Illegal Immigration Pt. 4: Papers, Please!

Only the Nazis want to see your papers. At least that's what the Open Borders crowd claims. Fact is that they're wrong. Law enforcement officers have been asking to see people's papers for years and not just immigrants.

Have you ever been pulled over while driving in your car? The first thing the officer does is ask to see your papers, i.e. license and registration. He wants to verify that you have a license to drive, that it's your car, and that you have the requisite insurance and so he needs to see your papers. Here in Texas, if the officer finds you carrying a concealed weapon he's going to want to see your concealed carry license as well. Papers, please!

Though people are not required to carry a driver's license or other photo identification, provided they're not engaged in an activity that requires such things like driving a car, about half the states have laws allowing police officers to require suspects identify themselves if the officer has reasonable suspicion they are engaged in a criminal activity.

It's not Nazi-ism. It's just law enforcement. And guess what? Federal law already requires foreign nationals to carry proof that they're in the country legally so it's not like AZ SB 1070 is forcing anyone to carry any extra paperwork.

Illegal Immigration Pt. 3: The Illegal Founding Fathers

Here's a big one with the pro-Open Borders crowd. They claim that the European colonists who founded the United States were illegal aliens. It's based on the flawed assumption that the Native American tribes had similar laws governing immigration that we do.

The reality is that prior to the appearance of the Europeans, the Native Americans had no real immigration issues to deal with and so no real laws governing them. They weren't ocean-going so they had no real concept of what lay over the horizon; how many people were there, what their culture was like, or what they might do if they gained a foothold in the Americas.

When the Europeans reached the Americas they were frequently welcomed by the natives. Sometimes this was because the Europeans brought them presents, trade goods they couldn't provide for themselves. Sometimes it was because the Europeans offered to be valuable allies in wars with neighboring tribes. The Europeans weren't illegal aliens because the native tribes largely had open border policies and those policies ultimately lead to their being forced out of their homes and confined to what lands the European immigrants deigned to give them.

The founding of the United States actually provides a perfect example of why open borders are a bad idea. If a nation fails to control its borders it will ultimately be overrun by people who do not have the nation's best interests at heart.

Illegal Immigration Pt. 2: Guilt

One argument that the pro-Open Borders crowd uses is that we should allow anyone to freely enter the country out of guilt for what we did to the Native Americans. I'll admit I feel bad about what happened to the Cherokee and the Cheyenne and the Sioux and the other native tribes. Thing is, they're not the ones demanding we open our borders to everyone. The people demanding we give them free access to our country are the descendants of the Spanish conquistadors that crushed the Aztec, Mayan, and Incan civilizations among others. Because someone feels guilty about what European colonists did to the native tribes they're supposed to open their borders up to the descendants of other Europeans who committed similar atrocities only on a much larger scale? I don't think so.

If anything I'm amused by the irony of Mexicans being upset that the Anglo colonists they brought in to help them take Texas away from the Native Americans then proceeded to take Texas away from Mexico. Now that's funny.

Illegal Immigration Pt. 1: Stolen Land

With the debate raging over Arizona's SB1070 I thought now might be a good time to take a look at some of the arguments offered up by the pro-Illegal Immigrant side of things. I'll start with the claim that the United States stole the southwest from Mexico.

The interesting thing about this claim is that Mexico didn't even exist until 1821. Before then it was known as New Spain. New Spain was founded in 1521 after the Spanish conquered the Aztec, Olmec, Toltec, Teotihuacan, Maya, and other cultures who lived in the area.

I live in Texas. If anyone can make a claim that Texas was stolen from them it is the Apache, Comanche, Caddo, Wichita, Kiowa, and Karankawa tribes, among others, that lived here prior to the region being invaded by Mexico. In fact, the word Texas is a Spanish corruption of the Caddoan word taysha which means "friend." The Spanish and Mexicans stole Texas from them. In New Mexico, Arizona, California and the rest of the southwest this was repeated with Mexico taking the land from the native tribes that lived there first.

Now members of these tribes may complain about their lands having been stolen from them but they don't generally do it in the context of an illegal immigration rally. Probably because they're natives who aren't in any danger of being deported but also, I suspect, because the ones who are angry about their land being stolen aren't likely to rally in support of the Hispanic culture that stole it from them in the first place.

Make no mistake, despite the fact that they aren't lily white Caucasians, Hispanics are just as much a product of European imperialism and colonialism as the North American WASP. The very word "Hispanic" tells you that by denoting, as it does, a relationship with Spain. There's a reason that Hispanics speak Spanish or Portuguese rather than any native tongue after all. In fact, an argument can be made that of all the European powers, the Spanish were the worst when it came to their approach to the New World. While everyone else was sending colonists, people who were looking to build new lives for themselves in the New World, Spain was busy sending conquistadors or conquerors. Soldiers whose job was to claim territory and plunder riches for Spain. That's why the English and the French and the other European powers only managed to lay claim to part of North America and some islands in the Caribbean while Spain and Portugal managed to lay claim to the rest of North America and the Caribbean along with all of Central and South America. And the conquistadors weren't particularly nice people. This isn't that surprising when you consider that while they were busy conquering the Aztecs and the Mayans and the Incans, etc. the Spanish Inquisition was at the height of its power back in Spain. Greed and avarice coupled with religious intolerance that says its okay to do anything you want to pagan heretics is not a good combination. A lot of natives died very unpleasant deaths in the quest to fill holds of ships heading back to Spain with treasure.

So when Hispanics complain that the United States stole the land from them remember that they, in turn, stole the land from the original inhabitants. They are thieves complaining that what they stole was, in turn, stolen from them. That doesn't make me feel particularly sympathetic to them.

Question of the Day

I was just wondering. Why is it acceptable to protest jobs going to foreign nationals in other countries but racist to protest jobs going to foreign nationals in this country illegally? Do the poor in India and China not have as much need to eat as our neighbors south of the border?