The Immigration Question

Recently, the NYU College Republicans hosted an event called "Find the Illegal Immigrant." Students would sign up to be "INS agents" and would then have to find a College Republican group member, who would be the designated "illegal" as marked by a tag or label. The winner would receive a gift certificate. The event was supposed to bring awareness to the issue of immigration and open up dialog about the matter, but it proved to backfire, spurning protest from over 300 NYU students and members of the surrounding community. The College Republicans' PR stunt failed because it's difficult to start a discussion by provoking the opponent with malicious and juvenile actions. One does not start a civil and effective dialog by taunting his or her opposition. It is important to keep in mind that humor has its place in the everyday, but making a joke at someone else's expense in the name of opening up dialog is not humorous, but immature.
With that being said, let us open up some dialog regarding immigration. What are the issues facing immigration and the country? What are the policies currently in place and what policies are in the works? Also, let us ponder the situation the immigrant faces before he or she comes to the U.S. and what situation does he or she face upon arrival?
First of all, the issue of immigration is often taken at an economic angle. True, how fair is it for an American citizen to be denied health care, yet an illegal immigrant, at least in CA can come into the U.S. and have access to medical attention for free? It isn't fair. But this is a problem of the laws and policies that have been implemented, not the fault of the immigrants themselves. The issue that has arisen is then not an issue of immigrants as the enemy, but the policies in place which both alienate immigrants while simultaneously "rewarding" them for their illegal status. But the facts and figures show that immigrants are actually not taking from the economy; they are actually contributing to the economy through their taxes and also performing tasks that most educated Americans would not perform. In addition to that immigrants don't actually use as many government services as we would be led to believe by people aimed at ending illegal immigration. In actuality, according to a story in the Dallas Morning News illegal immigrants cost the state of Texas 1.16 billion but contribute 1.58 billion in taxes to the state. Meanwhile, the local governments are hit hardest: 1.44 billion in costs with a contribution of 513 million. The results are staggering but the main costs come from education and health care costs. In education alone, illegal immigrants cost the state 968 million, but they contribute 582 million in school property taxes. So illegal immigrants are paying for 60% of the cost of their education to the state. This is a significant amount of education which is being paid by illegal immigrants. Running close behind in cost is border patrol and incarceration. But tensions remain high between immigrants and American citizens, a tense confrontation between policy and people.
Immigration is quickly becoming an issue of race and it is important to understand that it is not a racial issue on purpose. However, one must also recognize that people who are not white skinned are not targeted as illegal immigrants nearly as much as people of Latino descent are. That is not to say that Americans are racist and bad. Throughout much of history, immigrants have been targeted as the sources of high crime rates and the shrinking of the job market. One should recognize that immigration is not just an issue of economics, but one of a cultural clash between nativists and outsiders. So called nativists must also recognize that they, along with their forefathers, are not nativists either. English settlers did not come to North America with the specific intention of becoming a free nation. But they left England for several reasons. Likewise, immigrants are coming to the U.S. for their own reasons; people often overlook the issues that may force a person to come to the U.S. It is important to recognize that instead of demonizing the immigrant for coming to the U.S. that we should examine the state of the home country of the immigrants. Could there be international relations set up which could allow for the process of American citizenship easier? Also, could, and should, the U.S. send people over to other nations in order to improve the infrastructure of those countries? Maybe such action could potentially decreased the need for people to travel to the U.S.
As I have posited above, we need to re-examine the nature of the policies regarding immigration in order to combat the issue of immigration. The cost of border patrol and incarceration is a result of the definition of illegal immigration set up by laws and policies. The argument made quite often is that immigration is okay, so long as it's legal. However there is a failure to grasp the difficulty in gaining residency and obtaining citizenship; there are issues of bureaucracy, economics, language, education and law. Becoming legal is a catch-22 in the United States and the laws and processes facing immigration need serious revision if we are to truly call ourselves the land of opportunity.