Reform America - American Borders Forum

How Can A "Nation Of Immigrants" Be Isolationist?: Left of Center View

America is a country of contradictions: we go to war to preserve the peace, we promote free trade through taxes and tariffs and rally against welfare and national healthcare, but fanatically promote Medicare and Social Security. So it makes perfect sense that a nation of immigrants wants to close the borders.

To be fair, it isn't clear that the nation is against immigration, the media sure as hell is, but the people in general probably are no so more today than they were a hundred years ago. On an individual interaction level people seem generally more concerned with personality than origin. You meet the family next door and your first judgments are based on your interactions with them, not their nationality. True, if they seem standoffish or hostile, we quickly attribute it to our differences, usually cultural, but if they are friendly and hospitable a friendship can form despite the language barrier.

As a species we tend to fear the unknown. It is simple to blame and difficult to understand. Scapegoating foreign nationals is an easy way to us to ignore the real troubles of society today. Unemployment is because someone else took your job. So of course we blame the person overseas who took the job offered or to the person here who was desperate enough to work for less. Why is it we seldom think to blame the person who actually took the job away and moved it somewhere else simply so they could benefit? Factories move overseas, entire communities are devastated, and we seldom blame the corporate executive that made the decision.

It is hard for us to blame the corporate executive, America's version of royalty, because we all see a little of ourselves in that position. It is in essence the American Dream to one day have substantial wealth. So year after year, tax breaks are passed for the uber-wealthy, simply because we all plan/hope to join their ranks one day soon.

Basically what it boils down to is that people in power tend to want to stay there. The more power they have, generally the more tricks they have to maintain it. Now the easiest way to lose power and possessions is to piss people off. Make enough people angry and you will fall. Unfortunately to amass a great fortune, you must also amass a great deal of ill will as well. However, if you can misdirect the anger your greed can cause, you can actually benefit from it. This is why every ruling class since the dawn of time has tried to find ways to turn the populace against itself. The plan is simple; we fight each other and leave them alone. How else can you explain a nation of immigrants supporting separatism?

Kyle Pesonen - Staff Writer | E-mail Comments on this column. | Click icon to Digg this article

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How Can A "Nation Of Immigrants" Be Isolationist?: Right of Center View

Americans are not isolationist. We welcome immigrants who follow the rules and do it the right way provided their immigration to the U.S. does not harm Americans already here. What many of us do see as problems are foreign workers driving down wages by taking once American-held jobs and doing them for lower wages and illegal immigrants draining our national resources by using public services but not paying income taxes because they work under the table. Some people who are labeled by liberals as "isolationist" are simply concerned that we are having difficulty meeting the economic needs of Americans and want to make sure we meet the needs of the people rightfully here before we try to meet the needs of people that aren’t here yet or those who came here illegally.

When illegal immigrants come into the workforce they drive down wages for everyone and tax public resources disproportionately due to a lack of payment of income taxes. Because of their status they are willing to do jobs off the books so they can stay under the radar. If they stay here long enough chances are that some lawmaker will pass some amnesty bill as has been done in the past. All they have to do is stay under the radar of immigration officials long enough to have the political tide flowing in their favor. In the meantime, American citizens are not hired to do the jobs and even when they are the wages are so low that they cannot make a real living on them which drives down the standard of living for American workers. Additionally when they work under the table they are not paying income taxes which support public resources they use in their daily lives even if they don’t get government aid. They use the roads and water system and other resources paid for by income taxes but they don’t pay them.

Programs like the H-1B Visa program also hurt American workers during period of high unemployment like we are currently experiencing because Americans cannot get the jobs foreign workers have been brought in from abroad to do. People oppose the program because it negatively impacts their friends and neighbors. We want the government to cut H-1B off until such time as all eligible American workers have been employed and there is a shortage of workers to fill the positions. Unemployment is almost 10% in America right now. We have Americans losing their homes on a daily basis because they are out of work. The last thing we need is more workers in America. It’s not isolationist to recognize reality. The reality of the situation is that we are struggling as a nation to make ends meet. Until we meet our own needs we should be cautious about bringing more mouths to feed into the country.

The Realist - Patriot at Large | E-mail Comments on this column. | Click icon to Digg this article

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A Legal Immigrant’s Perspective

If you are not a Native American, you are an immigrant, so am I. I came legally to this country at the age of five with my parents who worked hard, paid taxes (even Jesus paid taxes), lived by the rules of this great nation and never took or accepted a penny from the government. We came seeking FREEDOM from a communist country. It was months before we were able to enter the US legally. I remember us getting medical exams, shots (small pox), background check, references, and going through numerous interviews once we arrived. I also remembered people coming to the US from all over the world who waited years since it was based on "Quotas". Read more...

Solving Our Immigration Problem

The major problem our country is facing with illegal immigrants today is because of the exploitation of these immigrants. We believe the solution to this problem is two-fold. First, we should allow more immigrants in this country to cut down on the number of illegal ones. Second, all immigrants should be educated about their rights at the expense of the government. Below, you will find an in-depth look at our suggested reforms.

Reforms for immigration limitations:

-New immigrants can't equal more than 1% of the US population in a given year (the population being from the last recorded census). That 1% will be further divided up to allow only a certain number of immigrants each month.
-Each country of origin for immigrants will be allowed a certain percentage of that 1%. No country could receive more than 10% of the total amount and no country can receive less than .1% of it. The left over percentage will be divided up between all countries as follows: Read more...

Do Elements Within the La Raza Movement Pose a Threat to America?

La Raza means literally “The Race” in Spanish. The movement was formed in 1968 to promote the interests of the Mexican-American community. Like the NAACP and other affirmative-action minded organizations, La Raza has many members that are interested in being part of America and promoting equality for all Americans. The fundamental goals as stated by the movement are benign and represent the ideals of American diversity and cultural pride.

There is another movement affiliated with La Raza that has historically been more militant and still maintains documents within their organization that point to isolationistic views Read More

A Plan

The one major thing that seems to be lacking in the immigration debate is a real plan that addresses the legitimate concerns with illegal immigration. There are strong opinions on both sides and a lot of rhetoric but there isn’t really any solid plan being promoted to address the illegal immigration issue in a way that is both fair and logical.

So, that being said here is my idea:Read More

Trucking Cross Borders

This is mainly a concern for the trucking business. If we allow these people to come into our country, bringing cargo that we in America have, and can supply, then we are saying that the American working people are not needed, and have lost all say to legally enforced DOT (Department of Transportation) laws.Read More