Saturday, November 12, 2016

Hot Button Issue

Several days ago (11/8/16) I posted a piece on VP titled I Bet You Didn't Know This which explained that, contrary to the impression we get from our media, a majority of Hispanics actually want stricter immigration laws and enforcement of those laws.

In response to that post a reader shared an anecdote which I thought would be of interest to other readers. I've edited her submission only slightly. She wrote:
I worked in retail up until this past August and one of my favorite co-workers is a Haitian. He has been in America for the last 6 years. He is married and has two children. His wife and children were already citizens and had been so for a very long time. My Haitian friend worked as a professor in Mexico for many years and he taught law. He speaks four different languages and has traveled extensively through the world. He has friends from all over and good friends that are Hispanic.

He was the first one to start talking about his frustration with the laws in the United States when it came to immigration issues. He was studying and working hard to become a citizen here 2 years ago and he and I were talking about the laws and the immigration policies. He was quite angry at the fact that he knew there were illegal immigrants who worked “under the table” did not pay taxes and yet had their driver’s license and were “taken care of” by our government.

He said he loved these people but still believed exactly what this Viewpoint post states, “there has been “too little” done to enforce immigration laws.”

He would appreciate this post, and I can hear him now in his accented French saying, "Yes, yes now this makes sense. I agree with him and this post." I wonder how my friend would feel about the findings of this research saying, "more Hispanics support a deportation policy for illegals." I have a huge heart for helping people, but I also get frustrated when I feel taken advantage of, and I do believe there are a lot of immigrants that are here illegally and taking advantage of the system.

The media leads us to believe all Hispanics want open boarders and want all of us to welcome them with open arms. I think putting "a cap of 500,000 immigrants a year, about half the current level" is good idea.

Once again it appears the media has fed the wrong information to the readers, “if you only get your news and insight from the major media what you think you know is probably wrong” is a true statement. If I didn’t believe that before ..., which I did, the posts on Viewpoint have certainly opened my eyes to more of it.

Immigration is a hot button for a lot of people, myself included. This point was a part of what influenced my voting choices. I’m not sure a wall is the way to go as Trump has said he will do, but I know that having the “open borders policy” is not a good idea and the fact that the media has led people to believe that is what “all Hispanics are in favor of” is stunning, although it should not be. No doubt they get their information from the very people they want to get it from to support what they want the readers to read and, once again, mislead the people with inaccurate information.
Trump may in the end choose not to build the wall that he promised he would build during the campaign. Who knows? But he will be forgiven for not keeping that promise only if he makes the wall unnecessary by restoring the integrity of our borders by other means. If he fails in this task he'll almost certainly be a one-term president.