Solving The Problem of Undocumented Immigrants

Was Ronald Reagan a bleeding heart liberal?

The US is going through a very traumatic time. We are on the brink of being ripped apart. After decades of looking the other way while millions of poor people, mostly from Mexico, entered the US illegally to work, the Trump adminstration has launched an all out attack to round them up and deport them. As was stated yesterday by the administration, there will be no amnesty. All undocumented immigrants will be found and deported. In his first term Trump talked about violent criminal illegals in gangs and drug cartels, but that has changed. ICE isn’t focused on violent illegals anymore, they are now rounding up all undocumented and even some who are here legally, subjecting them to inhumane treatment in makeshift detention centers. Farm workers, laborers, landscapers and maids, the folks who pick your strawberries, mow your lawn, move your furniture and clean your toilet are being hunted down like criminals even though most have no criminal record. How did this happen? For decades the government looked the other way. Business owners wanted the cheap labor. So they ignored the issue as we all enjoyed the fruits of immigrant labor. I have neighbors who decry the problem of illegal immigrants as they eat strawberries and watch their lawns being tended to.

This deportation effort isn’t cheap either. Billions of dollars have already been spent with billions more to follow. Tens of thousands of people are sleeping on the foor in detention centers. Families are being ripped apart and children are being traumatized. Over a dozen have died in these concentration camps. The stories are too numerous to count. In one case, a landscaper who has been in the US over 30 years, has no criminal record and raised three sons who are US marines, was assaulted and bloodied by ICE agents at the IHOP restaurant where he worked.

No reasonable person opposes deportation of violent criminals, gang members and drug dealers who are here illegally. But that is not what is happening. Hard working people doing menial tasks for less than minimum wage, are getting beaten up, dragged off by masked men in umarked vehicles without due process and placed in inhumane detention centers. Their crime? They are refugees who entered the US illegally to find work or escape violence in their home country. Even legal residents and citizens have been rounded up because “look like illegals”.

There has to be a better way.

Deport the violent gang members and drug dealers. Have at it. No one will oppose that. But as for the others, if the problem is they are undocumented, why not get them documented? Since when has the federal government ever had a shortage of documents? Give them visas and a pathway to citizenship. Wouldn’t that be better than what we are doing to them now? This is not the first time such an idea was suggested. Ronald Reagan wasn’t a bleeding heart liberal, but at least he had a heart.

After the immigration reform of the 1980’s rather than crafting a better process the nation remained in political gridlock and we find ourselves right back where we were in 1984 with one enormous difference. We have now become a cruel , mean-spirited and inhumane country. We have forgotten our history. How ironic it is that the mastermind of Trump’s intolerance is himself the beneficiary of our welcome to refugees. Stephen Miller wouldn’t be alive today if it weren’t for America’s embrace of Jews fleeing extermination.

In the final analysis, Reagan was right. Trump’s policy is wrong. It’s mean, cruel, inhumane, unjust, unethical and immoral. Trump’s grandfather was an immigrant who fled Europe because he didn’t want to be a conscripted soldier and went AWOL. Where did your ancestors come from? Unless you are a native American or are descended from one, you are an immigrant or are descended from one. Don’t ever forget that.

Give them documents and enjoy your strawberries.