I usually do not comment on immigration, because it is an issue about which my feelings are both simple and clear - (a) the more the better; (b) anti-immigration is fueled by the same kind of fear that brought us all these years of Bush: racism, ignorance of others, a refusal to acknowledge our own complicity in the situation. As to (a), the US has only ever improved with an influx of new nationalities, and our Mexican brothers and sisters are adding new color and sound and life to a moribund Anglo-German dominated culture and society. As far as I am concerned, the only necessary requirement for coming to America should be saying to an embassy official somewhere in the world "I want to be an American," and we should throw open our arms in welcome.
(B) is the result of racism, period. Racism is a mixture of ignorance, fear, and a fundamental refusal to acknowledge the humanity or worth of others whose differences are superficial. Tom Tancredo is a bigot. Pat Buchanan is a bigot. The "Minutemen" (I just hope that doesn't refer to how long it takes them to finish making love, for their partners' sakes) are bigots. There are no rational reasons to object to the current "illegal" population amongst us - they serve a useful economic function (indeed, had we a living, breathing labor movement, and a living, breathing sense of civic life, the last thing we would worry about would be the downward pressure on wages from an influx of immigrants, because wages would not be left for individual corporations to determine, but be understood to be part of a larger, socially understood, sense of public utility; again, a post for another time) as well as give America their love. They aren't "illegal aliens" - a bunch of strange beings from some odd place we cannot understand - but people, mostly from Mexico (although during the 1970's and 1980's, the influx of white illegals, mostly from Ireland, went unmentioned and unnoticed), who are seeking the chance for a better life. They bring their food, their clothing, their language, their religion, their songs, their poems, their stories - and we add them to the anthology of life that makes America a great place to live.
The bill is a piece of garbage, even though there are elements that are notable. I think it much too complicated, contradictory, and indicates a drastic shift in immigration policy that we need to seriously address before indicating our support for it. We should be hitting the phones, making sure our members of Congress and the Senate understand that those elements of the bill that are horrid are removed before getting final approval. As Atrios so wisely notes here:
Regarding the immigration bill, I think the basic calculation isn't "this bill or nothing," it's "this bill or nothing now but something else two years from now."
Since we have waited 20 years since the last major overhaul of immigration law (with Ronald Reagan, whom all the Republican candidates want to be, offering amnesty to the illegals in our midst), we can wait until after the 2008 election, when we have a Democratic President and larger Democratic majorities in both Houses of Congress so we can ignore the knuckle-dragging Republican leadership that feels it necessary to pander to the racists and fear-mongers. By all means, insist on changing the bill as it exists; if that means the bill dies, there is no reason to think another bill, a better bill at a different time more advantageous to America, can be crafted.
