The subject of illegal immigration continues to be just below the boiling point with many people. I have found many with very strong opinions — some in agreement with me — others opposed. In response to my last column on illegal immigration, I got into a very lively disagreement on the subject.
One person on Facebook told me that Mexicans have a right to be here because “this was once their country.” In response I posted a map off the Native American website. That map gave the territories of all the Native American tribes. Native Americans didn’t believe in land ownership as we do. But that didn’t mean they didn’t have their territories, which is why a member of one tribe could only lead white explorers so far and then left them on their own.
In what is the now the state of Texas, a large percentage of the land was Comanche territory. West of the Comanches was Apache land. Part of Texas did belong to Mexico, but that land, along with disputed Comanche territory, was gained by the U.S. in the Mexican-American War. As the saying goes, “to the victor goes the spoils.”
To those that want to use “this was once their country” logic, then it should also mean that the English, French and Spaniards can claim free reign to immigrate here, legally or not, since this was once their land as well. And let’s not forget the Italians because they can play their Christopher Columbus “discovered it first” card.
Another FB friend raised the 14th Amendment, put into place to guarantee black people the right to citizenship. It says, “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside.” The “and subject to” clause needs to be put before the Supreme Court. If the parents are foreign nationals who can call on the consulates of their native countries while living here illegally, how can their children be U.S. citizens when their parents are not “subject to,” especially when our laws are based on English Common Law?
And how could POTUS Barack Obama’s aunt Zeituni Onyango come here on a tourist visa and end up living in a government-subsidized senior citizen apartment while collecting $700 a month in Social Security? I’m sorry folks, but until she died (after collecting an additional $51,000 in disability funds) every senior who busted their butts for years paying into Social Security should be irate. Every American veteran who put his or her life on the line should be irate. All taxpayers who can never qualify for any benefits should be irate that our system is so vulnerable to foreign nationals that they can come here and abuse it. Imagine some country sending planeloads of seniors to come here for a visit and they all begin to demand a government apartment and money to live on?
From the moment slavery ended, this country has used immigration against the former slaves. From the 1860s through the 1882 Chinese Exclusion act, it was the Chinese. Then in the late 1800s and early 1900s, it was the importation of impoverished Europeans. With every new group that arrived in America, the former slaves and their descendants were stepped on as others climbed the ladder of success.
The same is going on today. All one has to do is pay attention to the current bilingual English-Spanish America. I still think back to 2002 when a friend didn’t apply for a job for which she was qualified because it wanted a bilingual individual.
How many jobs will black folks be self-eliminated from because of a Spanish/English requirement? When a job ad for a Lead Banquet Waiter says the person must speak Spanish and English, I would be most worried about the waiter who can’t speak English well enough to understand a guest’s inquiry about specific food allergies.
The Statue of Liberty was a gift from France to America and was never meant to represent immigration. The words on it were the result of a poem written by poet Emma Lazarus in honor of the statue.
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