EDITORIALS : Simple fairness
Posted on Monday, November 5, 2007
WHAT IS it about fair that you don’t understand ?
That question should be asked of those instant critics who’ve jumped all over the new group that’s seeking a fair shake for immigrants. It’s called the Arkansas Friendship Coalition, and the group announced its formation the other day with news conferences in Springdale and Little Rock. The coalition includes business and religious leaders, a potentially potent combination in this small but wonderfully interconnected state. A typical Arkie works hard at his job and goes to church regularly. Work and church are powerful influences in these parts. Now leaders of both have found common ground where immigration is concerned, and their plea for fairness should resonate. In the ranks of Americana, fairness ranks up there with mom and apple pie. It’s what we’re taught to practice as kids on the sports field, and later as adults in our everyday lives. But those who created the Arkansas Friendship Coalition found out soon enough that, like so many things, fairness is in the eye of the beholder. The usual immigrant-bashers were quick to condemn the coalition for daring to suggest that we should be fair to ILLEGAL ALIENS ! The horror.
HERE’S Jon Woods, the state
representative from Springdale who’s
built a whole legislative career on hostility toward these newcomers: “I can’t help but wonder and ask myself if this isn’t an organization that’s about protecting illegal immigrants.” Mr. Woods added that he found the formation of a group advocating fairness embarrassing. He said it sets an awful precedent. Well sure, we wouldn’t want word to get around that in Arkansas people are treated fairly. Even ILLEGAL ALIENS ! Like the kid who was brought here as a baby and now wants to compete for a college scholarship on a level playing field. Or the stranger in a strange land who’s been in a bad car wreck and needs to get to the emergency room right now. Stop those good Samaritans ! Or at least make what they’re doing illegal. Nothing’s so infuriating as Christian charity, at least when its shown to the “wrong” people.
Then there’s the illegal who’s led a blameless life here for decades, raised a family, paid his taxes, or maybe even served in the military. Mustn’t be fair to him. Show him no mercy.
When this coalition for fairness handed out its first news release, the word “illegal” was nowhere to be found. Asked about the omission, Steve Copley, the coalition’s chairman and a Methodist pastor, said his group didn’t want to differentiate between types of immigrants. He said those who have come to this country deserve to be treated fairly, whether their immigration papers are in order or not. Well, one aspect of fairness is the presumption of innocence. Fairness doesn’t work the other way around, by presuming that anybody who speaks English with an accent, or at least a Spanish accent, is automatically suspect.
Just to be sure that the coalition wasn’t sending some kind of touchy-feely message, the group said it wasn’t in favor of any illegal activities. And that it isn’t in the business of justifying crime. Which ought to be obvious. But such self-evident truths may need to be explained to the Jon Woodses. Anybody who commits a crime deserves justice, whether immigrant or native-born. Maybe even mercy. We walk a dangerous line when we assume that a whole class / race / kind of folks is up to no good.
For the umpteenth time, there needs to be a way to set the millions of illegals in this country who’ve led useful lives, contributed to the phenomenal growth of the American economy, have a clean record, and would make good Americans on the road to citzenship. Let them pay a fine for daring to slip into this nation of immigrants, make sure they and their kids attend English classes and know the basics of American government, and greet them as fellow countrymen. They—and their children—represent priceless human capital, the kind that built this country and made it the light of the world. Why force them to live in the shadows ? When we deport them, we’re hurting our own future.
In particular, this new Arkansas coalition is worried about punitive laws like the ones just enacted in Oklahoma, our neighbor to the immediate west. Oklahoma has put tight restrictions on the kind of public benefits available to anyone who can’t verify legal residency. The restrictions sound good to those who are sure Those People are getting something they’re not entitled to. But the restrictions could also have the effect of withholding help from people in dire need. Last time we checked, a green card wasn’t needed to qualify for simple charity, or even a show of humanity.
WE SUSPECT the point of such
laws isn’t so much to save
money, but to send a message to those ILLEGAL ALIENS!—to let ’em know they ain’t wanted here. The big problem with sending that kind of message is that all immigrants get it, those with papers and those without. To quote Reverend Copley, “Any legislation that targets any group of immigrants in effect begins to target all of them.” The urge to profile may prove irresistible. A brown-skinned driver could be targeted for immigration inquiries just because of his color. It’s enough to make even Pure-Dee Amuhricans with a darker complexion nervous.
Archie Schaffer of Tyson Foods is a member of the coalition. His is an interesting connection, since Tyson, the meat giant, makes wide use of immigrant labor. He said Tyson joined the coalition because it’s committed to comprehensive reform of the immigration laws on the federal level. Which figures. Tyson has to deal with the mess that is current immigration law, or lack thereof, every day—up close and personal. Like other members of the coalition, Archie Schaffer worries that scattershot attempts on the state and local levels will further complicate an already complicated problem.
A top-down fix by the feds seems like a political impossibility right now. Which is why we’re seeing these laws popping up in the states and cities. Their appeal can be simple—and simply wrong: Let’s punish somebody for this abysmal failure on the part of Congress ! There’s a better way. A closely regulated, federally approved local program to enforce the immigration laws can work without making a vexing problem even worse. For an example, see Springdale, Ark., and its police chief, Kathy O’Kelley.
—————The more we think of the confusing mess that is the immigration issue, with so many factors to consider in a vacuum of clear regulation, the more we’re reminded of the history of Prohibition in this country. That law was so widely ignored—it was largely unenforced and maybe was unenforceable—that it took years for reason to assert itself and reality to be dealt with. So long as the federal government continues to dodge its responsibility for making and enforcing clear immigration law, the country will drift further and further into frustration and ill will, which is not the best atmosphere in which to design clear-eyed, comprehensive reforms. This is still the Land of Opportunity—if we would just let it be.
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