There is not a more confused issue with more confused opinions than the immigration issue. Regardless of your political position as a conservative or liberal or your political party you would have to admit that chasing this issue is like chasing the wind. I would like to attempt to address the source of that confusion.
First and foremost, we as a nation, have sent out mixed signals. We have laws already on the books that we have chosen for economic and political reasons not to enforce. And we have sent out these mixed signals to our own citizens and the rest of the world for many, many years. We can’t rant against an illegal who walked through an open door at the unspoken encouragement of the U.S. government backing off of enforcement, and the business community welcoming low cost labor from foreign countries. I don’t blame the immigrants. They are just trying to survive in a difficult world and take whatever opportunities are in front of them. The laws and policies that shape the immigration arm of the government are an impossible maze of contradictions.
Secondly, there has been a leadership vacuum on this issue. Where leadership is lacking, opportunists will arise and exploit the situation. The confusion and the lack of leadership has created a situation that can be manipulated for selfish motives. And manipulated it has been. Because the issue is a potential time bomb, our leaders have avoided it like the plague. Even community and religious leaders have sidestepped any confrontations with immigration policy, not because they are evil people, only confused people.
Third, there is a lot of unspoken and masked prejudice surrounding this issue. We are much too sophisticated in this age of enlightenment to use outright racial slurs, but the strong emotions of prejudice are driving a lot of the energy surrounding this issue. Prejudice is easily exploited by both conservative and liberal politicians.
Fourth, are the unrealistic expectations we have placed on the foreign worker and the immigrant. Do we really expect someone who is doing basic farm or restaurant labor who barely knows English to sort out all of these issues when our brightest and best cannot come to a consensus? And now we are looking at them as villains because they are taking advantage of an opportunity to provide for their family and live in the greatest nation on earth?
Finally, we need a leader who will take up this issue and see it through to some type of logical end. Whether they be liberal, conservative, or whatever political party, we need clarity and consistency on this issue. We need to stop sending out a confused message and then getting angry at people who come across our border to better their lives. I think if we could put men on the moon a generation ago, we should be able to get enough intelligent people together to come up with something logical on the confusing issue of immigration.
