Arizona and Immigration

So, I got up early this morning, had some time to kill, and read your e-book. I have to admit, I read it sort of distracted by Veggie Tales (which my son had playing in the background) so my “review” is going to be a bit incomplete.

I thought you did a fine job of establishing a “law ethic” that can be drawn from the Bible with regards to immigration. I especially appreciate that you addressed the authority of rulers should be somewhat applied to the citizen in a representative government which involves citizen rule. (I’ve made this same argument).

To jump down to the Ch.9. First of all, who writes a book without a conclusion? Do you know how hard it is for a reviewer to agree or disagree with a conclusion that doesn’t exist? It would have been better if you said, “deport them all,” or “give them all amnesty,” and no matter which conclusion “with love.” I could have torn those apart. *sigh* C’est la vie, I suppose. Anyhow, I read it, so I have to say something.

I did read something that I though was a bit incomplete, or not fully addressed, rather. “Ideally … there shouldn’t be a problem of illegal immigration at all. It would be great if people from other countries could come to America to better their own situation and America would comply in fulfilling that dream. As part of this openness…” and all that follows before the “realistically” stuff. Here’s the thing, as I understand, the immigration laws do provide all of those opportunities to immigrants provided they are legal immigrants. When we get to the “realistically” portion of the chapter, the problems that are addressed are mostly (not wholly) issues that arise from illegal immigration – and in some cases the reasons why illegal immigrants come here illegally and remain undocumented. For example: Background checks. In your recommendation you say, ” I think there should be some sort of background check process for undocumented aliens…” and yet that is already accomplished with legal immigration. The avoidance of the background checks is what keeps some (probably a small number) of undocumented workers undocumented. Same with partially paying into health care through taxes. The tax-free seasonal pay that can be sent or taken home in full is what keeps some (probably more than the background check avoidance) undocumented workers undocumented.

Anyhow, just a couple of things I noticed. I have no good answer or full solution, either. All in all, good stuff, Rey.