From the steps of the Lincoln Memorial back in 1963, Martin Luther King, Jr. said, "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." It became the dream of every proud American too, and the Civil Rights Act of 1964 soon followed. The nation breathed a collective sigh of relief, trusting that the injustices of the past would soon fade away, and a better, stronger nation would emerge.
Our hopes were dashed when President Lyndon Johnson decided to reinterpret Title VII of that Civil Rights Act. Though it specifically stated that none of its provisions should be interpreted as requiring "preferential treatment" for any individual or group because of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin (though obliquely did suggest that some form of "affirmative action" should be encouraged), Johnson decided to codify affirmative action remedies by issuing Executive Order #11246, which made it clear that set-asides, quotas and preferential treatment based on race should be used in order to accomplish his vision of "The Great Society."
In his Letter from the Birmingham Jail in 1963, Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote, "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." Why it wasn’t patently obvious that Johnson’s order to institutionalize racial preference was just such an injustice, whatever the well-intended reason, is hard to understand. Perhaps it was the guilt many thoughtful Americans felt for those past injustices that made us accept it, believing that at some, undefined point in the future, these measures would no longer be necessary. The problem is, once a group enjoys privileges for any reason, they are not going to willingly give them up.
There are no doubt many who will label these views as racist, and will point out the ongoing racial problems that exist in this country. I submit that the reason there are still racial problems in this country is because we are required by law to practice racial discrimination. The fact is, the last two generations have grown up restrained by institutionalized racism. Those given preferential treatment based on race learned from affirmative action that they are recognized by government as "inferior", incapable of succeeding without the "leg up" the law provided. Those on the other end learned that the law created unfairness, that no matter how hard they tried, someone could pass them merely because of their "preferred" race.
As Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in his opinion of this landmark case from Seattle and Louisville schools systems this week, "The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race." It doesn’t get any plainer than that. We can only hope that this common sense attitude will spread across every walk of life, not just in school systems, and that soon, we will all be able to be "free at last" from the enslaving bonds of affirmative action.
Friday, June 29, 2007
Monday, June 11, 2007
"Immigrant Replacement Reform Bill" is the Answer
THE PROBLEM: Immigration Reform. When you listen to members of Congress, you’d think that absolutely nothing about the current immigration system is working and the whole thing needs to be trashed and started over. Yet when you ask any immigrant who came through that system, and you’ll learn just how effective our current laws are.
For example, we already have a "Guest Worker Program." It’s called a Work Visa, and must be applied for and granted before entering the U.S. The immigrant must have a job waiting for him or her and to have an employer as a sponsor, who must certify that there are no qualified Americans that can fill that job. It’s a strategy that has allowed the Immigration service to protect American jobs. For decades, it’s worked just fine. An immigrant can only stay in our country as long as they work for that one employer. They’re not allowed to change jobs, as that negates their Work Visa.
That’s often a high price to pay for some, but most do it gladly, because they know it’s worth it in the long run. After they make all the necessary effort and sacrifice to obtain a Green Card, they are then provided a long and arduous path to citizenship. It’s a difficult but hardly impossible journey through layers of laudably protective bureaucracy, and it’s another part of the immigration system that works just fine.
The problem isn’t the need to reform the immigration system. The system works fine when people use it. The main problem is the need to get more people into the system. So far, all of the approaches offered up by Congress rely on proven lawbreakers (crossing the border illegally is still a crime, no matter how regularly it may be done) being enticed with so many sweets that they’ll be compelled to come join the party (and, not surprisingly, 6 out of 7 will join the Democrat party, which explains a lot about the immigration debate).
SOLUTION: Quite simply, we make one major, temporary reform to the Immigration system, called the "Immigrant Replacement Reform Bill." For a two-year period, we offer amnesty (yes, amnesty) to American employers who have knowingly or unknowingly hired illegals. Each worker must provide immigration documentation, verified through the
Immigration Service, and be issued a new non-duplicatible biometrics identification card. At the same time, we temporarily open the floodgates to those immigrants who are first in line pursuing the system legally, allowing employers to sponsor as many workers as they need to replace those that turn out to be illegal. As soon as one employee is proven to be illegal, they are quickly replaced with one who has gone through the immigration process.
Granted, the process will likely have to be shortened to meet the immediate demand, but that works to our advantage; illegals will be forced to leave because their jobs are disappearing, those jobs can then be filled by either Americans or newly-legalized immigrants who we now have the means to track. Obviously, many of them will be the same people, but at least now we know who they are, which is the entire point of the current immigration reform debate.
At the end of two years, amnesty is lifted, employers will once again be held responsible for hiring illegals (with loss of their business licenses, the way it used to be), illegals will be prosecuted for merely coming over the border (the way it used to be), and a return to sanity, a sense of fairness, and the rule of law will prevail over the land.
For example, we already have a "Guest Worker Program." It’s called a Work Visa, and must be applied for and granted before entering the U.S. The immigrant must have a job waiting for him or her and to have an employer as a sponsor, who must certify that there are no qualified Americans that can fill that job. It’s a strategy that has allowed the Immigration service to protect American jobs. For decades, it’s worked just fine. An immigrant can only stay in our country as long as they work for that one employer. They’re not allowed to change jobs, as that negates their Work Visa.
That’s often a high price to pay for some, but most do it gladly, because they know it’s worth it in the long run. After they make all the necessary effort and sacrifice to obtain a Green Card, they are then provided a long and arduous path to citizenship. It’s a difficult but hardly impossible journey through layers of laudably protective bureaucracy, and it’s another part of the immigration system that works just fine.
The problem isn’t the need to reform the immigration system. The system works fine when people use it. The main problem is the need to get more people into the system. So far, all of the approaches offered up by Congress rely on proven lawbreakers (crossing the border illegally is still a crime, no matter how regularly it may be done) being enticed with so many sweets that they’ll be compelled to come join the party (and, not surprisingly, 6 out of 7 will join the Democrat party, which explains a lot about the immigration debate).
SOLUTION: Quite simply, we make one major, temporary reform to the Immigration system, called the "Immigrant Replacement Reform Bill." For a two-year period, we offer amnesty (yes, amnesty) to American employers who have knowingly or unknowingly hired illegals. Each worker must provide immigration documentation, verified through the
Immigration Service, and be issued a new non-duplicatible biometrics identification card. At the same time, we temporarily open the floodgates to those immigrants who are first in line pursuing the system legally, allowing employers to sponsor as many workers as they need to replace those that turn out to be illegal. As soon as one employee is proven to be illegal, they are quickly replaced with one who has gone through the immigration process.
Granted, the process will likely have to be shortened to meet the immediate demand, but that works to our advantage; illegals will be forced to leave because their jobs are disappearing, those jobs can then be filled by either Americans or newly-legalized immigrants who we now have the means to track. Obviously, many of them will be the same people, but at least now we know who they are, which is the entire point of the current immigration reform debate.
At the end of two years, amnesty is lifted, employers will once again be held responsible for hiring illegals (with loss of their business licenses, the way it used to be), illegals will be prosecuted for merely coming over the border (the way it used to be), and a return to sanity, a sense of fairness, and the rule of law will prevail over the land.
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