The needle on my mental gauge has finally settled in the center on immigration issue — with a clear understanding that it’s not just about immigrants
There’s a gauge in my head with a needle that sways back and forth between L for liberal and R for conservative. When I’m observing events around me the needle usually sways wildly from the middle to the right, then back to the left, usually coming back to rest just to the left of the center.
That’s what happened when I was watching televised reports of the pro-immigration reform march and rally on May Day in Dallas that drew tens of thousands to downtown streets.
My first reaction to a woman from El Salvador who acknowledged being in the United States illegally was one of astonishment. She had just given her name and showed her face while demanding the right to be allowed to live and work in the U.S. without interference from government officials.
Why didn’t she just paint an X on her posterior and bend over in the street in front of the camera? My best guess is that she’s going to get a visit from some immigration officials in the near future.
To that point, much smaller numbers of counterprotesters attended the march and rally, demanding that government officials enforce current immigration laws that would deport anyone living in the U.S. illegally.
At one point my reaction was one of indignation, because I’ve considered moving to Mexico to live in retirement in Puerto Vallarta, and I certainly understand that would require a little interference by Mexican government officials.
That would have been when the needle was popping over to the right in a pretty dramatic, "boing."
But there I go again, forgetting that in comparison to this woman who is struggling to survive and provide for her children, I am the privileged white American who wants to live in paradise. I realized it was not fair to compare our two agendas, and that’s when the needle launched backwards.
After all, most Americans who have come here in the last five centuries have been run out of some other part of the world or been forced to flee for another reason, such as famine, unemployment, political oppression, religious persecution and even criminal prosecution.
Many were seeking help from relatives who were already here. The others were searching for adventure, fame and fortune.
I don’t see any difference between our ancestors and the current flow of people from other countries, and I don’t think our being here earlier gives us any cause to be indifferent to their plights.
If the conditions in their home countries weren’t unbearable, they wouldn’t be risking their lives to get here anyway they can.
The marches and rallies — simultaneously staged from New York to Los Angeles, with Dallas drawing one of the larger crowds — were for a just cause.
They drew widespread participation because of a recently passed Arizona law targeting illegal immigrants and justifiable concerns that other states might follow suit.
No matter how much it galls some people, we have large numbers of people from other countries living and working in the U.S. illegally.
The idea of deporting them is neither practical nor humane. They have established their lives here, and many of their children are now natural-born U.S. citizens.
What’s more, there is inequity in immigration laws regarding gay and lesbian people who want to bring their committed partners who were born in other countries to live with them in the U.S.
So with the needle in my head more-or-less stable, I finally concluded, immigration reform is long overdue for many reasons that are important to me. The more time we spend trying to enforce antiquated policies, the bigger and more complicated the problem becomes.
I think so much more clearly when I’m centered.
David Webb is a former staff writer for the Dallas Voice who lives on Cedar Creek Lake now. He is the author of the blog TheRareReporter.blogspot.com. He can be reached at davidwaynewebb@embarqmail.com.
This article appeared in the Pride Weddings 2010 special section in the Dallas Voice print edition May 7, 2010.
I disagree totally. My ancestors came to this country and worked and built it to what it is today. Unfortunatley what it has become is in reality a disgrace. We have a government that is spending and spending on foriegn countries to “Rebuild” them yet we have numerous “True” americans without work here losing their own houses for what they worked for most of their lives and our own government is doing very little if anything to help them.
People coming over here from Mexico for what ever there reasons is wrong and should not be allowed. I have an Ex-mother in law that is hispanic and she has never worked a day at a job in her entire time in America. Yet she is paid social security benefits monthly and for what?
I have worked since I was 14 years old all here in America and I have paid social security taxes, medicare and medicaid taxes, federal taxes plus medical, dental insurance every payday.And by the time I reach retirement there will not be any money there to help me becuase we have given it all out to people and their children who are here illegally or to other countries and these are countries that could care less about us (Remember 911) did we diserve that? Did they care? But these people that have come here illegally get it all for free. They come here and have children and not just one but many children and think or feel becuase they have a child here they are a citizen. The ones here illegally might work (Taking jobs from real Americans becuase they are payed cheaper), but they do not pay taxes, medical, dental, medicare, or medicaid. That is not right for the people who have been here all their lives who do. I strongly believe in captial punishment and feel it should be carried out more often. Illegal is illegal, if you break the law you need to pay the crime and these people are clearly breaking the law on a daily bases. I feel the law passed in Arizona is a good one but one that can not be carried out properly or enforced to where it will get rid of the people here illegally. We have laws that each of us as US citizens have to abid by so should these people that come over illegaly. There are many laws in this country that are not correct and should be changed. Our own government needs to worry about the many millions of US citizens that are starving, losing their houses because of no work, losing their houses due to flood or fire such as what is going on now on the gulf coast and in Nashville before they worry about rebuilding other countries or helping people that are here illegally.
You’ve tapped into so many bizarre topics (capital punishment?) that have nothing to do with the issue at hand that I really am almost at a loss for words, but not quite. It sounds like a classic case of scapegoating on your part — laying the blame for every ill in the nation on the most unpopular group of people around.