13 hours ago
Tuesday, April 11, 2006
example of irrational "debate" on immigrants
yesterday washington journal asked the audience to phone in "your message to your congress member."
i suppose because of the demonstrations and ongoing media attention, most callers talked about immigration. as you'd expect, responses included some near-hysterical xenophobic rants, but that's not what i'm writing about.
a large number of callers—perhaps a majority—said the law should be enforced.
but congress doesn't enforce laws, it makes laws. it's up to the executive branch to enforce them.
that may seem like a minor detail, but complexity comes from piling up small elements, and the immigration controversy is among the most complex issues around, which is a big part of the difficulty of dealing with it.
if americans don't even know which branch of government does what, how can we think clearly about solutions to national problems? one false assumption leads to another and another, and before you know it you're marching to war or committing genocide or both.
now, if i'd had time to think about it, i think i'd've told my congress rep to consider the possibility that the immigration laws are bad laws. after all, the estimate i've heard is that 2% of americans are criminals. that would be around 6M criminals. but twice that many folk are in the country illegally.
good laws just don't get broken by that many.
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