A Rising Tide Lifts all Boats

A Rising Tide Lifts all Boats.
~Ronald Reagan

I think we can all agree that immigration reform is the right thing to do to address the humanitarian concerns over the undocumented being treated worse than criminals,  the separation of families and to bring the shadow economy out of the dark.  To address the sexual assaults of both females and males in detention, the deaths and suicides of the undocumented and LPRs in detention, the unlawful detention of US citizens like Rennison Castillo, and the deportation of unconscious patients by hospitals.

The DHS enforcement machine is broken in the trenches and at the top. ICE officers are shooting and killing each other at work. The former Chief ICE boss in Miami is now serving time for child pornography. All the while, the profiteering of private prison companies like CCA and GEO continues unchecked ($45 million spent on lobbying and $52 Billion in immigration detention revenue alone).

To grow our economy, the US knows and has known since 2007 there is a great shortage of native born STEM grads. Six years later we continue to have an exigent need to continue to educate STEM students here and keep them here or bring them in from other countries in order for the US to remain globally competitive. I noticed for example, a local private prep school is heavily advertising a Singaporean trained math teacher.

As we can see from “Amendment Tuesday” this fight is far from over. As much as we would like everything done right the first time, it is unlikely to happen. However, if we get started on the right path and start with some form of immigration reform, at least we have opened the eyes of the American public and then the door to further reform. Recall that Australia ended its “whites only” immigration policy in 1973, the same year its recession ended and has had 20 years of steady economic growth since. As Reagan said, “A rising tide lifts all boats.” What is good for Comprehensive Immigration Reform is good for America.

The goal here for all of us as Americans and human beings is to make America a better place. We must continue to shed light on anti immigration rhetoric as Malthusian, isolationist, and extremist. Each of us can do our part. We can do it one person at a time, one neighbor, one friend, one coworker at a time.