would ultimately help make better contributing
members of society out of those who are currently considered illegal according
to our current immigration laws. This would be a benefit to both the immigrants
as well as the current citizens of the United States.
