Reflections of Me: Like Health Care, Immigration is Complicated--Who Knew?

It's been a tragic beginning to this new year of 2018, with so many major stories piling up, day to day, but immigration reform has been one of the constants.  The classification of 'illegal' versus 'legal' immigrant has been yet another issue leading to great divides in our country, with a mass of social media rants and supports, most substantiated by misinformation, skewed facts, or downright stupid conspiracy theories.

The last are the most fun, as they reveal some of the most stupid among us.

Now, one thing we all are in agreement on: 'illegal' immigration has been, and could be, a problem.  Something should be done, but, I know I have no solutions.  I do know that, whatever we come up with, we have to strike a decent balance between regulation/documentation, and humane action.  Not everyone feels that way, although, the ones who don't really aren't worth talking to, about, or among.

One of the least of the issues is people entering the U.S. illegally by crossing the borders without telling anyone.  In general, these people are simply good, honest, hard working people trying to better their and their families' lives by going where there is work.  Certainly, quite a lot of employers in the U.S. don't have any problem with this, because while they need workers, they don't want ( or cannot afford ) to pay decent wages and benefits for the shithole jobs they need done.  There is a process these people can go through that gets them a work visa, but all too often they have not the education, time, nor money to go through that convoluted process.  Sometimes they bring their families, eventually, and this includes small children.  We passed a Act, called DACA for short, to cover those children, making them legal residents while children but not offering any chance of citizenship to them.

We also have work visas, and visas for attending school, or sometimes just to visit.  These are legal.  One issue we have is that some of those stay beyond the visa expiration, without renewing the visa.  This should not be a problem; issuing a visa now documents these non-citizens, and determining if they have remained should be easy to do.  Finding them might be more difficult if, and yes, it happens, they don't want to be found.  But we do have documentation on them, so, if the proper resources are allocated to the proper departments, we can accomplish this.

However, in all this, we must remain cognizant of the fact that, yes, we are ALL immigrants unless you are full blooded Native American.  And in this era of paranoia on the part of the White House administration and the leaders of Congress, it may perhaps be better if the current immigration laws as they stand remain in place until we can get some decent leadership at the Federal level. After all, what has been in place for over 200 years has actually worked fairly well.  Otherwise, if allowed to run amok and unchecked, the potential for serious abuse of immigration laws by the current Federal leaders is frightening.  It could affect everyone.  So I thought I'd take a gander, a skimming one, at how our immigration policies have developed since our founding.

1790 Naturalization Act

Excluded non-white people from eligibility to naturalize. Naturalization requirements included two years of residence in the country and “good moral character,” and an applicant must be a “free white person.” The Naturalization Act of 1795 extended the residency requirement to five years. In 1798, this was extended to 14 years, then back to five in 1802.

So, prior to 1790, no matter who you were, if you entered the newly formed Nation, you were a citizen.  No documentation.  Grandfathered in, as it were.  If you can trace your own lineage back to here, you might want to be concerned.

 Starting in 1875, a series of restrictions on immigration were enacted. They included bans on criminals, people with contagious diseases, polygamists, anarchists, beggars and importers of prostitutes. Other restrictions targeted the rising number of Asian immigrants, first limiting migration from China and later banning immigration from most Asian countries.

So, between 1790 and 1875 very few changes were made in our immigration policy.  The changes then made were a reflection of the times.   Obviously, more changes have occurred since then ( especially in regards to importers of prostitutes, right, Mr. Trump? ).  1965 marked the most sweeping changes yet, basically setting the policy as we live with it today.  For instance, prior to that, immigrants from Latin American countries were pretty much allowed to come and go as they pleased.

So, you may ask ( and should ), why would I bring this up?  It's history, it has nothing to do with me.  Well, spend a moment, and give it a bit of thought.

Have you ever tried to obtain good, accurate, documentation for a single person or family from, say, 1785 to the present?  For almost 200 years, our country has done a slipshod job of documentation on many things, so no reason to suspect immigration documentation is any different.  In addition, a lot of documentation for that period is more than suspect as to it's accuracy.  So, why would that be a issue?

Well, suppose, for the sake of argument, we managed to elect a Leader whose only goal is to be the boss.  Who demands complete and unquestioning loyalty to him and all he does and wants.  Whose main reaction to criticism and disagreement is to hurl insults, intimate everyone else is lying, and blame every mistake he makes on someone else.  Sound familiar?  And suppose, for the sake of argument, he gets enough control that nothing in our Constitution's checks and balances system can circumvent him.

Then suppose we, as Americans, convinced we are still granted certain rights to free speech and freedom of expression, express our opposition.  Suppose our own ancestors came here in the 1700/1800's.  Say, French, or English, or Italian, or Irish, or German, or Dutch.  Hey, we are confident our ancestors followed the law and became legal  citizens.  Right?

What if, suddenly, tomorrow, you were required to prove it to your President?  All because you disagreed with something he said or did.  And if you can't, or you can and he doesn't accept it, saying there is no immigration record on file, or, it's just 'fake', well, then what?  ICE could be knocking at your door that evening.  Think it couldn't happen?  Check some history books, even some current ones.  It can, and does, happen.  It has.  It is, around the world.

So, there is my conspiracy theory.  Will it happen?  I have faith yet in our checks and balances system, and our ability to vote out of office the mistakes we have voted in to office.  So, I am simply making up a little conspiracy theory of my own, based on facts and information I currently have.  DO I think it could happen, even here?  Sure.  A large portion of the 'free world' in the 1930's did not believe Adolf Hitler's rise to German leadership would lead to a world at war.  They poo-poo'd danger warnings as unfounded conspiracy theories.  As his administration began 'ethnic cleansing' policies, many still believed, well, it's only there, it doesn't affect us, and besides, a lot of them are Jews, and we don't want them either.  Do I believe President Trump is capable of the same sort of action?  I do.  I know what he wants, what he is trying to get, and that is complete and utter control of American government.  That he has been unable ( so far ) to do so has been what has led him to his tantrums and outrageous explosions on social media, and his vicious attacks on honest journalists.

So, if he were able to gain complete control over immigration laws ( and the right-wing led Congress thus far seems to support him in this ), yes, I do very well believe such possibilities as I have outlined could occur.

As usual, this is my opinion only.  Feel free to comment, either here or at Facebook, but understand, I freely admit I could be wrong, I strongly hope I am,  I firmly believe our system won't allow it to happen, but, I fear the possibility does exist.