Coming as I do from a family of refugees from Bangladesh displaced by partition and settled in India for a couple of generations, immigration legal, illegal, enforced, or by choice is always of interest to me. My ancestors were driven out of their homeland and had to start their lives over in a new country. Years after the 1947 refugee crisis was over, the tide of illegal immigrants from Bangladesh to West Bengal, India rises unabated.
The semi-porosity of the international border and the government's studied indifference to the problem only helps these people who desperately seek a better life. Once in India, they form a formidable vote-bank that no political party can afford to alienate itself from. They derive their strength in their large, undocumented numbers and just for that reason the free flow from across the border will never stem.
Anyone who has spent time in West Bengal knows that an impoverished neighbor and electoral math involving illegal immigrants is a lethal combination. We bemoan the state's appalling lack of infrastructure and how it is the least favored destination for domestic or international investors. We watch helplessly as the swelling ranks of illegals overtake what little the state has got left — it is akin to watch a parasite grow so large that it kills the host it feeds on. We wait for that slow death to deliver our state from its debilitating status quo.
The storm of protests over the US immigration bill fills me with deja vu. With some variations, there is the same fatal mix of an impoverished neighbor and electoral math. Only in India illegal immigrants would not so boldly proclaim that an enforcement-only policy is not acceptable to them. Also, in India we do not have a large body of people working diligently through legitimate channels to acquire permanent residency and citizenship.
Granting any form of general amnesty to illegal immigrants in America is a slap on the face of those who have and are pursuing the long, arduous, and mind-numbingly painful immigration process. It is as much a mockery of the immigration system in this country as it is of all those who are involved in it.
The real solution lies in eliminating the root cause of such exodus from one country to another — in helping the impoverished, sometimes relatively dysfunctional neighbor improve their lot and set their house in order, so their people would have no incentive left to cross the border. Because once they do and their numbers swell to 11 million and over, the electoral math will render it impossible to remediate the situation as is evident in the ongoing struggle with the immigration bill.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - RedTard
The electoral math is being done now and the number of protesters in the streets tells me politicians will find a way not to do anything. The time to do something about this problem passed a decade ago.
2 - Nancy
The author is right in one regard: the politicians are whores running after what they perceive as a new voting block. The irony is, if they enforce the immigration laws & deport all these illegals, there IS no new voting block, since no illegal or non-citizen can vote. The question raised in my mind is, how many of those registered to vote are voting illegally, with the help of falsified, forged IDs? I suspect large numbers of "legal" votes in the recent past elections are actually illegal, because those voting are illegal, and certainly not bona fide citizens.
3 - RedTard
"The real solution lies in eliminating the root cause of such exodus from one country to another " in helping the impoverished , sometimes relatively dysfunctional neighbor improve their lot and set their house in order, so their people would have no incentive left to cross the border."
Much easier said than done. Mexico is a corrupt, would be third world shithole if not for it's close proximity and trade relations with the US. They're too corrupt for money at the top and we already export mucho dollars at the bottom to no avail. Pumping money into that system only serves to prolong it, and only Mexicans citizens can change it.
Perhaps we could help them best by building a wall and stopping the flow of impoverished dissidents into this country. Maybe all those looking for a better life will quit running to the US and instead make a difference in their own country.
4 - Nancy
Either that or maybe we should start billing Vincente Fox for dumping all his trash in our yard - and make sure we collect, too. Also, you say Mexico is a "wannabe 3rd-world shithole". You're wrong there: Mexico has long actualized its position as a leading 3rd-world shithole. No "wannabe" about it.
5 - Victor Plenty
Yes! Build a wall! The most free and admirable regimes in history have all built walls. The Ming Dynasty had their Great Wall, and of course the Ming Dynasty is still in power today, right? The Roman Empire had Hadrian's Wall, and everybody loves the Romans! The East Germans had the Berlin Wall, which is really a great example for us to follow. Of course let's not forget the French and their super-duper Maginot Line, which contributed so much to the modern French reputation for military victory.
All of these are remembered by historians as completely successful efforts to seal off one part of the planet's surface from all the other parts. We should waste no time in joining their august company.
Just give me enough warning to get on the other side of this sparkling new wall, so I don't end up stuck on the same side with Nanzi and Red.
6 - troll
naturally I'd prefer moats with draw bridges
troll
7 - RedTard
Great moronic analogies batman. Gee I suppose since the Romans and Nazi Germany had roads then those must be bad too.
8 - Victor Plenty
Roads work. Walls don't.
9 - RedTard
Ever tried building a house or prison without them?
10 - Victor Plenty
Ah, a prison! What a revealing example!
11 - heartcrossings
As much as a physical barrier(walls, invisible fences that electrocute, moats filled with gators) seems like the option of choice, desperate people resort to desperate measures. Barriers do not stop them. They are fearless because they have nothing left to lose.
As RedTard points out, electoral math is already at work given the size of the protests and rallies. It will be very surprising if any "comprehensive immigration reform" will come about.
One option that come to mind - instead of outsourcing IT work to China and India send it near-shore to Mexico. If the Indian example is any indication, Mexican economy could be transformed beyond recognition.
12 - RedTard
As a military tool they are useless, when you want to seperate poulations they work great. I have walls on my house to keep people from walking in, using and taking my stuff and eating my food. That's exactly what our border wall is for, to prevent people from coming and taking advantage of our programs.
