My Point of View by Brian Hensley

This United States would be a different country if immigration had never occurred. In the earliest days of this country, immigrants from Spain and France began some of the first establishments. In 1607, the first English immigrants established Jamestown. Next came the Pilgrims and the Puritans seeking religious freedoms.

By the 1790s, nearly 700,000 African slaves had been brought, against their wishes, to the Americas.  From the early 1800s to 1860s northern Europeans, many from Ireland, landed in the new states. Next came Germans, nearly 5 million strong. They were looking for a better life, one filled with opportunities. In the mid 1800s, Asians flooded the West Coast looking for their share of the gold buried in the hills.

From 1880 to the 1920s immigrants came from Central Europe and Southern Europe including many from Italy; Jews fled Eastern Europe to the United States before World War I. The Great Depression hit during the ’30s and World War II saw immigration slow.

In 1965, the United States saw a booming population and desired to slow immigration. The government passed many quotas that were based on nationality and family connections that shifted the inflow to mainly Asian and Latin American countries and away from the European influx.

Immigrants built this country. They provided the needed physical work and entrepreneurial spirit that turned the United States into the industrial engine that fueled the growth in this country. That growth allowed for the quality of living that many in this country enjoy today.

The next president of the United States and members of Congress must tackle the issue of immigration. Americans have debated this issue and very little progress has been made over the past decade.

The debate should to focus on two issues: illegal immigration and legal immigration. Both require very different tactics because they are very different things.

Immigrants have made this country great in the past and will be the key to helping to replenish an aging workforce and helping to sustain the economic engine that the United States is going to require if it wishes to remain a global power. Immigrants from across the globe including Latin America, Asia, Europe and Africa will bring a renewed spirit, different beliefs, different customs and some wonderful new ideas that may spark innovation, collaboration and discoveries that will change the world.

The smartest and often the hardest working from across the globe want to come to the United States to be educated and to experience freedom. The United States should welcome these immigrants with open arms. We should provide for a robust, welcoming, legal way for immigrants that want to improve their own lives, their families, their home country and this country to enter the United States and stay if they choose. This will not be an inexpensive program, or process, but it would be one that would spark America like the waves of immigrants have over the past 400 years.

Illegal immigration to the United States is a completely different manner. Where we were welcoming for legal immigrants we should be the opposite for illegal entrants. Those that cross our borders illegally should know that the United States respects the rule of law. We shouldn’t coddle those that come illegally. The borders should be made secure.

The most difficult question that America must face is for those that are currently in the United States illegally what should be done. Studies suggest approximately 11.2 million individuals are here illegally. They constitute approximately 5 percent of the U.S. workforce. Seven percent of K-12 students have one parent here illegally. Families should not be separated. But amnesty is not an American way. Rewards are earned, and passes are not given away freely.

The solutions must be implemented in a multi-step process. First, the borders of the United States must be secured. This will prevent additional illegal immigration, from any country, to occur. No solution can occur without this first step. Secondly, once the security of our borders is ensured, then those here illegally must be allowed to become productive citizens. This will occur by registering as a non-citizen, paying taxes, and earning other privileges of citizenship over time. Finally, the best and brightest minds from around the globe must be encouraged to come to the United States, for their children to attend our universities and colleges. The must be encouraged to start companies, grow businesses, start families and help shape the future of the United States.

Our country has a strong and proud history of immigration. It hasn’t been easy for the immigrant, but making a better life for one’s family is never easy. The Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island greeted many of our relatives in the past. Once our borders are secured, America should be so fortunate to again start down a path of welcoming the next great Americans.

 

Brian Hensley is chairman of the Freeborn County Republican Party.