Pilgrims & Puritans - Our First Immigrants

Ready to Sit at the Big Kids' Table?

  

How festive for Thanksgiving!  Immigration has emerged as the topic du jour after the latest GOP Debate.  The front-runners’ poorly articulated positions have the Newtsies scratching their heads and Mitten’s campaign spokesman taking another anti-acid.  Big Pharma should position Prilosec front and center in today’s NFL half-time commercials and in all the GOP post-debate photo-ops.

As we celebrate Thanksgiving, a holiday that glorifies the first immigrants, let’s peek behind the cranberry sauce curtain.  To be clear American Mythology fans, there is no Alice’s Restaurant, and there are no easy answers.

Our Thanksgiving myth tells us the Pilgrims and Puritans left Europe to avoid religious persecution and the Mayflower Compact was the first example of democracy in the New World.  

Not so much…originally, members of these faith-based communities were required to worship in that particular way; not in any way they chose.   The first community-based decision making in the New World was not an imported ideal, but rather a long-standing tradition of its indigenous residents.  Please pass the Turduckin Uncle Newt.  Thank you.

Perhaps we can give a nod to those who sat at the first big kids’ table and begin the hard work of immigration reform with persecution in mind.  As such, our first step must be to demand an overhaul of the way our system determines and grants asylum.  

Forcibly returning human beings to areas of the globe where rape, torture, beheadings, and child soldiers are the norm is wrong.  Don’t agree?  Read Rescuing Regina: The Battle to Save a Friend from Deportation and Death.  Sister Josephe Marie Flynn of Milwaukee, WI channeled her inner Father Groppi, put on her social justice underpants, (no offense, Sister) and brought this critical issue front and center.  Good on ‘ya Sister Josephe. 

After this, maybe we can have a grown-up discussion sometime between the green bean casserole and the pumpkin pie.  Adults realize that We the People are not deporting fifteen million, though perhaps doing so would give American, United, and Delta stocks a big up-tick.  I’m just waiting for ALEC model legislation in the “transportation committee” supporting this notion.  Just you wait.

While Progressive cringe at the term “illegal aliens” (which conjures up the image of “Paul”) 

we on the left are also disingenuous when we refer to the same group of people as “undocumented workers.” Not everyone here ‘under the radar’ is a working, contributing member of society, just as not every naturalized or natural born citizen is a contributing member of society.    Both terms are overly simplistic, though I am uncertain what term our better angels would advise us to use.

Thus, before you become too befuddled by the turkey and Aaron Rodgers’ quarterback rating, here are a few thoughts for your consideration: 

• Convicted felons will be deported. Yes, they will be given the opportunity to appeal and be represented by competent counsel. If these individuals are currently incarcerated in Texas, this may be a welcome change.

• Individuals who have over-stayed their visas will be given an opportunity to renew without penalty or prejudice; if they choose not to, they must return home.   This is a matter of fairness.   If I overstay my welcome in the UK, I have to go home.  Time to pop off then Love, Cheers!

• The U.S. Military will stop playing “citizenship games;” it will no longer entice non-citizens into military service with the “carrot” of citizenship.   In theory this may appear to be a good idea but in practice these Vets and their families often suffer through years of red tape and heartbreak.   Enough.

• U.S. Companies will scale-down their recruitment of foreign workers, especially scientists and engineers, and instead aggressively develop people and recruit in the U.S. Once upon a time, we discussed “brain drain.”  In taking away the best and brightest of other Nations we are doing a global disservice. Providing tuition assistance to current employees and college students is a win-win.  In HR-speak it is called “bench strength” and “strategic recruitment and planning.”   It would be a “neat-o idea” to offer public/private partnership programs to our long-term unemployed and returning vets, too.  A soldier who has used high tech communication equipment on the battle field probably has some “neat-o ideas” for lab-bound civilian engineers.  Just saying.

• Undocumented/Non-citizen individuals and businesses working in the trades will be licensed, carry the same insurances, and follow the same OSHA rules as citizens and legal businesses.   Our current “blind eye” and “deification of the lowest bid - quality be damned” is unfair for union workers AND small business people who follow these rules, while doing their best to keep ALL their employees working and just stay in business.  Insurance is a cost of doing business; it is expensive, it is the law, it is for our safety, and I would offer that it is also part of our modern social contract. Our licensed and insured plumbers, electricians, roofers, dry wall installers, masons, and the like cannot compete on “price point” with those who do not have this cost. Would you feel comfortable sending your kids to a daycare where the person hired to rewire it has no license, and no liability insurance?  Are you “ok” with your Mom’s assisted living facility choosing subcontractors with no references and tools in a Wally-Mart bag to install hand grips, safety rails and non-slip flooring?  Didn’t think so.  I also place this “fairness duty” on those who hire workers, and local code/permit enforcement officials.  If nothing else, consider this sad reality - those working “under the radar” are often exploited by the greedy and unethical who would step over a dollar to pick up a penny. Short-pay or no-pay to workers by those who exploit them is common.  What recourse do they have?

• Inform Uncle Rick that immigrants (specifically immigrants who own businesses) do not have to pay taxes for 7 years is an urban legend.  Pull out your smart phone and link to this:  http://www.snopes.com/business/taxes/immigrants.  If Uncle Rick is still being an ass – direct him to this heady IRS publication. http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p515.pdf   Remind Uncle Rick that it IS true many big-ass U.S. Companies do not pay taxes – pull up Bernie on the You Tube – I’m guessing you have that link bookmarked already.

• National Healthcare. Much of the rhetoric and fury centers on “illegals” consuming limited resources.  Tax payer money spent on Emergency Room visits by “illegals” is frequently cited as an example.  When we switch to single-payer, this variable goes away.  If you’ve ever been sick or injured in the UK or France or Germany or Canada or many other countries with single-payer you understand.   These citizens don’t begrudge you getting treatment for an ear infection or a cast on your broken arm because they know they can, too.  At present, many here in the U.S. regard a visit to the ER or hospital stay as a catastrophic event resulting in financial ruin.   Too many earn too little to afford private insurance but yet earn too much to qualify social safety net programs.   If we remove the extreme financial burden of health care from the equation, the tone and dynamic of the immigration debate changes.

• Unemployment and Fear.  South Park.  “They took our jobs.”  It seems to me, the unemployment rate is directly proportional to the rancor in the immigration debate.  When “I’ve got a mine, then you can have one too” seems to apply.   When we are employed, our mortgage payments are made, and we are able to put turkey and dressing on the table, we mellow out a little on those seeking a better life here.  Our short American History has repeatedly taught us this lesson, despite what “Housing Historian” Uncle Newt says. We are a nation of immigrants.  We are better for it. The only people who should have a stake in the “deport them all” argument are our Native American brothers and sisters. If Newtie wins in 2012, I hope they do!  I’d be happy to go “back to” Norway, Ireland, or Germany. My husband’s family is from The Netherlands; we would happily spend 2012-2016 in Aruba, Curacao, or Bonaire – sure as hell beats Chicago winters.

Yes, this is overly simplistic; but consider those on the “other side.”  Many of the people trying desperately to spin the debate and policy in favor of Corporate America serf-wages and electric fences are the same folks who at this very moment are calling the “Butterball Hotline” to complain about Halal Turkeys.  Enough said.  Gobble Gobble.