Reader Rosemary Schaffer of Windom thinks Dick Day has it wrong:
It is quite interesting that Republican Dick Day, who is running against Rep. Tim Walz, is opening his campaign by playing the race card.
He’s “demanding immigration reform.” What a deal. Eight years of Republican control of both the House and Senate and the White House, four years of a war swallowing billions of dollars, our own economy doing barrel rolls in the stock market and housing market — and he’s worried about the border between Mexico and us?
“Guest Worker Program?” That was done once before; it was called the Bracaro Program, and even the people administering it for the Federal Government called it “legalized slavery.” You bring ’em in, work them like Confederate slaves, then kick their butts back out after so long. Then you bring the next batch in and do it again.
As a sop to the kind of industry we have in this area, he says, “We certainly have to watch out for Minnesota’s agriculture and meatpacking industries.” Oh, absolutely, we must see that all the industries that need workers have all they want who are not citizens, have no citizen’s rights and can be kicked back out whenever.
“America is a nation of immigrants” is about the only thing he said that rings true. One of my immigrant ancestors came on the Coffin Ships from Ireland, and one was here before the rest.
Schaffer's concern for guest workers' chances for earning citizenship was shared in Solving illegal immigration issue shouldn’t be so hard, a recent editorial about immigration published in the ultra-conservative Fairmont Sentinel. The editors wrote in part:
State Sen. Dick Day, a Republican, was in Fairmont this week touting his candidacy for Congress. Day would like the job currently held by Tim Walz, who represents Minnesota’s 1st Congressional District, which includes the Fairmont area. Day focused his remarks on illegal immigraton into the United States. . . .
. . .We do not agree with Day on every single point nor with those who seem to favor unrestricted immigration. It seems to us that common sense, for some reason, has been left out of this debate.
America’s laws on illegal immigration aren’t working because they are fundamentally flawed. Businesses in the U.S. need workers and the illegals (largely from Mexico) want to work. Yet there should be an orderly way to meet both sides’ needs, such as by expanding the national immigration quota and providing guest worker passes. Accompanying this should be a path to citizenship. And there should be no government “freebies” for those who go off the path.
At the same time, the southern border should be controlled so that not just anyone (criminals, terrorists) can slip through. An orderly southern border also would significantly reduce the risk of death for illegal immigrants, such as in the Arizona desert.
America is a land of immigrants, and good thing. If rural areas, including ours, are to add population, an important part of it will be immigration.
We agree that any "guest worker" program should include a path for citizenship for those workers who participate. Common sense does indeed tell us that those without rights or hope are easily exploited, while providing hope for those who work hard--and by following a set of rules that reward hard work--strengthens American values and communities. Not all guest workers would want to become U.S. citizens, but there should be a place here for hard workers--not just one or two year passes as Day suggests.
Speaking squarely on the side of common sense, Walz has objected in the past to a guest worker program which fails to include a path to citizenship.
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