We’re starting to see the set-up. Each cycle the Repubs pick a divisive issue and play it to the hilt-they played on the strong defense image and said only Repubs can protect us, they used the gay mariage issue shamelessly because they knew America was divided on the issue.
So what’s next? Well, since 9/11 there has been a wholesale revamp of the nation’s immigration process and increasingly, immigrants are painted with the touch of the terrorists brush. For legal immigrants or green card holders the changes have made the words expensive and bureaucracy interchangeable. Almost inevitably, things are getting stranger and stranger. Let’s take my family as just one example (and I’m hearing of many more)
My French mother, yes French, has been in this country for let’s see..over 50 years. The renewal of her green card has been routine. Until this year. She is now in her late ’80s and her renewal is caught in a buraeucratic maze. As near as I can tell, a contractor somewhere has ‘lost’ her renewal form even after it was sent by certified mail. The fee has gone up 300%.
My Filipino girlfriend lost her green card 3 years ago. It took over a year, two trips to the the nearest INS Center (takes all day) and $300 to get a replacement card. During the process she was treated as a borderline criminal….and there’s more…
My oldest son lives in Spain where my first grandchild was very recently born (thank you). He is a legal resident in Spain and by being my son is legally registered in France. So, he went to register his daughter Sofia to establish her legal being.
In Spain, it was a 3 page form, free of charge and the lady helped him fill it out. For France it was a similar experience and yes, free.
For the US, it cost 125 euros (about $150) and involves much more paperwork. Plus they have to prove his wife lived in the US for 3 consecutive years after the age of 14. This means they may haveto get high school transcripts or who knows what.
Add to this backdrop the recent highlighting of ongoing issues with immigration, both legal and illegal, and you get the makings of the bogey issue. Immigrants are being painted as worthless, only worth admitting because they take service and agriculture jobs ‘we’ don’t want. They are also being portrayed as a security threat. And, they don’t vote.
Dems will be portrayed as soft on immigration, lazy on borders and so forth. Only Repubs can protect us and only Repubs really care about the American (read white) people.
That’s how it is shaping up, what should the Dems do? Rush to defend legal immigration and call for barriers to illegal immigration? Try to out conservative the Repubs by declaring immigration as a threat to national security? Or defend immigration as a cornerstone of how this country was built? I don’t know. It is a thorny issue and in some states illegal immigration is close to out of control and a problem. Here’s one idea:
Throw a spotlight on how immigrants have strengthened our country. The inventions, life improvements, entrepeneurs, generals, athletes, etc who have come from the ranks of immigrants. Do a history and start spotlighting them on the DNC web site. Something like 100 faces that have changed America. What would you do?
