The Immigration Reform Debate in the US

Beyond the charges of nativism and xenophobia that proponents of comprehensive immigration reform in the US might level at those Americans who advocate otherwise, the recent failure of the Immigration Reform Bill twice in the US Senate in less than two months is cause for a more conscientious soul-searching in both camps. Such an endeavor is necessary particularly for the reasons that it will lay bare the core issues in the immigration reform debate and pave the way for durable solutions to a major problem that knocks at the heart of what American society is all about and what most Americans aspire for.

The efforts made by representatives of those thirteen colonies that canalized into the birth of what they called the United States of America erased in the most fundamental way the possibility of any one of them ever reverting to the desire to chart the sort of independence existence which might set it separate and apart from the other members of the Union. This is in terms of forging another society distinct in language and culture from the Union itself. The slave-owning states in the South of the Union that attempted such a reversion when they found that their continued subscription to its Charters posed a mortal danger to slavery as the basis of their civilization provoked the Civil War. At the end not only that they were defeated and dragged back into the Union, they also lost the basis of their plantation-based agricultural economy. Perhaps the failure of their rebellion convinced them once and for all that they are part and parcel of a mainstream society that subscribes to one language, etc. Ever since, the idea of a separate existence doesn't hold currency in any meaningful way in America.

The Hispanics who cross into the US in large numbers in search of economic opportunities seem to have failed to realize that their determination by default perhaps to cling fast to their Latino cultures—including their language—is being seen as a challenge to what America is all about. The evident and gradual shift to bilingualism in the conduct of some official business is big cause for worry amongst many Americans who now see Hispanics as invaders who are determined to either over-run their society or establish a visibly different society within the United States. Americans were horrified to see Hispanics re-write their national anthem in Spanish language, wave different flags other than the US flag even as they sort support to be legalized. It is common place these days to hear complaints of rude and blatant behavior by Hispanics from many Americans. Americans are highly concerned about what they perceive as threats to displace them in their own society by people who give them cause to perceive them as insensitive Hispanics. There is anger towards Hispanics these days.

On the other hand, many Americans have failed to realize that better economic climate in Latin America is the most effective antidote to large-scale Hispanic immigration into the US. A better economic climate can be achieved in Latin America through more equitable policy initiatives by the US to wards Latin American countries. Polls have shown that Americans are not entirely averse to the idea of immigration reform. They seem to be averse to any endeavor which will encourage people to subvert the core of their society. Comprehensive immigration reform in the US will not be possible unless the aforementioned issues are properly understood and addressed.