PATH TO CITIZENSHIP

Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me:
I lift my lamp beside the golden door

The crisis at our border is that we blew out the lamp’s fire, but we can relight it.

We all know the right thing to do. The candidates of either party want their power and need your votes to get it. So, they refuse to stand against their polls and do the right thing- because they believe us to be too unintelligent and too unethical to change our views. I know better. The moral fiber and the integrity of our politicians has been replaced by electability scenarios and market research. Suffering people come to our country to find sanctuary- they have since our inception, and all our founding documents and the very soul of our country demand we provide it. You’ve been fooled by “leaders” who use these poor people as pawns merely to advance a political agenda and create paper tigers, they transform these powerless souls into demons to be despised, abused, and stripped of their humanity. I believe in us, and I will expose the myths you’re being taught about immigrants. Once you know the truth you will understand that smart immigration makes this nation stronger, richer, and safer. 

The history of this country IS the history of immigrants. From pilgrims escaping persecution, to Dutch seeking wealth, to slaves oppressed even after being freed, to Catholics seeking freedom, to French seeking trade, to Irish escaping famine, to Chinese escaping poverty, to Poles seeking work, to Jews escaping violence, to Arabs seeking safety, and on and on and on. Our Declaration of Independence could not come from any other place on earth. Its revolutionary decree was not the one dissolving the bond from England, it was the declaration that all men were created equal, that this equality was self-evident, and this right was not given by any man thus no man could take it and thus no man could rule forcibly over another. To declare the radical notion of equality as a birthright is an idea that could only be forged in the fires of a country of immigrants. That from the moment of our nation’s birth it was put forth that every person born, be they born in America, Europe, Africa, or Asia, is equal was a brave and noble enterprise. As it was put so brazenly in our founding document, we define ourselves as a nation on our treatment of the immigrants coming to this country. It is our foundation, it is our identity, and it must be our present and our future. 

I think I need to finish this thing up. At this point we all understand a bit about the border situation. I don’t have to tell you of the morally reprehensible treatment we’ve seen from our government on immigrants, their family unit, and their children. I shouldn’t have to point out that I know of no religion that doesn’t teach us to provide for our fellow man, even for those we consider enemies. I shouldn’t have to explain that the vast majority of natural born citizens have never made a 2,500-mile trek from Nicaragua to Texas to secure the safety and liberty we take so often for granted. I don’t know why I must explain that the current immigration plan is a horrible money pit, where the average deportation costs about $60,000 per, and that we’ve seen cases of people being deported two and three times. I don’t believe that anyone who has driven through Texas, or Kansas, or even western New York can say we don’t have the room for more people. I shouldn’t have to explain that inflation has been driven by our citizenry demanding more and more wages, to a point where we no longer have a low-priced employment base to do some of the mentally taxing and physically exhaustive jobs that need to be done. I shouldn’t need to tell you the long-term financial benefit of immigrants coming to our country and establishing lives, especially in Colorado where the projected impact of illegal immigrants is a $1.9 billion economic boost with only $188 million in expenses. I don’t need to point out that, historically, the first generation from immigrants typically stay within their own communities, speak their native tongue, and find comfort in their traditions, while their children historically become bilingual or speak English exclusively, embrace the diversity of our nation, and meld the traditions of our country with the ones from their native land. I shouldn’t have to point out that the percentage of native-born felons in this country as a percentage (1.422%) far outweighs the numbers of both legal immigrants (.535%) and illegal immigrants (.782%) using numbers provided by the right-leaning Cato Institute. And I shouldn’t have to explain that the burden on our government resources of illegal immigrants dissipates when they are allowed to seek legal and lawful employment.

We know the contributions of immigrants in our history. From Alexander Hamilton who argued and fought for the independence of this nation, established our good credit across the world, and was apparently our first rapper, all the way up to Elon Musk, an innovative entrepreneur who warns of us the dark side of artificial intelligence on the safety of our future while putting computer chips in people’s brains. 

There is no argument against immigration that holds up to the light of truth. We need an expedited path to citizenship for the hard working, liberty-loving people that stand in wait at our borders.

We can form a path to legal citizenship for immigrants using the same national service model I would like to see for all citizens. Immigrants should be required one extra year service to the country, with two years to be fulfilled under a visa and legal status granted upon completion of this service. The requisite year at retirement age would then be served, as with the rest of our population.