By Ira Sharkansky
JERUSALEM — An uptick in loud concern about illegal immigration is currently riling Israeli media and politics.
By “loud concern” I mean shouting on a prime time discussion program set off when moderators do not accept as appropriate the answers to questions they have asked, against the background of anti-immigrant riots in the poor section of Tel Aviv where many of the immigrants live, and sharp disputes between ranking politicians and other officials.about appropriate actions.
For those who have followed similar controversies in the United States and Western Europe, it looks all so familiar, and carries a heavy stink of hypocrisy.
It is not only that immigration officials and police look the other way when employers hire illegals and pay them less than the minimum wage, or that politicians speak up and propose major changes to legislation only when there are reports of especially heinous crimes committed by immigrants.
The hypocrisy also appears in an official report of the United States State Department, which criticizes Israel with respect to its treatment illegal immigrants, whereas the situation at home is not essentially different. Even the left-of-center and usually critical Ha’aretz takes umbrage over the most recent State Department report about Israel.
It may well be true that Israeli officials are superficial in their review of claims for refugee status and reject most of them, but how many illegal immigrants from Mexico or Central America have a fair chance to make a claim that current chaos in their country would subject them to danger if back home?
It may also be true that individual Israeli politicians may be extreme in their statements about sending them all home, or calling them a cancer on the society, but are American politicians, especially in states close to the Mexican border, significantly more moderate in their statements, their proposals, or the laws that they seek to enact?
The State Department report relies heavily on claims of NGOs and the United Nations High Commission for Refugees about Israel’s actions with respect to African immigrants, while it is well known that NGOs and UN organizations are systematic in focusing almost exclusively on Israel and applying to it standards infinitely higher than applied to other countries.
The issue is so riven with complexities that defy simple solution, and so affected by populations that differ from citizens in color, language, and culture that it is dry tinder only waiting for one or another spark to begin another round of popular demonstrations that slip easily into rioting, with or without speeches or comments by prominent politicians that slip easily into incitement.
Undeniable is the pulling capacity of a wealthy economy and a society that offers relative peace in comparison with the poverty and insecurity found in much of Africa, Mexico, and Central America that supply the bulk of illegal immigrants to the Western Europe, Israel, and the United States. Also undeniable is the access of potential migrants to an infrastructure of shady characters who will guide them to a promised land for pay, but who may abandon them mid-route, exploit them sexually, or subject them to violence.
What to do with the migrants who succeed in crossing the borders?
Israel’s active ambivalence is similar those those of other countries. Alongside formal policies to review claims that would justify giving individuals the status of refugees associated with rights to work and access to medical care and other social services is he weight of numbers that overwhelm even the most sincere bureaucracy. Sending migrants back home is not so simple when the governments of their poor countries are not anxious to receive individuals who will add to their own rickety efforts to provide employment, internal security, and social services. For many of Israel’s immigrants, it is difficult even to be certain of their home countries. While Israeli officials have concluded that most of those currently arriving come from Eritrea, the Eritrean Ambassador said on a popular news program that most of those were not from Eritrea.
Claims heard from Israelis, that the immigrants are taking jobs from citizens, overloading the health system, threatening the security of Israelis who live or work near them, and threatening the character of Israeli society are identical to the claims heard by Americans or Europeans who speak out against illegal immigration.
The web site of FAIR, the Federation for American Immigration Reform, could be translated into Hebrew and a number of European languages, then serve immigration opponents far from American shores. Along with arguments about traffic congestion, insufficient fresh water, 9/11, and non-citizen voting, it has a section on the uniquely American issue of “birth citizenship.” (Almost all democracies except the US and Canada associate citizenship of a new born with the citizenship of the parents, and do not automatically grant citizenship to someone born within their borders.)
The 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution appears to be clear:
“All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”
FAIR is not so sure.
“The phrase “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” was intended to exclude from automatic citizenship American-born persons whose allegiance to the United States was incomplete. . . . In the case of illegal aliens, their native country has a claim of allegiance on the child. Therefore, some Constitutional scholars argue that the completeness of the allegiance to the United States is impaired and logically precludes automatic citizenship. However, this issue has never been directly decided by the U.S. Supreme Court.”
