Washington, D.C., appears to have decided that fixing its badly broken immigration system is either beyond its capabilities or becomes fodder for a political duel in an environment of retribution logic. As I’ve written before, those looking for true conservative ideas should be prepared to wait a long time.
True conservative values include a rational, pragmatic approach to complex and vexing issues. yes. Immigration is complex and messy. We have apparently gone from having a completely open border and allowing anyone to cross to locking up people who have lived and worked here for 70 years, as was recently done with Polish immigrants in Florida.
As for the state of Florida, supposed to be the home of conservative thought, by accepting and passing the DREAM policy, it reversed the DREAM concept, which was based on granting illegal minors brought to the United States as children highly conditional temporary residency rights, with the right to attend school and work. Note that the DREAM Act was strongly supported by conservative Republicans before 2015.
And we now find ourselves in a policy mess. Oh, what a complicated web is woven when politicians use politics to influence their agendas. When was the last time you heard voices calling for an overhaul of the legal immigration system in Washington, DC? Abolish the H1B? Why not fix it so that our economy can benefit from the talent we need and the people doing the jobs we need?
Some may retort, “Oh, but they’re taking jobs away that Americans should be filling!” We analyze demographic trends and study how difficult it is to fill needed positions in the economy in so many sectors.
In my opinion, part of the reason California’s truck driver’s license has been such a fiasco is because of the high demand for drivers and the lack of applicants. Like good policy, bad policy fills a void. Why do we keep choosing the bad one?
I fear that we will be forever waiting for some kind of sensibility in our approach to immigration. The story of Central Florida, where a 79-year-old refugee from a post-World War II camp in Poland is currently being held by ICE, reveals how foolishly we treat extremely complex variables. His family brought him here legally in 1952, when he was 5 years old.
Come on, DC! We are better than this! Why not make an honest and serious effort to find the comprehensive fix you need? Our economy needs it.
