Americans Do Not Pick Strawberries

I have been following the immigration issue for almost as long as Lou Dobbs has been reporting on it in the spring of 2005. Every day he would come on at 6 pm EST and give some kind of new angle to the immigration issue. He is still going at it, and I like to believe that in some way he is responsible for bringing the issue to the national stage.

The nation is becoming ever more polarized on this issue… and nothing could be more detrimental than a Congress stuck with a divisive issue. You will do well to remember Terri Schiavo and how badly the members of Congress fell all over each other to back a horse.

Well this is an issue Congress needs to pay attention to, and find a solution for. I don’t think it will happen, at least not in our best interests – and I don’t mean the best interests of hot blooded patriots who are madder than a hornet over illegal aliens running all over the country either.

You see, I am just as torn over this issue as the whole country is. On the one hand I could not be any more irate about the idea of some millions of illegal immigrants simply being given citizenship. Not only is it exploitative politics, but its like putting up a big “Open House” sign to the world. If you want citizenship and don’t want to go through 10 years of paperwork just come on over and we will eventually just give you your Social Security Card in about the same time it would have taken to go through all the red tape.

A part of me wants to put them all on buses back to their homes. However, and I was sharply reminded of the consequences of my proposed ideas when a friend called me the other day. She and her family own a farm here in South Florida, one of very few left in the state as local governments keep running them out of town and big business farming takes over agriculture across the nation. She and the entire farming industry employ illegal immigrants to work the fields. She is afraid of loosing the farm, a part of her life that she has always known and loved. Even if we do come up with a solution that keeps industries working, and respects our national laws at the same time there is still a very good chance that some people are going to be mad examples of.

The IFCO case on April 21, 2006 is what prompted my friend to call me. Her father and other farmers in South Florida are very, very concerned about the future, as they should be since these are also working fathers supporting children in college.

I see a solution in which the enforcement of the law, coupled with a guest worker program that follows the meaning and logic of its name can become the compromise necessary to put our nation’s federal agencies on a path to responsible immigration control. But as many conservative Congressmen and comedian Carlos Mencia have already expressed, the actions of Mexican immigrants waving the Mexican flag will not help the situation.