2006-04-12

My Undocumented Radio Station: An Analogy

2 comments:

Paul Hue said...

Very good analogy. Ultimately, though, I've condluded that illegal residents on balance have provided a net good for the country. Thus, although hypothetically the situation is unjustifiable, I support the following solution:

1) Amnesty, by any name. The leftists claim that they're not asking for amnesty, but they are. I happen to support this, though the criticisms against it are logically correct.

2) Massive increase in Mexican immigration ceiling, and ease of application process.

3) Mexican agreement to free its markets, including permission of non-Mexicans to purchase homes (imagine if US laws forbade illegal Mexican immigrants from purchasing homes!) and privatization of petro resources.

4) Enforcement of immigration laws.

This combination of factors will reduce the need to "secure" the borders; the existing border cops could focus on the greatly reduced illegal crossings.

Paul Hue said...

The analogy here is unassailable. The author could have thrown in some illigal immigrants from Honduras going to Mexico City, since Mexico has a "problem" with people from south of its border illegal crossing into Mexico, working "off the books", etc. Mexico's president wants the US to be more lenient with it's illegal Mexican residents than Mexico is with its treatment of its own illegal immigrants from central America. That is very funny! I doubt that the Central Americans illegally in Mexico City are demanding instant citizenship, and while doing so waving Guatamalan flags; I doubt that Mexicans would kindly regard such an act.

I spent time this weekend with friends -- husband, wife, and daughter -- who immigrated legally here from Colombia. They have attended some of my and Nadir's parties, and their daughter and mine have attended a few of Nadir's concerts and danced on stage with his band. They recently moved to the Miami area after living about 10 years in the Detroit area. I forgot to ask them about their views on this issue, but will make a point of asking them via phone within the next few days. They did offer some fascinating opinions:

1. They are house-hunting in the subburbs of Miami, looking for areas that have a minumum of "latinos". Miami, they say, has "too many latinos." It would be OK if they were all from the same country, but in Miami the latino population comprises "too many different countries." That causes problems, though I couldn't get them to be any more specific than "it's too crazy" and "it's bad."

2. A guy with us was a friend of theirs, an immigrant from Panama. I learned this because I asked if he was from Colombia. This triggered a heated (though humorous) discussion about how many Colombians insist on declaring that Panama is a part of Colombia, as it once was, but that Panamanians generally resent that sentiment and are very adamant about their independance from Colombia.

3. A problem with Miami, they say, is that due to all the latino immigrants, there is a massive problem with dangerous driving. Many of these immigrants never drove until they arrived in the US, and this results in poor and aggressive driving, due to unfamiliarity with "respecting the rights of others."

4. They recently spent nearly three weeks in their home city of Medallin, Colombia. The love their home city, but will not consider returning, as they believe that the US is a better place to live and raise a family.

I intend to call and ask them what they think about the illegal immigration controversy, and report back to y'all!