The Immigration Debate Rolls On: The Vietnamese-American Community's View
All right, this debate is starting to get really interesting. It rages on at Polipundit as well. Why do I love the blogosphere? Because it makes good information available that we simply would not find anywhere else. I know that's nothing new to most readers here, but the repeated and unexpected examples of that phenomenon are always surprising and remarkable. That has been true of all the comments below.
Here's the latest one I've seen. Tim Binh of Vietnamese for Fair Immigration
comments to my initial post below on this subject. The comments on my second post below are equally interesting and insightful.
Tim gives us a lot of information. Did you know, for example, that granting citizenship to the American-born children of illegals is a matter of executive order, not Consitutional law? I have not researched that point; can anyone verify or rebut it?
Read this. If you're like me, you'll learn a lot. And-- Tim offers a plan. A real plan, not just "enforce the law and throw out all the illegals." Now, you may disagree with his proposal, but it's a real one and deserves consideration.
This is the kind of debate that needs to happen in Congress. But before it gets there the public needs to have the debate and understand the issues. You will never see this going on in the pages of the L.A. Times or the Washington Post, because they are not equipped to host it. That's one reason why the blogosphere is such a blessing to our public forum.
Here's Tim's comment. Please comment yourselves:
Our organization represents 1 million Vietnamese immigrants. Tamar Jacoby conviently skirts around the biggest problem with President Bush's immigration plan. It is racist.I agree with commenter Gringo Salado, who notes below that playing the race card seems excessive here. Nevertheless, the information is interesting. What do you think?
Under Bush's plan, about 30 million illegal aliens and their dependents would receive green cards after six years. 85% of them will be Hispanic. The percentage of legal/legalized immigrants from one country, Mexico, would rise from the current 30% to over 60%. While waiting for their green cards, adjusted illegal aliens and their dependents would be able to access US public benefits. Any children they have would be granted US citizenship.
On the other hand, only a few hundred Vietnamese would benefit from the Bush plan. Plus, it would indirectly increase the waiting time for Vietnamese extended family immigrants from the current 12 years to over 20 years. While these legal Vietnamese immigrants waited for a green card, they would not have access to US public benefits, nor would any children they have be granted US citizenship.
Yet somehow Bush thinks letting illegal aliens wait 6 years inside the US for a green card while at the same time making legal immigrants wait 20 years outside the US for a green card, is sending illegal aliens "to the back of the line".
President Bush also use the bogus claim that illegal aliens should be allowed to stay, because "their children are US citizens. Neither the Constitution nor Congress has granted them citizenship. Presidents since 1924, when the first US numerical quotas on immigration also created illegal aliens, have by executive decision decided to grant US citizenship to the US born children of illegal aliens. This executive decision could be easily overturned by Congress. This was already done by Presidents Carter and Reagan who decided to NOT grant US citizenship to children of legal Vietnamese immigrants born in US financed refugee camps.
President Bush says Mexicans just want to feed their families. Yet, the average Mexican income is 5 times the average Vietnamese income. Vietnamese want to feed their families also. Family values don't stop at the Rio Grande, and they also most certainly do not stop at the Pacific Coastline. But apparently President Bush thinks they do, that only Mexicans have family values.
This is a very racist and unjust attitude. The non-racist and just thing to do would be to first give the tools to employers to verify who is here legally. Then announce that over a five year period, the government will begin enforcing the CURRENT law against hiring illegal aliens, by industry. Start with the construction industry, then hotels, restaurants, janitorial, landscaping, meat packing, and finally agriculture. Since they will have the tools available, employers will no longer have the excuse they didn't know their workers are illegal. Of course, this means that President Bush will have to fund 2000 instead of 210 Border Patrol agents, and not tie their hands with ridiculous regulations.
At the same time, reduce the waiting time for legal family immigrants to less than five years. Most of these legal immigrants would be willing to perform the "jobs Americans won't do" which illegal aliens are now performing.
To provide another incentive for Mexican illegal aliens to return to Mexico, the US should provide matching funds to Mexico for education, law enforcement, and infrastructure development, so they can have "a better life" in Mexico.
This non-racist, fair plan would reward immigrants that obey the law, rather than those that break it. Businesses would have the labor they claim they need. Everyone would be happy, except for racist ethnic groups like the National Council of LaRaza that want more members.
For more info on this and to see that Americans were willing to deport Vietnamese illegal aliens at least, go to www.fairimmigration.com.
Tim Binh
Vietnamese for Fair Immigration
posted by Lowell Brown at 7:37 AM
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2 Comments:
Interesting points.
But just because children of illegals born in this country are given legal citizenship due to Executive Order instead of Constitutional provision doesn't make them any less of a legal citizen.
I support Mr. Binh's advocacy for Vietnamese Immigrants but I think his characterization of the Bush plan as "racist" is specious at best.
There are a whole host of policies that one can demonstrate disproportionately benefit one ethnic group over another, this alone is not enough to pull out the race card.
Under his logic, to the extent that Mr. Binh wishes policy makers to help his community, his proposals would then be racist also.
Put the race card back in your sleeve Mr. Binh and I will be more inclined to listen to your criticisms.
Posted by Gringo Salado
"Elimination of Discrimination Based on National Origins
.... The use of a national origins system is without basis in either logic or reason. ..... such a system is an anachronism, for it discriminates among applicants for admission into the United States on the basis of accident of birth.
Natives of no one country should receive over 10 percent of the total quota numbers authorized in any one year. This will insure that the pattern of immigration is not distorted by excessive demand from any one country."
These words were spoken by President John Kennedy in 1963 when he asked Congress to eliminate discrimination based upon the existing National Origins Quota Immigration policy.
Many civil rights groups today claim discrimination based on national origins is racism. I base my claims on President Kennedys' speech, and substituted their term in my post for his.
The 14th Amendment was passed in 1868. Until 1924 there were no more than a few illegal aliens in the US. Since 1924, Congress has not defined if the children of illegal aliens are "subject to the Juristiction" of the US as the 14th amendment requires, so the executive branch has made it's own interpretation of the 14th amendment, and decided to grant them US citizenship. Apparently they based this upon an 1898 Supreme Court case which
granted citizenship to the children of LEGAL immigrants.
Yet, to show you how inconsistent this is, the executive branch decided to not grant citizenship to children born to LEGAL Vietnamese immigrants in US financed and controlled Asian refugee camps. In fact, these children are not a citizen on any country, and are called "stateless"! But they do have green cards. At age 18 they can naturalize. Some of them are for example the top US Air Force Academy graduate, but they cannot run for US President, while the children of illegal aliens can!
If Congress does decide that illegal alien babies are not "subject to the Juristiction", then it seems possible this could also be applied to all children under age 18 born to illegal aliens who are still their legal guardians, since their legal guardians are not "subject to the juristiction" of the US, and thus neither entirely are their children.
Those who are abandoned, who have a legal guardian who is a US citizen, or are over 18 would keep their citizenship. Hopefully at age 18 they would be asked to confirm their alliegence to the US.
Posted by Anonymous
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