On immigration, one thing has become abundantly clear this year: the status quo will not stand. Change is coming.
Unfortunately, the change brewing right now is disheartening and dangerous. After promising efforts to finally deliver a much-needed overhaul to our immigration system were stalled by Republican resistance, vile and racist proposals have been injected into the void. Arizona's racial profiling law and the push to amend the Constitution to deny citizenship to newborns whose parents are undocumented come to mind as prime examples. Although most of these efforts will likely not survive scrutiny from our courts on constitutional grounds, they have poisoned the well and exposed how even respected politicos are willing to trample on minority's rights if it serves them.
Lost in the fights over the 14th Amendment and Arizona's racial profiling law are the very people most affected by the lack of immigration reform - the undocumented students, workers and their families. For many of them, the status quo is not an option; their lives are changing.
One example is Yves Gomes, a caring, intelligent young man from Silver Spring, Md. who graduated from high school in June as an honors student with a 3.8 G.P.A. Gomes is scheduled to be deported on August 13. This young man who has lived in the U.S. 16 of his 17 years, will soon be sent to India, a country he has no memory of with a language he doesn't speak. Our system of justice has always stood out in the world because it always seeks a solution that benefits the common good. Yves' deportation benefits no one; we all lose. That isn't justice.
Fighting for immigration reform can be soul-crushing because we know that every day that passes without reform, without relief, Yves' story is replayed 1,000 times. Every day, there are 1,000 acts of injustice, and most of our elected officials find this acceptable. And yet, the faces of these men and women are largely unseen. The media only focuses on individual immigrants when a tragedy occurs and, too often, it is to demonize an entire population for the acts of an individual.
But what about people like Carlos Roa, an undocumented young man from Florida who's lived nearly all his life in America and had aspirations to join the military but couldn't? Or Montserrat of Arizona who worries her undocumented mother might disappear while she's in school?
My organization recently launched the We are America Stories Project to change the debate by lifting up the stories of those most affected by the broken immigration system, as well as other immigrants and citizens who remind us we all have immigrant roots. Let's not continue talking about immigration reform in the abstract. Instead, let's consider Yves, Carlos and Montserrat when we talk about what path we should pursue. Let's not abandon our values, sense of justice and the strength that comes from our diversity. We can fix our broken immigration system and emerge from this nightmare a stronger, more inclusive and united nation.
The status quo will not stand, but what direction our country takes is up to us. We can demand reform for Yves, Carlos and Montserrat that allows them to fulfill their potential. That's justice.
Action: Help Yves stay home. Sign the petition asking to stop his deportation, join his Facebook page and share with your network.
Follow Deepak Bhargava on Twitter: www.twitter.com/communitychange
While the mainstream media likes to focus on what I call sob stories like this one, it has largely overlooked one of the most critical issues affecting young American citizens and that is their dire employment opportunities in their own country impacted to a large extent by immigration, legal and illegal. While more and more young Americans attempt to find jobs, Congress continues to import 1.5 million new foreign workers into the United States each year. Why are there not articles addressing this issue on this site at least now and again? While over 15 million Americans are unemployed, there are over 8 million illegal aliens holding jobs. Why are there not articles at least once and a while that address the consequences to American citizens of massive illegal immigration. Why should a company be able to bring in a H1B foreign worker with exactly the same or lower qualifications to replace an American citizen. Why should illegal immigrants be able to hold a job while American citizens are unemployed. I'm a life-long liberal Democrat and I'm waiting for a rational reason for foreign workers to hold jobs in America while American citizens are unemployed.
According to Jefferson NO STATE has the right to restrict freedom of movement, an inherent liberty of the people, and which is conveyed by the laws of nature. It is a foreign national's unalienable right to expatriate from his country of origin to the place of his will, just as it is the domestic national's right to the same. When the law seeks to abridge his or her right, it purports jurisdiction over him or her before recognizing his or her fundamental rights.
For such individuals, it is the state which is illegal. There exists no bond of responsibility, no requirement of respect, no law.
No human being is illegal.
"No human being is illegal"
True but humans commit illegal acts. And that's the point of debate. Your comment seems to be intended to muddy that debate and divert it into something it's not.
Restricting immigration is a prima facie abridgment of liberty.
Denying citizenship to the children of any immigrant is racist and xenophobic. End of story
I like the Jefferson quote that you have provided, I also like your train of thought.
When the Federal armies invaded the Confederacy and defeated the Confederate States, State sovereignty was destroyed, thus the States ceased to exist. It was at this point that the Federal Empire was born and the States were reduced to provinces of a single sovereign Empire. Yet the people still pretend that the States, and the union still exists. Bottom line, there are no longer any States, there are only provinces of a single sovereign Empire, thus without States there are no State boarders.
Now lets remove the Empires boarders, allow all to enter and exit at will with no restrictions, thus destroying the sovereignty of the Federal empire, then everyone can still live under the illusion that they still have a Nation, just as they live under the illusion that they still have a union of States, and the constitutional system of government that the founders established.
Problem is that your Empire is Corporately controlled through your two party duopoly, the Corporations must maintain illegal immigration, hence slave like wages, and the ability to move jobs abroad, thus maintaining control over the middle and lower classes. So fear not, nothing will be done that will threaten corporate control.
youtube.com/watch?v=7Lxx1FZNCu0&feature=related
www.immigrationpolicy.org/just-facts/economic-and-political-power-immigrants-latinos-and-asians-all-50-states
www.immigrationpolicy.org/just-facts/new-fbi-data-confirms-falling-crime-rates-arizona
www.elpasotimes.com/juarez/ci_15425614
www.azfamily.com/video/localn...ml?nvid=369691
"to everybody"!!!
This Amendment was no more than an extension of the Federal Empire's destruction of the union of sovereign States, and the establishment of the single sovereign Federal Empire. We were meant to be citizens of the State in which we reside, and as citizens of a State within the Union of States, we fall under the protection of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
We cannot allow someone who comes here ILLEGALLY to take the place of someone who is trying to get here LEGALLY by taking all the right steps.
ILLEGAL ALIENS cost us BILLIONS of tax dollars. They are sucking our education and health care systems dry and they are taking jobs that CITIZENS and LEGAL immigrants want and NEED. The REFORM needs to take place in the countries where these ILLEGAL ALIENS are coming from - why don't you go there to force change?
This Amendment was no more than an extension of the Federal Empire's destruction of the union of sovereign States, and the establishment of the single sovereign Federal Empire. We were meant to be citizens of the State in which we reside, and as citizens of a State within the Union of States, we fall under the protection of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
President Woodrow Wilson