What is most certain in this muddled area of public policy are inequities and their potential to provoke yet another round of shouting among competing advocates, and violence by those whose skills are more physical than intellectual. Some immigrants will get jobs from employers who use their political connections to keep immigration officials at bay. Some will find a citizen to marry, or at least to maintain a continuing intimate relationship, and do what is possible to keep the immigration officials at bay. Many more will find themselves unsuitable for deportation, on account of no documentation showing nationality or no cooperation from governments of what are said to be their home countries. Some of these will be housed, fed, and cared for in facilities that may not be exactly like prisons for criminals, but that keep them from the streets and from employment. Some will continue to roam free, not formally allowed to work or receive social services, but left to manage by themselves or with some help from sympathetic citizens, individual officials of local or national agencies, and humanitarian organizations.
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Sharkansky is professor emeritus of political science at Hebrew University. He may be contacted at ira.sharkansky@sdjewishworld.com
I find it rather ironic that America, a country founded on the basis of immigration now sees the same immigration as it’s biggest threat. I have read how you have fear of these immigrants all that, how the nation is now full of non-English speaking people taking away your heritage and birthrights. Well all I can say to that is now you know how the Native Americans feel, a proud people reduced to paupers and beggars on their own land.
I cannot sympathise with you because unless you yourself are a Native American then you are a descendent of an illegal immigrant. This is a classical case of karma. All nations have at some point or the other had their Borders rewritten with new nations emerging. If America thought they would be exempt from this, especially considering their support of Taiwan, South Korea and Kosovo then you are sorely mistaken.
As for the Africans in Israel, all of this would have been avoided had westerners people simply kept to their own nations instead of enslaving and colonising our african people and it’s nations. We did not force ourself on the world but the world forced itself on us. Western powers forced people who were never of the same cultures into one nation all over Africa based on the ignorance that simply because we are black we share the characteristics. Our borders were written for us not the other way round.
Simplify illegal alien enforcement problem, by enacting it as a FELONY to enter this sovereign nation. This should have been run through our whimpering Congress long ago; instead they allowed pressure groups to influence them. This will not happen under a Tea Party Congress, that will stifle any new laws so illegal aliens can gain any kind of amnesty. Our laws are a travesty and are soft on punishment. Put businesses that don’t use E-Verify in mandatory jail, along by seizing assets and harsh fines. Award Whistle blowers who detect illegal aliens working in companies to ICE. Amend the Birthright Citizenship law so no children smuggled into the U.S. are only eligible for citizenship, if one parent is born in America or a naturalized citizen. This will discourage illegal migrants and immigrants arriving here as they have for decades, through neglect at our borders and other entry ports.
Employment visas should only be granted to professional people and STEM workers (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) workers to the U.S. in an expedited process. The Constitutional TEA PARTY is gaining in power and will unseat liberal Democrat-Republican pro-illegal immigration politicians, derailing open border zealot ideologies. Lastly we must oversee all elections, as Democrats are indifferent to illegal aliens voting, which is carefully hidden; surf the Internet for information on voter fraud and ID theft that has been gaining momentum in the last two decades. Read the latest regularizes by zeroing in on Florida.
Alabama, as Arizona and the 48 states are up against the wall of harsh forced unfunded mandates by U.S. courts. Every state is confronted by billions of dollars to pay for illegal immigration in public welfare. The cost to Alabama for Costs for Illegal Aliens as studied by The Federation of American Immigration Reform (FAIRUS) it was $2.7 billion dollars owing to the growing illegal alien population. But of course nobody knows the true amount as figures for population and the costs to support these people are kept subdued. But the majority of Americans are well aware that according to studies of FAIRUS and other pro-sovereignty organizations, that annually the expenditure is well over $113 billion dollars. In addition organizations have completed their own studies, that if another Amnesty was enacted we would raise our U.S. treasury deficit from 16 Trillion dollars, by another 2.6 trillion dollars. Many groups and media aspire to offer information about the movement and costs of illegal immigration into this country, but much is not factored in to taxpayer’s outlay and intelligence which can be found at the websites of American Patrol and NumbersUSA.
