Team Obama, Democrats, and their sheeple followers are itching to ramp up the push for “comprehensive” immigration reform. The White House and all their peeps have sent out a few tweets here and there. Obama had John “Amnesty” McCain over for tea to discuss the issue last week (interestingly, there are no articles as to what happened, just that it would happen). Here’s a humorous one I ran across while reading the Devils and Giants articles at NJ.com by Tom Deignan, but it might as well be written by Any Feelings Based Liberal
Immigration debate can learn from history: Opinion
All of the noise over the Affordable Care Act has made it easy to forget that immigration reform was also supposed to be a top priority in Washington this fall. Hoping to revive this debate before the congressional calendar runs out, President Obama met with business bigwigs last week and has a scheduled meeting with Republican leaders this week.
Let’s hope folks on both sides of this issue not only get moving, but also take a moment to crack open a history book. Because while there are certainly distinctions between past and present immigrant waves, even a cursory look at 19th century immigration undermines some of the myths and assumptions that continue to stall this debate.
Take, for example, the line often peddled by anti-immigrant activists: that the foreign-born of yesteryear were all legal and “played by the rules.†The fact is, crime, sloth and disorder were rampant in 19th century immigrant neighborhoods, thanks mainly to discrimination and severe competition at the bottom of the economic ladder. Just last month, Newark-based Benedictine Monk the Rev. Augustine Curley delivered a lecture at Seton Hall on anti-Irish rioting in 1850s Newark.
Um, that’s an argument I’ve never heard before (oh, and we’re not “anti-immigrant”, we’re against most illegals). But, consider, these legal and illegal folks brought crime, sloth, and disorder. That’s a hell of a recommendation to give today’s illegals a “pathway to citizenship”, wouldn’t you say?
Meanwhile, it may be true that past immigrants weren’t welfare moochers, but that’s only because there was no welfare from Washington upon which to mooch. Immigrants were actually more than willing to accept handouts from charitable religious groups or to swap their votes for assistance from political machines.
Hmm, so if we look at the past, we can expect the current crop of illegals to look to be on the dole and prostitute themselves politically?
Also, somehow, we’re supposed to believe that all these illegals, who have been pandered to for decades by liberals and super squishy Republicans will become Conservatives and vote GOP sometime in the future.
In the end, the contributions of 19th century immigrants and their offspring helped make the 20th century “The American Century.†Unless President Obama and Republican leaders get moving, we might not be able to say the same about the 21st century.
That was a time when America had a much smaller population and plenty of room to grow. Plenty of jobs to fill. But this is all the type of feelings based argument wrapped around some facts we can expect to hear against shortly, mostly as a way to deflect from the travesty that is Obamacare. Many of these immigrants came from Old Europe and China. Now they often come from 3rd World hellholes and want to live here, but not be citizens. They want the US to adopt their standards, rather than conforming to US standards. We have millions out of work, yet the allies of these illegals want to legalize them. They want these folks moved onto the public dole to create more Democrat voters, regardless of how it can hurt America and Americans.
The 19th century was a different time. Adding all these low wage workers will create a glut on the market, restricting wage increases, even deflating them. The price of goods and services can also be driven up. And housing.
How many of these illegals have tried to integrate? How many send money earned here to their home nations, depriving the American economy? How many knowingly broke our immigration laws, either by crossing the border or overstaying their visa? How many demand that America conform to them and take care of them?
Read: Immigration Debate Can Learn From History Or Something »
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