Why we can not solve the immigration issues and have a meaningful debate?

As America is attempting to find solutions to the immigration conflict some guiding principles of fairness, logic, and process need to be put in place in order to properly frame the content of the conflict. I use the term "conflict" because the the debate has gone beyond civil and entered the realm of disparagement, hate and bigotry. The arguments are so far divided that compromise seems remote. A significant problem on both sides of the debate is the divide is caused by the lack of validity of the information being put forward thus creating the conflict. Also once the term illegals is associated with criminals and pounded into the minds of Americans over and over through the news outlets the fairness of the debate goes out the window - because criminals have no rights. Well they do and they have.


Not long ago reporting of the news was accomplished by trusted organizations on TV and in print. This changed over time to produce what we have today in the news rooms which is biased and politically motivated news commentary feeding a small portion of the public that align themselves with such broadcasts. We no longer live in a world where news reporting is accurate, true and fair starting at 6:00 PM and fed to the nation as a whole allowing each individual to determine how she or he felt about it. Today we are lead like cattle to slaughter towards pre-ordained conclusions that feed a righteousness that makes us believe we are more American for feeling this way. It is almost impossible for the average American ( 5th grade reading level) to separate the wheat from the chaff.


The Internet has, in a short time, spawned a society that may not possess the mental fitness, the time, or interest to determine what information going around the Internet is true, accurate, and fair. It is now easy, at the speed of light, to send information, many regard as news, throughout the globe. Add email where people of similar thought can reinforce their ideals with emails representing their position and circulate them as gospel. This rapidly spreads hate, bigotry, and superiority thus creating what we see now in America with over 80% of Americans not wanting to discuss any solution for reform of our immigration policy. The discussion for most of these Americans can only begin with "round them up and ship them back then put up a big wall". This high percentage of Americans against immigration leads politicians to acquiesce in to their wishes and begin shaping policy trying to make the 80% happy - surely a justified reaction by politicians hoping for re-election.

The problem with today's debate is we are on a steady diet of opinions and we virtually skip over the gathering, validating, verifying, and disseminating data phases. And when you consider where these opinions are initially formed it becomes very scary once you realize how small groups in America are shaping policy on immigration. This leads to an "anyone can say what they want" mentality with no challenge. This could then lead to information which is defined by the way one party decides to interpret the data. The information is then subject to emotion, religion, or any other matter of the heart that one deems necessary to involve to come up with varying opinions. These opinions are used to make policy. With the technology to move information at the speed of thought there are certain responsibilities that come with this new found method to disseminate information that are not enforced.

A wild wild west type of journalism, like the child predators that uses the anonymity of the Internet to entice young children, radical ideas on immigration by supremacist, hate groups, ethnic cleansers, and bigots using the same anonymity. Combine the anonymity with the speed of data dissemination and one can easily turn these absurd ideas on immigration into American mainstream thought. This approach only serves to confuse the masses and stirs radical emotion and the production of more radical content and its related behavior. As a result 70-80% of Americans are against immigration ( really against Mexicans).

The source of the problem is all this has as its root - bad data and information. Once the politicians started looking at solving the problem they immediately saw they could not solve it the way most Americans would like it solved. So they punted and did nothing. The reason they could not solve it and make Americans happy was because when presented with validated data and information on immigration issues the solutions would have been contrary to the "street talk" that began the discussion on immigration and the original shaping of the policy. This has put a lot of politicians in a quandary. The good and honest ones ( may be an oxymoron when referring to politicians) have punted and been quiet on the issue which leaves the morons and bigots to lead the political debate.

This is a confusing time in America where we fight for democracy and human rights around the world and at home we throw the baby out with the bathwater. We, as a country, oppose ethnic cleansing, but at home we encourage it when it comes to Hispanics. We fight around the world for the helpless, poor and defenseless but at home we attack them, we use abusive language, and fail to recognize immigrants are what made this country great and will continue to make it great. America needs to be honest in this discussion to come up with practical and reasonable solutions to our immigration policy.

With many conservatives opposing immigration they need to ask themselves what would Jesus do?