Posted on 02/16/2008 8:35:06 PM PST by kathsua
I now have tasted the good life. Sunshine. Leisure. Camaraderie. Bare legs in January. Time to kill.
Five days as a "winter Texan" is an experience that is old hat to many of my generation including a number of my friends. But it was new to me.
Life at the border is different - culturally, racially, linguistically. It features a diversity well established. A diversity much of our European-settled nation is just now experiencing.
And it seems to work. My hosts saw nothing strange about breakfast at Chapita's in Harlingen, Texas, lunch across the border at Garcia's in Nuevo Progreso, Mexico, and dinner at Pepe's Backyard on the River. It was just another day at the border.
Nuevo Progreso seems to be a city dedicated totally to the doing of business with the "winter Texans." Lots of shops, lots of drugstores and lots of dental offices. The concentration of medical services surprised me. It should tell us something.
Five days certainly qualifies no one as an expert on immigration issues. But in that time, one can observe enough to ask some questions. And see some reality. And wonder about all those casting opinions about with even less experience and knowledge.
During our stay, a mother with two teenage sons attempted to swim the river near the Progreso bridge. The 13-year-old drowned. One has to wonder about the desperation that drove this family to such a tragic end. And one sees that desperation on the streets of Nuevo Progreso.
The immigration debate in the U.S., while finding agreement on little else, seems to be moving toward a consensus that we need to make a strong effort to control our border. Homeland security demands that we know better who is entering our country. Without considering the issues of quotas or guest workers or paths to citizenship, improved border control seems desirable.
Yet, we should beware of the simplifiers who would have us believe this is only a policy decision. It will be darned tough to implement. Only an estimated half of illegal immigration comes through the Mexican border. Border control doesn't even touch those who outstay their student visas or who convert temporary residency status into something more permanent. Nor does it affect those who enter in hundreds of other places in our country.
When two peoples exist side-by-side, united in heritage and culture and language, with one relatively affluent and the other in abject poverty, and separated only by a thin stream of water, problems can be expected. And yet more order at the border is imperative. Unfortunately, some of the current legalistic bomb-throwing seems designed simply to garner votes from those who confuse rhetoric with results.
The river isn't the only problem. Highway 77 parallels the gulf for many miles north of Harlingen. Mesquite as far as the eye can see. A helicopter is overhead and plenty of Border Patrol is on the ground. But obviously the effort is not totally successful. Maybe the fence and the electronic stuff will work. But it appears to me to be a formidable task.
Immigration is a tough issue. I am as conflicted as most people are concerning an appropriate course of action. I hear Lou Dobbs and those who share his viewpoint rail about the issue believing it is destroying our nation. I don't question their sincerity.
In another responsibility, I listen to Kansas employers decry the shortage of skilled labor and even the shortage of trainable people with an adequate work ethic to supply workforce needs.
I hear economic development professionals say that development cannot occur in sparsely populated areas without more people.
I read comments by Bishop Jackels suggesting the need to balance our desire for border control with the necessity for Christian compassion and the "right of people to migrate in search of what is needed to live in human dignity."
I listen to demographers present data indicating the birth rate in the U.S. is at population maintenance and that all growth is now dependent upon immigration.
I envy those we hear from so frequently who have all of the answers and who are so sure of their correctness. Ideological purity can be comfortable. It eliminates the need for thinking. And thinking can be uncomfortable.
Trying to understand the viewpoints of others is difficult. Weighing the needs of multiple sectors and the needs of various geographic areas is not easy. Balancing the need for immigration control with our values is trying. But like many of our problems, if the solution were easy it would have been found long ago.
It might be easier just to head south again. Deciding between fishing or a trip to the dog track seems easier. The weather is better. The good life beckons.
Ignoring problems is something we all do pretty well.
Jack Wempe grew up in the Hutchinson area and is a former educator, state legislator and member of the Kansas Board of Regents now living in Lyons. E-mail: jwempe1@cox.net.
Do you get over from DU often??
I don’t buy the “work Americans won’t do” meme. That’s BS. Americans will do ANY job for a fair market wage. What an illegal alien from a third-world nation will accept as a wage, and the standards he is willing to live under, should not be the baseline for unskilled labor wages. These business owners who hire illegals because they’re too cheap to offer a proper wage to Americans are crooks, pure and simple. The only reason they can drive the market down to that pittance is because the illegals are supported by a slew of subsidies that are wrested from you and me.
Gee. I guess it’s time for a solution.
Like comprehensive immigration reform?
Yes, that's why most liberals -- like the author, apparently -- engage in ideological purity.
There's nothing ideological in wanting to make sure that the people living and working in this country assimilate to First World standards of conduct, sobriety, honesty, and cleanliness; and then assimilate to the mores and political ideals of the United States before politely asking for the chance to earn citizenship.
Just because a disproportionate share of people coming from one particular country to our south fall far short of this, does not make ME a racist. It is cultural, not genetic.
Cheers!
[ These “jobs that Americans won’t do” are the same jobs I was doing until I was 25 while going to college. ]
I hear you. These jobs were a rite of passage for boys becoming men.
Now they have been taken over by a subculture. My nephew was a “Mexican Roofer” last summer and he was the only Gringo on the crew.
In Montana white boys do all those jobs, and well. There aren’t a whole lot of illegal Mexicans up here.
You are buying the lies of the left, I worked in one of those meatpacking plants for five years in the early 70s when they still paid good money, they didn’t have any problem getting white boys to work there. It wasn’t long after that that the wages went down, and the plants filled up with illegals.
Why doesn't he just come out and say what he's inferring here?
Ping of interest about the ‘area’ ,Progresso, not the rest of the topic.
“First World standards of conduct, sobriety, honesty, and cleanliness;” In other words you are saying tv misrepresents the number of drunk, dishonest and dirty citizens who live on big city streets.
BAck when I was in college the custom wheat harvesters hired citizens to help them. Today they have to bring in legal temporary workers to do the job.
The author implies that because I want to strengthen our border I am not only nazi-esque, but also an unthinking idiot. Screw him for his ignorance!
We could indeed have a much better immigration situation if we enforced the border and did a lot more internal enforcement. Then the average Mexican could come and visit any day they wanted and be welcome. That would be great.
Right now..the middle class Mexican can’t come for a visit because we don’t do enforcement of overstays.
We could also well regualte the guest worker visas and have the labor that is needed..legal and protect from explotation by companies willing to hire anyone cheaper.
There is a middle ground..but the open borders people don’t want to acknowledge that the middle ground means good enforcement..for the sake of everyone.
We could indeed have a much better immigration situation if we enforced the border and did a lot more internal enforcement. Then the average Mexican could come and visit any day they wanted and be welcome. That would be great.
Right now..the middle class Mexican can’t come for a visit because we don’t do enforcement of overstays.
We could also well regualte the guest worker visas and have the labor that is needed..legal and protect from explotation by companies willing to hire anyone cheaper.
There is a middle ground..but the open borders people don’t want to acknowledge that the middle ground means good enforcement..for the sake of everyone.
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