McCain Cruises As Seal The Border Crowd Whines
January 30th, 2008, 9:43 am · 5 Comments · posted by Joaquin
The seal-the-border crusade of right-tilting, talk show listening Americans is taking a hit these days with the demise of their preferred presidential candidates and the rise of Republican frontrunner John McCain, who is reviled by our friends on the right for believing immigrants are God’s children, too.
Alas, with McCain dispatching GOP flip-flopper Mitt Romney in Florida’s key primary on Tuesday, the way is clear for the Arizona senator to have a fairly easy time of it on his way to the Republican nomination. The immigration issue that so boils the blood of the far right of the Republican Party is rapidly losing steam, with questions about the issue given only a passing glance at the latest GOP presidential debates. So much for the issue that was to define the GOP contest.
All of this hardly means that efforts have stopped to tighten the flow of people across the border so we can prevent a terrorist attack from the farm workers, landscapers, and hotel cleaning ladies who would do our country harm by working. No, thankfully, very soon Americans will need to show all sorts of identification for a simple jaunt across an international bridge, not that everyone is happy about it.
“We’re not going to stand for it,” one member of Congress recently told USA Today. “There will be such a tie-up at the border, it will be the worst the world has ever seen.”
A U.S. senator holds similar views, telling USA Today that the new cumbersome ID requirments are “unwise, ill-considered and counterproductive.”
The politicians with the thundering views on the new regs aren’t from these parts. Rep. Louise Slaughter, D-N.Y., is the member of Congress cited above, with Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., questioning the wisdom of the new rules. All of which goes to show that for all of the noise on right-wing radio about the southern border, (i.e. the need to keep Mexicans out from contaminating our national identity), issues of commerce and business are also important on the U.S.-Canadian border as well.
Here’s the rub: Beginning Jan. 31, U.S. and Canadian citizens ages 19 and above will have to show a government ID and a second ID such as a birth certificate, or a government document indicating naturalization, citizenship or birth abroad.
In the mix of confusion about this issue, the feds tried to make some amends by saying the U.S. State Department will take applications for a new border crossing guard that will help facilitate routine back-and-forths across the bridges. After all of the recent long delays to get passports, I’m sure the application process for these crossing cards will go smoothly, no?
Meanwhile back at the bridges, a recent Government Accountability Office report says our federal government ought to put more time and money to improving ports of entry rather than policing remote stretches of the border. The GAO study reported that about half of the estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants in America entered at a legal port of entry. Gee, does that mean spending more money on improving staffing and facilities at bridges and immigration offices would be resources better spent than building a costly but ineffective fence that is largely a symbolic barrier to ease the worries of Betty Lou in Iowa and Bobby Joe in Alabama that we’re finally doing something to keep Mexicans out?
Sealing the border is a dicey proposition. A simple fence will get the job done in the minds of our simplistic thinking friends on the far right, but the new GOP frontrunner, McCain of Arizona, knows better, as do we who actually live on the border. The same seems to be the case for our fellow Americans living up north who see business and commerce cross the northern border on a daily basis. At least our friends up north won’t have to put with a border fence of their own, being that Canadian immigrants won’t erode America’s national identity the way Mexicans do.
Neither border will ever be sealed, nor fully secured in the sense that the talk show crowd wants. It will be increasingly harder to get across, though. Better make sure you have all of your goverment-approved documents in tow, especially if you’re a Hispanic American. And while you’re at, make sure to put your 2-ounce tube of tooth paste and hand soap in a little plastic bag for inspectors as well, as is required at airports these days. Never know when a new regulation might pop up to protect us from the ominous threats posed by farms workers, landscapers and hotel cleaning ladies.
January 31st, 2008 at 5:17 pm
On your point about Canadian immigrants won’t erode America’s national identity the way Mexicans do, all I can say is when was the last time Canadian citizens clogged up the emergency rooms at Brownsville Hospitals, or when was the last time you stood behind a Canadian using a food stamp card at HEB, or when was the last time a Canadian hit your car and you had to end up paying for it yourself, and how many Canadians are living in rent assisted housing in Brownsville?
Betty Lou in Iowa and Bobby Joe in Alabama are damn tired of footing the bill for slackers.
Sounds like you are crying louder than the conservatives.
February 1st, 2008 at 12:16 pm
Same old stereotypes from the usual suspects. You’re voice is so worn, dude. What do you expect? Anyone with a screen name like Taxpayer is probably going to be self-righteous.
February 3rd, 2008 at 1:18 pm
I’m from Up North in Minnesota. We border with Canada. They appear to be a sovereign nation like Mexico and Irag and Iran etc.I saw your parochial comments on the only fear that we have is hardworking people. The usual answers used in place of addressing a problem seriously. The putdown.I am 74, a vet, a recovered drunk , a christian like many of the Mexican people, many of whom are very caring people. I saw Judge Abel C. Limas in the Los Fresnos parade. I also talked to his sister and mother afterward. I think they are conflicted with the problem of being caring and having a relative or son who is a Judge. How do you address this problem of defining the difference between Legal and Illegal. Especially if your oath of office is uphold the law. Can you give me something other than a smartalec answer? If you were to respond to a Radical Muslim, who has their own law, in the same fashion, would you still have that smirk on your face? I don’t think so. You can still be a caring person and want a rule of law. How does Mexico enforce their southern border? Write a column on that question and sign it. I would love to read it, provided it is honest and accurate. Peace.
February 4th, 2008 at 10:16 am
Thanks for writing Don. I’m an advocate for more legal immigration and creating more channels for that to occur. There are far too few slots in our current immigration system that allow people to come in legally for jobs and employment in sectors of the U.S. economy of where their services are needed.
We ought to create more legal pathways for safe and legal immigration into this country, where people can cross back-and-forth in a more logical and humane manner. The U.S. has always needed immigrant workers, and there’s no shame in that.
Our national economy today has a clear need for immigrants - both on the high end in the areas of technoloy and medicine - and in blue collar jobs as well. It’s an empty mantra, in my view, for those who say they’re not against immigration, just illegal immigration, but then fail to support measures that would create more legal means for people to enter.
Nearly all of the major immigration restrictionist groups, such as FAIR and NumbersUSA, oppose any efforts to expand legal immigration, and in fact advocate reducing the amount of immigration into the U.S., period, because of fears they have of this country’s national identity being eroded by immigrants.
That’s a view historically used by nationalists and nativists in opposing immigration to the U.S. over the generations.
I’m not an expert on how Mexico enforces their immigration laws, nor do I need to be, sir. I’m a fifth-generation American, so it’d be like me asking you how the country of your ancestors enforces immigration laws.
I’d be among those who supports having more Border Patrol agents, Customs agents, better staffed and resources ports of entry, etc., as well as better enforcement of holding employers accountable for hiring undocumented workers. Hooray for all of that stuff.
That’s great you’re for rule of law, sir. I’m waiting for folks on your side of the issue to get just as worked up about the undocumented who are illegally in this country because they overstayed their visas, (about half of all illegal immigrants in U.S.), as you all get about immigrants from Mexico and other Latin American countries.
February 4th, 2008 at 12:26 pm
I’ve read where about 40 percent of the illegal immigrants in the U.S. are from Mexico, meaning that the majority of such immigrants in the U.S. are from other countries in the world. So, Mr. Wicklander, why don’t you and those of your views ever ask how India, the Phillipines, China, Ireland, et. al., enforce their immigration laws because we have illegal immigrants from those nations and other places, too.
Why is it always about Mexico, I wonder.