The coming changes
I listened a couple of weeks ago to President Trump’s speech to the Joint Session of Congress. When he gives his speech next year at this time, it will be a State of the Union address. They choose not to call it by this name this year because of the short time President Trump has been in office and he is not responsible for the State of the Union at this time.
The speech was extremely good and did not contain any of his usual criticism of the liberal press. At the time of the speech, it had only been 39 days since President Trump’s inauguration. The big steps that require Congressional action have not taken place at the time. He went over the plans step by step so that we all knew basically what he was planning to do. The actions he plans are the same as his promises from his campaign. That is unusual and refreshing to find a man that is trying to keep his political promises.
Our nation was originally based on immigrants that came from a number of places around the world. They did not come here for the free government benefits. There were none. They came and started a business based on the talents they brought with them or went to work for an existing business. They learned the language and pledged their loyalty to the new nation they had joined. The new nation became the most prosperous nation in history. In the beginning, there was no illegal immigration, if you could get to the United States you could stay. If you broke the law it would be the local authorities that would deal with the problem and punish you.
When the nation became very large, the federal government began to establish laws that apply to all of the states. Today, the proper process of receiving immigrants starts at the U. S. Embassy or Consulate in the nation where the immigrant resides. At the same time, temporary visitors or guests can come into the country just by presenting themselves and their passports at the customs. The process that is happening now is that the visitors get into our nation and immediately go to the authorities and apply for asylum because of dangerous conditions in the nation they are leaving. Many of these are accepted and are able to get around the immigration procedures. It is now even worse on the southern border where you simply have to get across the Rio Grande River and you can meld into the population. You can be paid “off the books” and not pay any taxes. You can enter your children in the schools and at the same time you can go to any hospital emergency room and get free treatment to maintain your health. Pregnant illegal immigrants can be admitted to the hospitals and leave without paying and the bill is paid by the other patients of the hospital.
The president is determined to correct some of these problems and stop the many illegal immigrants from coming into the country. His first step was to request quotations from contractors to build a wall across the southern border to stop the river crossing problem. His second step was to assign additional border patrol members to patrol the border. His third step is to gather up the illegal immigrants that have committed crimes and return them to their home countries. Many of them are located in jails along the southern border. It is expensive for the Border States to pay the cost of maintaining these prisoners with food, shelter and clothing. Crossing the border has been so easy that the criminal element could be returned to their home country and then come back into to our country immediately.
We need temporary migrant workers to do seasonal jobs. Picking fruit and vegetables is a short season job and does not provide a good career for locals that need to work all year in the same location. The migrant workers come into the area and gather the crops and when the job is complete they move north to the next crop gathering area and when all of them are complete, they return to their home country until the next season for harvesting arrives. These workers need to carry identification cards and they need to be treated properly while they are here. Their employer should provide housing and medical treatment while they are working for them.
During my working career in the carpet industry, I was employed in Canada, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, India and Egypt. I was a temporary employee and registered with the government in all locations but Canada where I worked one week out of the month. In Saudi Arabia, the country is closed to tourists except for religious purposes to visit Mecca. Americans cannot enter Saudi Arabia without a visa stamp from the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia in Washington in their passport. When the Saudi companies need workers they apply to a government agency and state how many workers they need and get a permit for that many worker entrees. They then notify the country they wish to have the workers to come from and wait for the reports to come back about who is available. They review the reports and arrange transportation for the selected workers to come into the country. The sponsor provides quarters, food, transportation to work and two jump suits for clothing every six months. They generally are paid twice the amount they could earn in their home country. Two employees working side by side may be making widely different pay scales based on their home country.
It seems that the attitude on immigrants coming to America is changing within the country. In the past it seemed to be the choice of the immigrant that wanted to come to America. Now the attitude seems to be turning to allowing the immigrants that we need to come to the country. They perhaps will be required to have sponsors to invite them to come. The sponsors will provide a job for them that will be ready when they arrive.
The Muslim refugees that are going to many countries are missing the opportunity to stay in Muslim countries. So far Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, and Oman have not accepted any of the Syrian refugees. Dubai and the United Arab Emirates have not taken refugees but they have issued 250,000 worker permits to any of the Syrians that wish to come to Dubai and work. They do not have any free benefits for them but they do have jobs. The sponsors provide transportation and living quarters for them so this does not cost the government of the United Arab Emirates anything. Refugees invited to come to the USA have government benefits immediately and for a long period of time.