Sen. Marco Rubio, Mitt Romney had better stick to their principles, and they promised the taxpayer that passages of new negative immigration laws will not be tolerated, but only those in the best interests of the people. Americans are frustrated with the draining of their money to subsidize any person who crosses the border, including the escalation of births to illegal aliens and then claiming citizenship when the annual figure is 400.000. Any thoughts of gaining passage of Amnesty by either party will condemn the majority of states to even more need for health care treatments, hospital inpatients for dialysis and serious surgeries all for free. These are more costs dumped eventually on taxpayers of uncompensated care from the central government. Awarding education for hundreds of thousands of illegal children, who can claim citizenship under a very shaky law, which is destined to reach the Congress thanks to Rep. King? In less than 15 years are schools are overrun by illegal children who cannot speak English, necessitating more time spent by teachers and therefore affecting the failing grades across the country in education.
Of all the politicians that must be thrown out of office, Senator Harry Reid of Nevada must go. Not only has he derailed a amendment to stop illegal aliens living in this country, receiving mostly fraudulent IRS child tax reimbursement, to the tune 0f 4.2 billion dollars, he has done nothing to halt the influx of foreign nationals occupying Nevada. The tired old lawmaker has guaranteed that those working in this country illegally will be sustain in receiving billions of dollars in tax reimbursement for children that are not even present in this country. He is responsible for stopping ICE from raiding the building construction sites, but clandestine inviting mass illegal aliens into the state. The TEA PARTY must adjoin to seat a new younger Senator leader in his place, as he is just one of the liberal-Democrats, involved in wrecking this country’s economic return.
By passing another Comprehensive Immigration Reform would devastate our economy. ICE prohibited programs as the Democrats Dream Act, the Sanctuary policies has its costs, to all taxpayers and further encouraging the exploitation of the American low income worker. Less enforcement also has a negative impact, as Obama administration stands down from proceeding with large scale ICE raids or the deportation of all individuals. Years of complete indifference by both political parties to securing the borders, interior ‘seek and detain’ has allowed large influxes of criminal illegal aliens, with many reentering time and time again. The fact that illegal alien expectant females are procuring even more billions of dollars in education and schooling for their children, if once stepping on to U.S. soil, or disguising their pregnancy when alighting from aircraft, with a design to take advantage of the ‘Birthright Citizenship’ law badly manipulated from its original intent.
There are obstacles in Congress by both sides of the aisle, but even so 59 bipartisan sponsors to amend this law. Similar is to mandate the very controversial E-verify bill, that instead of voluntary for businesses, so it becomes the rule of the land. That every business, no matter how large and small must authenticate their workers, showing they are eligible to work in the United States. This is a very strength of every voter, to stop the continuation of these wrongly enacted laws, to amend Birthright Citizenship, so one parent must be a U.S. citizen, by birth or naturalization. All voters must fight back and demand from your Senator or House Representative that E-verify must be implemented permanently and Birthright citizenship be amended.
Neither new law costs money, but will save absolutely billions in YOUR taxes. The controversial publicity around ‘Chipotle’ is typical of businesses that think they are above the law, when hiring workers. Cheap labor is for profiteers, who have no conscious hiring foreigners, when there are thousands of legal Hispanics who would in this recession; jump at a chance of a job? As an addition ‘Secure Communities’ is now a mandatory law, so all suspects taken into custody will have their fingerprints sent to Homeland Security and ICE. But we must push the idiots in Washington, to pass mandated E-Verify and the amendment to the Birthright Citizenship Act.
E-Verify as nationwide push of enforcement have a 98 % successful program, that detects foreign labor and unable to verify, they will start to expedite departure to their home countries. All these policies, rules and regulations is the agenda of the monumental growth of the Constitutional TEA PARTY splinter group of the Republican Party. Both entrenched parties are nervous of this rise of a national party, which they cannot control.
Sending all african immigrants back home is not the best option for solving this problem, If I ma suggest, let Israel give refugee status to those with genuine claims, in that case, they will have a relaxed mind to work and pay tax to Israel. They may even decides to establish in israel and leave their lives here. This will reduce the amount of money that is being sent out f israel monthly.