Open thread for Sunday, November 30th: Thanksgiving Prayer

“We all know our immigration system is broken”.

Has anyone detailed which part of our immigration system is broken?

Our immigration laws pretty clearly state that if you come here,
it must be under legal authorization, and if you don’t have that authorization or
abuse what authorization you do legally have by overstaying that authorization or
breaking our laws, that you are here illegally and should be removed from this country.
If you are granted a temporary or permanent visa, green card, or work permit, and
conform to the concept of what it is to be American, learn our history, our language,
our culture, and mold yourself into the American concept, that you can become an
American citizen.

In it’s simplest form, if you come here illegally or break our laws while here legally,
you’ll be sent home. If you come here legally, abide by our laws or even if while
living in your own country, and you fill out the proper forms, pay associated fees,
not be a known criminal type, you can become an American citizen.

What’s broken with this? Nothing. At least no one has bothered to point out what’s broken.
The fact that the president, congress, elected officials, and those that are here illegally
say it’s broken, doesn’t mean it is. It means somebody wants something. We don’t
‘fix things that ain’t broke’. This is nothing more than a liberal mantra with the thought
in mind, if you say it long and loud enough, it becomes reality. Unfortunately instead
of standing up for the people they represent and what they believe, Republicans are fighting
to keep their power in office by agreeing that our system is broken.

I’ve given this a bit of thought over the past 6 years as our current president has
done just about everything he can to get the American public to believe in this broken
immigration concept, as well as what he would like to see in regards to ‘fixing’ what ain’t
broke. But first we have to examine what is, and what isn’t a part of the declared
broken system. I view these claims as 3 separate parts of what’s broken, and honestly can’t
bring 2 of them together as any part of immigration ‘reform’.

But before looking at what I see as a not broken immigration system, what exactly is
immigration reform? Herein lies my belief of why things are not actually broken.

Immigration reform would mean to change the laws of the country to in effect change
the process of how immigrants may migrate to this country. That’s it.

Nothing else applies to immigration reform. When we reform, we reform one or more laws
already in place, adding new laws to, removing or changing what laws that already exist.
Everything else is a sideshow, or someones attempting to do something else other
than reform.

Since there are 3 major components to what is being called reform, I view them separately
and with a simple litmus test; Does the subject offer to change any immigration laws.

1. The immigration laws. Qualifications, application, and execution.
2. Border security. Enforcement of laws
3. Amnesty. forgiveness of law breaking.

1. There doesn’t appear to be anything wrong with the first option as far as being
broken is concerned as mentioned above. I would agree however the amount of
time, costs, paperwork (all the red tape associated with government) is
very time consuming, costly, and confusing. I can’t say this is broken, however
I would agree that this could definitely be improved upon to shorten the amount
of time and costs the entire process and costs should take.
This passes any litmus test for immigration reforming. Changing the laws to less
complicate matters is reform as it effects the laws of immigration.

2. Border security (now) falls under the guidelines of homeland security, and is
in place to enforce the laws of immigration, and to keep American citizens safe from
those that would come here to harm America or it’s citizens. This then is ‘enforcement
of immigration laws’, it is not fixing anything that is broken within the law, or changing any of the laws specified and therefore does not pass the litmus test of “changing the law.’
Why would we not want to enforce the law, which is what border security is?

3. Amnesty simply means to forgive someone for breaking a law. It is actually in contradiction of law itself, and applies to any law of this country, not just immigration. It’s there to support a degree of given circumstances that should be met to keep an injustice from taking place. Anyway you can view this, giving amnesty to 5 million people in no way can be considered “immigration reform” as it is a 1 time offering and only applied to those already here who have broken the laws ‘of’ immigration, again failing any litmus test applied to “does this change current immigration laws” Forgiving millions of people for breaking our laws is not in anyway reform.

It would seem to me that although not perfect, our immigration laws are in fact quite healthy, and not broken. Why then does it have the appearance of being broken? Well, if we don’t enforce the laws, that would certainly give the appearance that it’s not working, or ‘broken’. That, along with most of congress, the president, and the illegals all repeatedly screaming it’s broken can sound convincing if shouted long enough. But if you actually look at our laws, there is nothing actually broken. It’s a system that would actually work, if enforced. So that pretty much tells me, and should tell every American, somebody wants something. The general consensus (all polls taken) pretty much state that conservatives already agree that the appropriate laws are in place, and do not want amnesty given to 5 million people that have broken our laws… Instead of reform why don’t we just start applying the given laws we have? And if laws need to be reformed, then let’s reform (change) them, and stop talking about things that have absolutely nothing to do with reform. If there is something truly “broken” with our laws, we need to point these out and state why and how they’re broken. Something that no one has taken a step to prove. Simply stating “our immigration system is broken” doesn’t mean it is.

The next time someone tells you that our immigration system is broken, please ask them to point out exactly what part is broken?

LikeLiked by 1 person