In our old system with more unregulated capitalism, lower population, a great manifest destiny to fulfull, and almost no safety net mass immigration was fine, they'd come here and either integrate or starve. Now they come here, never learn english, have 5 kids, jump on foodstamps and housing assistance, overstrain our school and medical infrastructure, and drive down wages for our native born poor and uneducated.
At one time we had massive amounts of land and resources and little population, now that is starting to be reversed. Things change and attitudes need to change with them, who's conservative now?
13 - Victor Plenty
I've always been conservative, but a real one, not recognized by the fakes in power who have stolen the term to describe themselves.
Border walls, just like door locks and gun laws, only restrict the freedom of the honest. The dishonest will find ways over, under, around, or through them, just as they always have.
If we want real border security for the United States, we can get the border crossers to document their movements for us. All we have to do is establish a reward of legal status as guest workers for those who let us know they are coming here to work. If we do that, we can focus on keeping out actual security risks, who might try to enter in numbers ranging from the dozens to the hundreds.
We will utterly fail to secure anything if we expend all our resources attempting to keep out millions of workers. All we would achieve by that is to reduce our own freedom, and the freedom of other honest people who pose no real threat to anyone.
14 - heartcrossings
Then there is the argument that locals will not work the low-paying jobs that the illegals from across the border take. The country would grind to a halt if indeed all illegals were hounded out.
At the grassroot level one way to stem the tide is for Americans to aggressively go after those menial jobs until the competition is driven out. That might be a Gandhian solution to the problem.
15 - RedTard
You're right, security devices don't stop anyone who is hellbent on doing something, they make it more difficult. We need to make legal immigration easier and illegal more difficult to the point where people will choose legal channels.
Right now we can't enforce any standards of immigration because it is easier to simply walk across the border than to even fill out any guest worker papers.
16 - RedTard
"Then there is the argument that locals will not work the low-paying jobs"
Which is total garbage. In the 80's there was 10% of the illegal Mexicans there are now and people's yards still got mowed and construction work still got done. How did that happen if Americans weren't doing it?
American's won't take those jobs at third world prices. Our doctor's and lawyer's wouldn't take comparable Mexican wages either.
Either way, my problems with illegal immigration is not based on jobs, wages, and benefits. I worry about allowng the creation of a seperate subculture with a different language, religion, and value system within our country. That has been a recipe for disaster every time it has been tried.
17 - Guppusmaximus
Redtard is correct in that aspect about jobs & wages and I do agree with him about the cultural invasion but I also agree with Victor that a wall isn't going to work even though I do like the idea( Actually, the mout was better). Considering our Government hasn't come up with any real solutions either, Maybe we can shoot 'em all...I mean it is an invasion...isn't it??
18 - Nancy
I don't know why any of us is worrying about it. The politicians are going to do whatever they damn well please, which is probably to stall & do nothing - at the very least, til after elections, and probably forever if they can finagle it. If they have to do something, they'll go whoring after the illegals, because that's a helluva lot of new constituants to shovel BS at & wangle votes from dumb peasants fresh off the boat (so to speak) who don't know any better.
The illegals will continue to stream in, settle down, & breed, thereby perpetuating the very situation they've tried to escape from, since they will also immediately send their kids to free public schools, & register at the food banks, use the hospital emergency rooms as primary physicians' offices, and demand help with public-assisted housing, transportation, etc. - all in Spanish, of course, and free.
The rest of us will continue to pay our increasing taxes (unless we're among the very wealthy, in which case Dubya will see to it we get tax cuts) which foot the bill for all these lovely freebies, barricade ourselves against the MS-13 home invaders & muggers, & watch this country go down the toilet.
19 - Arch Conservative
My name is Pancho
I live on a rancho,
I make five pseos a day,
I see Maria,
She sleep with meee-ah,
She take my five pesos away
20 - zingzing
that was dumb.
21 - Richard Brodie
At 300 million we are running out of water. The sun simply cannot evaporate from the oceans, and deliver enough precipitation to the headwaters of our limited number of rivers, to be able to supply with adequate water, a population very much bigger than what this country already has.
Quite apart from the cultural wreckage it is wreaking on our nation, the importation of millions of third world Hispanics every year, who breed extremely rapidly, is a deomgraphic recipe which will strain to the point of collapse every single one of our crucially important existing physical infrastructures.
We can repel this invasion and thus preserve the Golden Age of the United States as an inheritance for our posterity, or we can just give in without any resistance, and resign ourselves to leaving our children and grandchildren with the bleak prospect of a nation on the path of an inexorable descent into becoming just one more miserable, densely populated third world country.
22 - zingzing
richard brodie, paranoid man in a cheap shit room: they're stealing our water!
hispanics "breed extremely rapidly?" "breed?"
and what's this "Golden Age of the United States"
you're living in a paranoid, animalistic dream-scape.
my family has been here less than 100 years. we were immigrants. this country has ALWAYS been a country of immigrants. it's what made it what it is. just because you don't like the new immigrants doesn't mean a damn thing. you don't get to say. these same arguments were being had 100 years ago. and my family didn't march peacefully, they fought in the fucking streets. we murdered and burned and stole. the country will change to suit its reality. always has, always will.
repel the invasion! go ahead. murder a mexican. go to jail. have fun!
23 - Arch Conservative
You only got o jail if you get caught.
24 - zingzing
yeah man. kill em all.
cool! somethin' shiny!
25 - Arch Conservative
The key word is illegal.
We're against ILLEGALS, not immigrants Zing
Get it straight.