Typical or Atypical American?

As the descendant of immigrants, I believe I'm fairly typical.  One family legend has our earliest ancestors arriving some 14,000 years ago via the Bering Straits (or was it a land bridge then?).  Another story passed from one generation to the next would have our family's first arrival on these shores in the 17th century aboard a slave ship.

The earliest documented immigrant among my ancestors arrived in Philadelphia in 1750 some months after a petty theft charge -- OK, he was accused of being a pickpocket -- had been dismissed by a magistrate in Liverpool, England.  Other branches of my family tree arrived during the next two centuries from Wales, Scotland, Ireland, and Germany.

None of my known ancestors seems to have come from any other countries but I was fortunate to grow up in a neighborhood where I was badly outnumbered by people of African, Belgian, French, Italian, and Polish ancestry.  I later went to school with more of the above plus Chinese, Greeks, Indians, Russians, and lots of folks who were, like me, a mix of several ethnicities.  During two U.S. Army tours of duty in the Far East, I worked as closely as you can imagine (in some cases, literally elbow-to-elbow while getting shot at) with still more of the above plus Hispanics, Koreans, Montagnards, Thais, and Vietnamese.

The reason for listing my genealogy and the ethnic diversity of my relationships is to preemptively refute claims of racism in my views on immigration.  There have been many people of different races that I disliked intensely but many more that I have really liked and in neither case was this because of their race.

I honestly believe that the majority of Americans are very much like me regarding race.  In the first place, many of us aren’t too certain of our own ethnic origins and, more importantly, realize that the other fellow’s origins aren’t very important to anyone but him.  We evaluate people we meet based on individual character; not on a preconceived notion based on their race.

Immigration Reform

Although I am a native American citizen, I have the greatest admiration for my fellow citizens who have made the conscious decision to become American citizens.  I merely did a good job of picking my parents; they had to have the wisdom to select this nation and to then prove themselves worthy of citizenship.

In either case, we have, through our elected representatives, determined conditions under which people from other lands may come here on temporary or permanent bases.  It was argued during recent Senate debates that we need to reform our immigration laws.  Although I seriously distrust the motives of those advancing this argument, I suspect they may be correct.  My idea of reform, however, differs a great deal from their granting amnesty to those who have violated our immigration laws.  I believe that, if any reform is needed, it would be to strengthen our laws to require:

·         Classification of illegal border crossing or assisting in illegal border crossing as offenses for which bail may not be granted.  Would we arrest members of an invading army, and then release them into our country based on their promise to appear in court?

·         Immediate deportation on completion of their sentence of any illegal alien found guilty of an infraction of our laws – including any misdemeanors.  Deportation in these cases would be in response to violation of our immigration laws, not punishment for the secondary offense.

·         Prosecution of anyone providing assistance of any kind to illegal aliens as assisting border violation and conspiracy to violate federal law.

·         All visitors to periodically report their whereabouts and be considered in violation – subject to prosecution or immediate deportation without trial – if they are not where they are supposed to be or remain in this country when their visa has expired.

·         More severe penalties for employers of illegal aliens.  The term ‘employers’ should be understood to include individuals – the homeowner who hires an illegal to clean his house or mow his grass – as well as businesses that cut corners by hiring illegals.

But even these reforms may not be necessary and may be premature until we can honestly say that we have secured our borders and are enforcing existing immigration law.  The recent increased effort by the Department of Homeland Security to improve border security and enforce laws concerning employment of illegal aliens is encouraging.  We can only hope that it will continue.

As always, the views expressed here are those of one humanist….