Stand in Line… or Jump the Line

    Hi All, I hope you’ve had a great week.  Here in southern Indiana we’ve finally started to get a few of the afternoon thunderstorms (the farms have needed the rain).  It may be a bit late for the corn; the ears look small and under developed. I hope the rain helps.

    I’d like to welcome a few new visitors.  The past couple of weeks folks from Moldova, New Zealand, Taiwan and Ireland have stopped by.  I was glad to see Ireland; it brought back fond memories of my visits to their country. I kissed the Blarney Stone, I saw many beautiful sites and made my pilgrimage to St. James Gate in Dublin the home of Guinness Extra Stout, by far the finest drink known to man.  (I was stationed at RAF Mildenhall, England at the time, heavy airlift support).  

    Speaking of going to foreign lands, here in the United States along our southern border we have been experiencing problems with illegal immigration.  I’m by no means anti-immigration; some of the greatest minds that have made us who we are were immigrants. Albert Einstein may be the most famous but one of my favorites is Milla Jovovich the queen of “Butt Kicking” I love her Alice character from the Resident Evil movies. 

    I am anti-illegal immigration.  For a few simple reasons.  First there are rules involved in immigration and if a person chooses to ignore these rules because they are inconvenient what is the next rule they will choose to ignore? Second it’s like line jumping, what of the people who follow the rules?  Are they to be penalized for doing the right thing?  We also have a problem within our government; there are officials who are choosing to ignore our own laws because they don’t like them…  What if every citizen of the United States chose to follow only the laws that they liked or agreed with?  What may be an acceptable standard to me may not be acceptable to another.  If the standards within our society are due a change there is a procedure in place to make the changes, a procedure to change the laws.                    

    Last week I sent a letter to the Governor of Arizona, just kind of an option idea to maybe wake the nation up to the true scale of the problems they have to face on a daily basis…

Open Letter to the Governor of Arizona

    Ma’am I’ve been sitting on the sidelines watching your battles with the Federal authorities over enforcement of the immigration laws.  It looks like you’ve been handed a few setbacks lately.  I’ve got the answers to your problems. 

    You may be asking yourself “Who is this CLOWN? We’ve got the best legal minds in the state working on this…”  Well, I’m actually a nobody, a 50 year-old-man that served 20 years in the Air Force (aircraft mechanic) and the last 10 years I’ve been working as a mechanic in local factories. Through the years I’ve often had to depend on others to do their jobs so I could do mine.  As you would have guessed every so often I would run into the person that would hold me up.  I learned a few tricks on how to move them along.  Mostly it involved making them uncomfortable.  Not ME making them uncomfortable (not directly) but those around them, those that are close to them.

    Let’s look at your problem.  Your state is on the frontline of the illegal immigration onslaught and you’re trying to do the right thing by securing the border and enforce laws but you’re hitting obstacles at every turn.  It seems someone doesn’t want to do their job for what ever reason.  You need to make your problem their problem.  If not directly, indirectly.  This is very simple but you need to put conventional thinking aside.

    First you need a catchy slogan, “Papers Please” sounds cold war East German, that’s why your opponents tagged your law with it.  Let me suggest a new initiative called the Weary Traveler Assistance Program (don’t say illegal immigrants).  Weary Traveler Assistance Program sounds kind and caring doesn’t it.  Maybe even take it one step further, call it The Obama Weary Traveler Assistance Program.  Name association is everything.

    Next, there are known routes of entry that are frequently used.  Along these routes post informational boards touting the job opportunities, high quality of life and benefits of living in cities like Chicago, San Francisco, Detroit, ect…  at the bottom of these informational boards advise the weary travelers to ask about the assistance program and that immigration status is unimportant. 

    Now for the meat.  How much does it cost the state to deal with the problems associated with undocumented immigrants?  The price of a bus ticket?  Make a deal with the bus companies like Greyhound or Trailways for non-refundable (or refundable to state account only) cheap tickets and send the travelers on their way.  Give them a bag lunch and a ticket to their dreams.  I would suggest Chicago…  What are these cities going to do about it?  Stop the Travelers as they get off the bus, wouldn’t that be profiling?  The travelers aren’t breaking any (enforced) laws they are just stepping off the bus.     

    Some travelers may need a bit of an incentive to participate in the program.  Just inform them of the maximum penalties they could face by staying in the state (not that they in fact would face these penalties but they don’t need to know that).  Let them know they could be detained indefinitely until the over loaded system could get to and review their case.  A jail cell or a free bus ride, what would you choose?

   

    Finally, be very very vocal about the program.  Get on national TV, radio and the internet touting the success of the program.  Name presumed destination cities.  I don’t care if your sending 10 or 20 “Travelers” north each month, make it sound like hundreds or even thousands.

    This makes your problem their problem.  Let the Michigan unions scream about their members’ pay being undercut. Let the citizens of Chicago scream about the stress placed on their city by the influx of immigrants. Let the authorities in San Francisco deal with the associated rise in crime.  If the Federal Government gives you any grief accuse them of wanting to leave the poor travelers in the desert to die of thirst or heat exhaustion.  You’ve just taken the moral high ground and put them on the defensive in the court of public opinion.  You took the problem and put it into their backyard.  After all the Fed. can’t really accuse you of not enforcing laws after spending the past year arguing that you have no authority to enact or enforce immigration laws.

   

    This is manipulative and myself, I would prefer the state and federal agencies enforce laws to the best of their abilities…  But the smart-a** in me would want to put up big lighted signs ¼ of a mile off the boarder saying WELCOME and busses lined up for as far as the eye could see,  all ready to head for Chicago.   

    Texas and New Mexico feel free to adopt this program.  As far as California… 

                           Well its California what can I say…           

I wish you luck

The TOMCAT

    Side Note: I read an article in the New York Times this week, The folks in the Hamptons (a very affluent area in the northeast) were complaining about their property values and style of life being affected by the influx of illegal immigrants.  Guess the problem is in their backyard now…