Let’s not turn them away.
Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney in response to the recent compromise deal reached by the U.S. Senate on immigration made this statement: "I strongly oppose today’s [immigration] bill…. Any legislation that allows illegal immigrants to stay in the country indefinitely, as the new ‘Z-Visa’ does, is a form of amnesty. That is unfair to the millions of people who have applied to legally immigrate to the U.S."
Romney, and the others who speak as he does, are dead wrong. Immigrants, all immigrants, are what this country is all about. Our country’s present strength and high standard of living stem in large part from the successive waves of immigrants, including the hundreds of thousands of black Africans who came here, "legally?" in the 17th. and 18th centuries.
Immigrants have always been a major factor in our country’s cultural and economic growth and resulting economic and cultural prosperity. And they still are. If you have any doubts about this you need only go to Silicon Valley and confirm that the majority of the technology companies there, in no small part the drivers of our economy, are headed by Chinese and Indian immigrants.
OK, you may respond. But Romney is only talking about illegal immigrants. I would answer that illegal immigrants may be the very best kind. For they, unlike someone’s mother-in-law, or half brother or second cousin, who all had legal access to the country, who were "entitled" under the old system, the "illegals" are prepared to pay any price just to get here. Don’t we want people like that? Shouldn’t we welcome them? And shouldn’t we help them to help themselves become Americans like ourselves?
Was what we have meant to be just for ourselves? I don’t think so.
It is clearly evident that once here the so-called illegals are especially dedicated to the task of making a go of it, and much more so, I believe, than the large numbers of those who are already here and have given up on their chances.
For no one can doubt the immigrants’ desire to improve their lives. If our own poor, of which we are told there are now tens of millions, had this same desire we might see more of them lifting themselves out of poverty.
Because we have placed so many obstacles to their coming here the illegals have had to have shown what they are made of, and they have shown toughness and courage, resourcefulness and entrepreneurship, all qualities that we want to see in our new citizens. Romney and others of like mind would tell these people that we don’t want them? We do want them.
Immigrants, and perhaps especially the illegals, whose time here is threatened by demagogues in public offices, want their children to do well in school and are prepared to make whatever sacrifices will be necessary to that end. If you have any doubts about this look at the life stories of the many immigrant children who were first or nearly first in their high school graduating classes last year, in Boston where I live, but certainly in many other cities with large immigrant school populations as well.
These people, these so-called illegals, are a precious resource, and we would turn them away? Those who want to come here, whatever the cost, may very well be the single most important "natural" resource we possess.
Unlike the Governor I’m encouraged by the passage of the Senate bill. It’s a start, although it makes too many concessions to the forces of darkness (read Harry Reid’s reservations). The immigrants, and especially the large numbers of them coming from East and South East Asia, from Central and South America, and across the border from Mexico, bring light along with them (in this regard see David Brooks’ op ed piece).
And whatever happened to:
"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
from The New Colossus
by Emma Lazarus
