Immigration Debate
Heats Up

Since the beginning of the year, immigration—illegal and otherwise—has been the hot button topic in American politics. Forget the War in Iraq, forget the unfathomable mess left behind by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, forget the record gas prices that eerily parallel the record profits earned by the huge oil conglomerates last quarter.

No, it is immigration, particularly the kind coming from our border with Mexico, that is on most politicians’ minds these days.

Many conservatives in Congress and other branches of the government have been urging President Bush to build a “Great Wall of China”-style barrier between the states of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California and their Mexican amigos to the South. The great wall plan has stalled out, however, because those conservatives have been informed by their corporate buddies that the only way such a wall could be built is with—you guessed it—low wage immigrant construction labor.

President Bush addressed the nation on the subject of immigration last Monday and urged both the House and Senate to come up with a bill that would address the problem in a fair and constructive manner. The president’s 17-minute speech supported an immigration bill that would put many of the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants working in the U.S. today on the path toward citizenship. He also outlined plans for a new guest worker program, increased security at our southern border, and newly improved ID cards that would help employers ensure that their employees were both eligible to work and paying taxes.

All in all it was one of the president’s better moments during his tumultuous second term. Even though he failed to explain where we are going to come up with 6,000 extra National Guardsmen to patrol our southern border and what penalties await businesses that continue to hire illegal workers, it was a step in the right direction.

Of course, the president’s proposals didn’t go far enough for many conservatives, including our own congressional representative in Washington, Virginia Foxx.

“Illegal immigration is a major problem that is having a very negative impact on countless aspects of our daily lives,” said Foxx in her official comments after the president’s speech. “I support doing whatever it takes to secure our border and enforce our laws, including deploying members of our National Guard to our southern border. I also support denying government benefits to illegal aliens, making English our official language and cracking down on those who knowingly hire illegal workers.”

Here’s some good news for Congresswoman Foxx: English is our official language. Always has been. Always will be. In the late 1800s and early 1900s our country experienced a similar wave of immigration. If you walked through the streets of New York, Boston or Milwaukee in those days, you would have heard a mixture of English, Chinese, German, Italian and other languages spoken by immigrant workers who came here to pursue the American dream. Adults do not learn second languages as readily as kids and it took about a generation for all these foreigners to adopt English as their native tongue. That’s exactly what will happen this time.

It is time that we as Americans stopped freaking out whenever we hear someone speaking Spanish. I don’t feel threatened if my waitress at my favorite Chinese restaurant speaks to the chef in Cantonese, and I’m certainly not going to be offended if some people behind me in line at the grocery store speak to each other in Spanish.

North Carolina Republicans in Congress such as Foxx (5th District), Sue Myrick (9th District) and Patrick McHenry (10th District) have carved out a niche for themselves by managing to be more reactionary and conservative than one of the most reactionary and conservative presidents in our nation’s history. Especially when it comes to stirring up public fear of immigrant workers.

McHenry reacted to the president’s speech by saying, “A guest-worker program is just amnesty, wearing makeup.” And Myrick, whose congressional office is obsessed with stopping illegal workers, recently tried to federalize Mecklenburg County sheriff’s deputies so they could have the legal authority to deport illegal workers. I’ve seen the Charlotte news and I suspect those deputies have better things to do with their time than rounding up hotel maids and construction workers.

North Carolina deserves representatives that actually represent our people, our state and its interests. Those representatives who insist on pushing their ultra-conservative agendas instead of looking out for our best interests should have their “Washington Guest Worker Permits” revoked this November.