Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Politics Bredesen Runs and Hides on Immigration Issue
Posted by Jeff Woods on Wed, Jun 30, 2010 at 7:32 AM
- A Tennessee Democrat on the campaign trail.
“I guess you could do it (veto) as a symbolic act, but if you do so you’re just throwing it out, you’re throwing gasoline on the fire, and now there’ll be a whole bunch of political campaigns this fall about ‘we’re going to toughen up this kind of thing. In the end, I didn’t think what it did was unreasonable. Symbolically, I didn’t like it. I didn’t think it was necessary.”
That sounds like someone trying really hard to rationalize a bad decision. This law aims to harass and chase foreign-looking people out of our state. But rather than explaining that to voters, the governor decided it was better to throw up his hands and surrender to fear and ignorance. We wouldn't want to anger the Republicans, would we? They might say mean things about us. Politics is supposed to be the art of persuasion. To Tennessee Democrats, it's a game of hide and seek.
Comments (4)
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I think we should adopt Mexico's immigration policies.
Mexico has a single, streamlined law that ensures that foreign visitors and immigrants are:
in the country legally;
have the means to sustain themselves economically;
not destined to be burdens on society;
of economic and social benefit to society;
of good character and have no criminal records; and
contributors to the general well-being of the nation.
The law also ensures that:
immigration authorities have a record of each foreign visitor;
foreign visitors do not violate their visa status;
foreign visitors are banned from interfering in the country’s internal politics;
foreign visitors who enter under false pretenses are imprisoned or deported;
foreign visitors violating the terms of their entry are imprisoned or deported;
those who aid in illegal immigration will be sent to prison.
On their first offense, those who violate Mexican immigration laws get up to two years in prison.
On the second offense, they get up to ten years.
Foreigners who violate their visas face six years in prison.
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Why be so timid, Jug? The Taliban has a lot better, and longer, list you could implement.
The America I grew up believing in advocated a society of individual justice and humanity at a personal level. I hope that I would do what most of our undocumented immigrants have done if necessary to support and provide for my family. As long as their disobedience is of the civil variety, I don't know why fair-minded Americans would want to use our laws, or Mexico's, as a cudgel against them.
As for the governor, I don't understand why, as a lame duck, he would hestitate to show a little strength and moral conviction. Shameful!
The Jug, what do you mean by a single, streamlined law? Mexico has at least five different visa classes and you don't even need a tourist card to be in the country as long as you're just over the boarder (though you'd need a US passport to reenter our country). That doesn't seem like that single or streamlined.
