Cats, dogs a distraction from real immigration concerns

Originally published in the Columbus Dispatch, this is a slightly expanded version that goes into more detail. I truly appreciate the Dispatch for their willingness to include contrarian voices and headlines that help to sell newspapers.

The immigration debate has become like a storm that’s raining cats and dogs. That’s more than a bad pun.  Amidst the deluge of silly idiomatic nonsense, the reality of the tsunami of millions of new immigrants on U.S. citizens each yearhas been lost. At least 11 million of these new arrivals are now here illegally. That’s almost as many as the entire population of Ohio.

I generally support lawful immigration for a variety of economic, cultural, and humanitarian reasons. With the birth rate of American citizens below maintenance levels, a pattern seen across the entire developed world, we need immigrants to have a vibrant, growing economy.

Illegal immigration, however, is an affront to the rule of law, a threat to the safety and security of American citizens, and a burden on already over-burdened government (i.e. taxpayer) budgets.

And, no, the vaunted immigration reform bill that failed to pass earlier this year wasn’t a good deal for Americans.

Since our nation’s founding, we’ve seen multiple waves of immigrants. More than 80 million people have come here, mostly from parts of Europe but also from Africa, Asia and more recently from Mexico, countries in Central and South America, and the Caribbean.

Their presence enriches our nation in ways most of us rarely consider. Through their labor, culture, and traditions, they become “Americans” and America becomes what we used to describe as a melting pot. If it weren’t for misguided “progressive” notions of multiculturalism that seek to keep us divided by race and ethnicity, we still would be.

We must also acknowledge the evil of slavery that forcibly brought millions of Africans to our shores and treated them as less than human throughout that period. It took the bloodiest war in our nation’s history to end slavery’s scourge, and the descendants of slaves are thankfully now as fully American and equal in rights as every other citizen.

I’m the grandson of immigrants on both sides of my family. My grandparents arrived in this country a little over a century ago after escaping the horrific pogroms targeting Jews across much of Eastern Europe and Russia. My paternal grandparents were initially denied entry to the U.S. and had to settle temporarily in Argentina. They buried their first born child there before they were able to legally immigrate to the U.S.

I have no interest in pulling up the welcome mat for new arrivals, but just as my grandparents waited to come here legally, so should every other immigrant. While the vast majority of Americans support that view, our current administration has failed to honor it million of times.

So what’s going on in Springfield, OH? In 2020, this small city 45 miles west of Columbus had a population of just under 60,000. Springfield’s mayor says the city is now home to an additional 12,000-15,000 new arrivals, mostly from Haiti.

Anyone who thinks a sudden 25% population increase in a small Midwestern city is easily accommodated hasn’t given it much thought. This is particularly so when most of those new residents don’t speak English or share the cultural traditions of their neighbors. Taxpayers will continue to spend millions of dollars to help support them.

The cost and availability of housing burdens local residents. Springfield schools, already struggling to educate the city’s kids, must now divert millions of dollars and tens of thousands of teaching hours to immigrant children.

Former President Trump started the latest drama with his flippant debate remark about what’s for dinner. While most of the media has focused on that, former Wall Street Journal reporter Asra Nomani uncovered evidence of human trafficking targeting Springfield’s Haitians. A couple of days later, Dublin resident and former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy hosted a town hall event for Springfield residents to share their concerns. He heard plenty.

All is definitely not well in Springfield.

While our new Haitian neighbors are likely here legally, that status was a choice by the Biden-Harris administration. It wasn’t necessary. It was a choice that simply gave as many as 500,000 Haitians “Temporary Protected Status” to be in the U.S.

Our immigration laws also require proper vetting of applicants. We only need to see the Venezuelan gangs battling for turf across the country to know the Biden-Harris administration is fundamentally incapable of enforcing those laws, even if they wanted to do so.

Clearly they don’t want to.

An official letter to Congress from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced that 425,421 convicted criminal immigrants are freely roaming our streets, nearly 100,000 of whom are convicted of violent crimes

We need immigration. Businesses need workers and locals aren’t always willing. The alternative to immigration in those cases is often the closure of the businesses and the decline of the cities in which they’re located. Illegal or executive order immigration — as in the Springfield case — isn’t the answer. Fixing the immigration system is.

The executive branch should fully enforce the law. Then our elected officials would feel the pressure from their constituents when a lack of workers means that businesses close, crops don’t get harvested, and construction projects don’t get done. Maybe then they’ll do what voters elected them to do.

In this debate, the safety of pets is a distraction. In a world that has only become more dangerous, the security of American citizens should be our leaders’ primary responsibility.

While the politicians fight like cats and dogs, the rest of us should remember that sensible immigration is an invitation-only event, not an open house.