Of course there's a situation. And it requires action. Arizona's actions I don't agree with. I do understand and agree however that action is needed at the Federal level. The answer requires some guts and courage at the legislative level in congress to draft some legislation that deals with the entire problem and doesn't just act tough without providing amnesty or a realistic path to citizenship or legal residence for those here who are not threats (the vast majority.)
Congress is too afraid to act because it's an election year and they're (as usual) more concerned about their own sorry hides than addressing the needs of the nation.
Obama I think wants to act.
Here's his proposal.
Guiding Principles
President Obama believes that our broken immigration system can only be fixed by putting politics aside and offering a complete solution that secures our border, enforces our laws, and reaffirms our heritage as a nation of immigrants. He believes our immigration policy should be driven by our best judgment of what is in the economic interest of the United States and what is in the best interest of the American worker. President Obama recognizes that an orderly, controlled border and an immigration system designed to meet our economic needs are important pillars of a healthy and robust economy.
Strengthen Border Control
President Obama will protect the integrity of our borders by investing in additional personnel, infrastructure, and technology on the border and at our ports of entry.
Improve Our Immigration System
President Obama will fix the dysfunctional immigration bureaucracy and enable legal immigration so that families can stay together.
Remove Incentives to Enter Illegally
President Obama will remove incentives to enter the country illegally by preventing employers from hiring undocumented workers and enforcing the law.
Bring People Out of the Shadows
President Obama supports a system that allows undocumented immigrants who are in good standing to pay a fine, learn English, and go to the back of the line for the opportunity to become citizens.
Work with Mexico
President Obama will promote economic development in Mexico to decrease the economic desperation that leads to illegal immigration.
I didn't vote for Obama and I don't have a need to do anything with this but to look at the policy at face value. I agree with the overall thrust that there must be in addition to tightened enforcement, the ability to current illegals to realistically come forward in a way that allows families to remain together and remain here while paying a fine (and it should be a token one in my opinion, these are mostly poor people). Simply tightening enforcement and lumping all together and destroying families is neither an American nor a Christian value in my opinion. More importantly, it's counter-productive. Most of the illegals are here because our economy required them and our government looked the other way for years during times of prosperity because the lowest level jobs in our economy would not pay enough to hold people who had other options.
Illegal immigrants in that regard were purposely attracted and held in their situation by the fact that they couldn't aspire to legal jobs. That in part is economic exploitation and the politicians who knowingly did this (and believe me, they knew what they were doing, and they incuided both Republicans and Democrats) were morally wrong and economically irresponsible.
Arizona lacks the ability to address all sides of this issue. I understand the political strategy. They're paying as a state for Federal Policy malfeasance. So, they're drawing attention to the issue by pushing the envelope. That doesn't make it right, but it's how the game is played.
The devil will be in the details but I think Obama has most of the elements addressed here that need to be. I doubt he has to the political capital left to address this before the next election. After, he may not have the votes. This is where leadership from Obama and from the party leaders at all levels comes into play. A solution must be reached and but into effect on both sides of the equation. As I said, Arizona cannot do that. All they can do is grandstand and play to populist and xenophibic emotions. That may get new people elected but unless they have the guts to address the whole problem, all their grandstanding will go is make the problem worse. Sadly, then the answer for many of them will be to up the ante and play even stronger to emotions and that's when we're wallking the path that other nations in history have. Are we going to learn from that or repeat the mistakes?
That's what I'm saying.
Dogmatism is the comfortable intellectual framework of self-righteousness. Self-righteousness is more decadent than the worst sexual sin. ~ Dan Allender