Immigration

On Immigration

On Monday a local radio talk show discussed the subject of immigrants living
in the community. The show gave me the opportunity to refocus my previous
thoughts on the immigration issue and to write on them here. Yes, I know
all the following ideas are not practical, but I'm just dumb that way.
Sorry.

The first thought is that illegal immigration can't be allowed to continue.
The thought of having such a porous border in these times is terrifying.
The U.S. government has no idea who crosses the border each day, where they
came from or what their intentions are. The vast majority of illegal
immigrants do come for the work and better way of life, but it is too easy
for anybody else to cross the border. We must seal the border.
My next thought regards the illegal immigrants that do cross for the
employment. I work in an office but have occasion to visit local
construction sites and have observed what I believe to be illegal
immigrants. The contractors I have spoken to enjoy having them as employees
and claim all the immigrants have Social Security cards and proper paper
work, but they still leave for their home country for months at a time.
There is the language issue as well, which causes some problems, but the
immigrants work hard, while many of the local workers that are sent from the
Department of Economic Security will appear for the first few days then
disappear so they can collect unemployment. The contractors say that a lot
of the local work force that is just starting a career don't want to start
at the bottom but have the mindset that they are owed something by society.
The portion of American society that used to perform these jobs are not
filling all the needed positions, so the immigrants are providing a valuable
service that we can't, or won't, fill ourselves. We need immigrants in our
work force.

There are problems in the local community with all these primarily single
men living in a culture that is not their own. Many disciplinary problems
arise when multiple single men congregate with free time on their hands and
no oversight. Women do make a civilization. So I would propose more legal
immigration with the requirement the immigrants be married, preferably with
children. It would be best to welcome workers who are willing and able to
fill jobs that we can't fill from the population that is here now. The
background checks for the families would need to be fairly in depth to
insure we would be receiving people with a desire to be a part of the
community and not people with a desire to harm it. If bringing families to
this country in a secure way is possible, then the immigrant workers would
no longer be sending the majority of their paychecks to their home countries
for the support of their families, but instead would be spending this money
in the local community, and they would feel involved in the furthering of
society.

Our culture would be enriched, we could see these people in our churches,
and we would fulfill God's request to welcome the alien and to live as one in Jesus.