This entry is titled with some words from the DC immigration march that I heard on the radio while I was driving home from work today. There were marches in 130 cities, I hear. AmericaBlog and Atrios got out to their local rallies & have photos posted. I wish I could have gone to one as well, but the closest I got was seeing some of the residual traffic from the San Jose march.
As I said a week or so ago, immigration is something I have strong feelings about. If America had not opened its doors to my mother’s parents – Polish Jews born in the early 20th century -- they would most likely have died in one of Hitler’s concentration camps. As much as I may complain about the things I don’t like about America, I never forget that my family and I all owe this country our lives. And I’m also not arrogant enough to think that we’re the only ones who deserve that good fortune.
So here’s my bottom line: unless there is a damn good reason to think that someone will not be a good citizen of America, we should allow him/her to come here and work for a better life.
Now, exactly how we do that, I’m not sure. We all know the system right now is broken. It’s not just the illegal immigrant problem – anyone who’s fallen in love with and married someone not from this country can tell you what an insane pain in the butt it can be to get their status settled, even when the person in question is here legally.
I recognize that there are some practical concerns that accompany an open door immigration policy and that not everyone who wants to come here is going to be able to come here. That’s Ok, we can work on it. But we need to start from the foundation belief that we want immigration and that immigrants are still welcome in this Land of the Free.
I’m also uncomfortably aware that this is another one of those issues that is being turned into yet another red/blue wedge issue by the Right Wing Noise Machine. As a lifelong resident of urban, coastal parts of America, people from other countries are a part of my daily life in countless ways. Immigration is not just about the people who pick lettuce or clean houses for people like me. In my America, my classmates, co-workers, friends and even family members come from all corners of the globe. For someone from Nebraska or even coastal states like South Carolina, you don’t see that so much. Small wonder they’re more inclined to see immigrants as “other” instead of “us”.
How do we combat that? That’s something else I’m not sure about. But we need to try.
