Some thoughts on the Immigration Thing

Okay, so as long as everybody has something to say about this new immigration law in Arizona, I thought I would add my two cents to the conversation. Now, on most issues, I feel like I fall right in line behind most conservatives in this country. However, I am more in the middle on this one. I think that, on immigration, both parties and both major ideologies in this country are talking past each other on this problem and nobody is really finding the underlying cause of it. The Left is so passionate about being compassionate that many of them want to do all they can to help the immigrants that they are not thinking about how to help them in an orderly and logical manner. The Right, however, does not do too much better; they think that all it boils down to is a question of amnesty. Before we get to a solution, however, I think it is important to acknowledge a few facts:
1) These immigrants are breaking the law by coming here illegally.
2) These immigrants are breaking a serious law by coming here illegally, one that has significant economic and national security implications attached to it (This is especially true given the violence in Arizona that partially contributed to this law in the first place).
However, considering that…
1) These immigrants are breaking a law that we (The United States) haven’t done a very good job of enforcing, (i.e. Our border security is awful, and we’ve been granting amnesty since the Reagan years)
AND
2) Many of these immigrants are fleeing dangerous drug war-torn Mexico
AND
3) We are all immigrants. This is the greatest, freest country God ever gave to man, and we have an invitation to the rest of the world on our Statue of Liberty that says, “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to be free.”
Considering these things, we should not deport these people. Yes, they are violating the Rule of Law by coming here illegally, but we (the U.S.A.) hasn’t exactly been following the Rule of Law ourselves in granting them amnesty over and over and over again and, consequently, encouraging more to come here over and over and over again.
The vast major of these illegal immigrants are not bad people. Who can blame them for wanting to seek a better life? At the same time, though, who can blame the people of Arizona for trying to protect the interests of their state? The United States government has a problem on its hands and they need to do something about it quickly.
Here are a few ideas:
1) Primarily, we need to strengthen our borders. Especially given the drug war going on in Mexico that could potentially leak over, we have every right to protect ourselves from its effects.
The rest of these items are not in any specific order, but here we go anyway:
2) We should stop giving these immigrants benefits. Unless they are paying taxes like the rest of us, we should stop giving them driver’s licenses, housing, health care, etc. I know that a lot of them already work for low wages doing the crappy jobs that no one else wants, but it still does not make it right that we should let them freeload off us. I hope that by doing this, we can give them some measure of accountability for mooching off the rest of us.
3) We need to make English the official language of the United States. Unless these people learn to speak English, they will continue to be crippled and dependent on the government for everything.
4) We need to make it easier for people to come to this country legally, so that more immigrants will want to come here the right way. The fact that the process is as ridiculously complex as it is now, combined with all the free stuff these people get as illegal immigrants, gives them a greater incentive to come here the wrong way.
5) Maybe instead of amnesty or deportation, we could find some kind of happy medium where children are not separated from their parents, but they are still held legally accountable for breaking the law and for living off the rest of us.
I’ll try to go more into this later, but there’s something to chew on for now. Of course it would also help if we could do more to help Mexico fight the drug cartels.