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Potential For Abuse—A Weak Argument
Filed under: In The News | Tags: Arizona, immigration | July 10th, 2010
Opponents of Arizona’s new law targeting illegal immigrants have a weak argument—the potential for abuse. Every power held by government has the potential for abuse. Taxation, the present power to detain and arrest, even traffic laws could potentially be abused by some bureaucrat or enforcement officer. Should we, therefore, strip government of all power? Do you want to live in anarchy?
Potential for abuse is not a reason to fear any power given to the government. The courts have reigned in government power in the past and will continue to do so. The real problem is twofold; (1) the lack of border security along with a comprehensive, modern immigration policy in the U.S. and (2) the lack of a vibrant economy and basic civil rights in Mexico.
If Mexico had an economy that produced jobs and those jobs paid a fair wage, the vast majority of Mexicans would stay home to support their families. They would, that is, if they also enjoyed all the civil rights that we have in the U.S. One example: it is my understanding that you can be arrested and incarcerated for up to a year without any formal charges being filed against you and you do not have the right to post bail. Mexico needs to match the U.S. Bill of Rights.
The U.S. federal government should secure the borders immediately. They don’t need new legislation to do so. Border security should not be a political bargaining chip. Drug traffickers and terrorists can enter those unguarded borders just as easily as desperate Mexican families.
The government should modernize all immigration law and that law should be fair to all nationalities and should speed up the process of work visas and permanent residency. This would take illegal immigrants out of the black market and put them into the income tax and Social Security systems and would provide basic worker’s rights for them.
I pity the poor immigrant. Wouldn’t it be great if government could balance compassion for those who deserve it along with vigilance in keeping us all safe?
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francis shivone | July 12th, 2010 @ 9:53 pm |
On Twitter you ask us to let you know what we think.
I like it.
And I agree, in practice anyway, that we have to secure the borders, and that Arizona has a legitimate problem that the Feds aren’t dealing with. As a somewhat conscientious Catholic your last sentence mirrors my sentiment. The immigrant is a person, and Arizonans have a right to protect their property and livelihood. How all that is resolved beats me.
But government is power not moral suasion.
I’ll be reading more posts as time goes on. I am adding this site to my site’s blogroll.