Dear Editor,
Our present immigration activities are either an incredible wasted opportunity or a diversion for something more dangerous. Regarding the wasted opportunity, the present administration controls both houses of congress, the presidency, and for all practical purposes the Supreme Court. Why, with that much control, don’t we hear a single word about legislating one of the major issues that brought them into power. Besides mass deportation, and blocking Muslims and dark skinned people, what does our immigration policy look like? The present program of infiltrating the country with masked agents carrying military grade weaponry, rounding up anyone who looks non-white and placing them in inhuman conditions, and in the process provoking chaos, is not an efficient use of money or political capital. If the administration were serious about immigration and its abuses, they would go after the employers. I can imagine that employers being fined $1,000 per day for every undocumented worker would soon be hammering their legislators to come up with some legal way to keep their people on the job. Dairy farm associations, meat packers, vegetable farmers and others have clearly stated that we need an immigration system that allows for a reservoir of workers and that also allows them to have longitudinal presence on their job. Instead of spending $170 billion on this divisive program, imagine having an administrative system that is humane and efficient.
Now for the dangerous part. If what we are doing is neither good for the country, or the economy, or our national reputation, why are we doing it? The end product of our present system is a network of ICE offices and detention centers around the country manned by a secret police answerable only to the president. Donald Trump tried to overturn the last election he lost. He won the past election with less than 50% of the vote and his party is not doing well in off-year elections or approval rating polls. Seeing the writing on the wall he has demanded that, mid-census, Republican states re-draw their election districts to favor him. His justice department is demanding voter information from every state, for what purpose? Both of which are unprecedented. Lately he is demanding passage of the SAVE act which will address a problem we don’t have and in the process disenfranchise a large part of the voting population. Combine these with the possibility of swarms of masked federal agents known for their brutality showing up at polling places and perhaps he will get what he clearly strives for, unbridled power without the accountability of having to respond to the needs of the citizens.
Lew Lama
Wyoming Township, WI