April 28 , 2006

Letter to the Editor
Alumnus weighs in on immigration

When I sat in Andrews Hall during the days that dinosaurs roamed the Earth, Dr. O'Donnell took great pains to impress upon our half-awake minds how America was born. I will now attempt to cleverly segue to actor Bill Murray in the motion picture "Stripes," who pointed out to his fellow Army recruits that the U.S. was founded by "the wretched refuse"; our ancestors had been kicked out of the finest European countries and put on boats to the "New World." While Murray's comments are humorous and somewhat of a romantic notion, the harsh reality of 21st century life in America dictates that immigration be looked at in a far more serious nature. I am not an Isolationist, but I do believe that the illegal immigration problem is a threat to the American way of life and a true threat to our collective well being.

Several weeks ago, I sat in my living room and watched open-mouthed as thousands of illegal aliens, carrying their homeland's flags, marched in our streets demanding the right to stay in the America. It was a cruel irony that I was watching people who had knowingly broken the law by crossing into our country illegally, demonstrating for the right to stay here, in a country founded on and run by the rule of law. I think it should be noted that in many of the countries that these demonstrators were from, such actions would cause them to be thrown in the slammer quicker than you can say habeas corpus. These demonstrations reached into my psyche and crystallized the immigration issue for me; the problem is composed of two separate, yet interdependent factors: immigrants and geography.

First, illegal aliens, while doing some jobs that American workers do not want to do are causing a negative economic impact on our economy. Forgetting about taxes not paid for wages under the table or government services such as medical care, schooling, and the like being expended on non-citizens, true jobs are being withheld from Americans who do want to work. A perfect example of this manpower quagmire is in the Katrina-ravaged Gulf Coast area, where many Americans are being turned away from reconstruction work due to the influx of cheaper illegal workers from Mexico.

I should point out that some illegal immigrants from Mexico are being assisted in their quest for the American dream by the Mexican government, who has put out literature and a video about how to cross the American borders and in some cases has utilized the Mexican Army to assist in the crossings. Second, and to me the most important factor is the issue of geography, and by that I mean our borders. In addition to illegal workers sneaking into the "home of the brave," the question should be asked as to who else and what else is crossing our borders.

September 11th was a brutal wake up call that harm can come to us from any direction. We would naive and in fact stupid to think that something like that could never happen again. We need our government to control, monitor, and police our borders, even if it requires the use of troops to do so. I would like some piece of mind and know that when I turn off the lights at night that there are Americans out there watching over us; watching so that some lunatic with a nuke in a backpack is not thinking of trying to cross the Rio Grande at 4 A.M..

The quotation on the Statue of Liberty, which was applicable those many years ago, reads "Give me your poor, your tired, your huddled masses." I have found no mention about us closing our eyes and hoping that everything works itself out for the best.

Jeff Slater '75