Immigration is an Opportunity, Not a Threat
Everyone talks about Immigration, but who does anything about it?
I’ve been on the front lines of immigration for years. I am an immigrant.
My mother lived under Nazi occupation in the Netherlands. Her parents sheltered members of the underground who operated a clandestine radio in their boarding house. My father and his family were Japanese prisoners of war in Java (the Dutch East Indies). We came to the U.S. when I was a baby and my father opened a printer’s shop.
Here I am being interviewed on Channel 8 in 2018 while leading a protest against Trump immigration policies. Immigration is not a new issue with me.
![](/UserFiles/image/Activist_Joy_in_July_2018_protesting_Trump_immigration_policies.png)
The problem is not that there are too many immigrants, it’s that because the Federal government has not updated immigration laws since the 1980’s they’ve lost control of people coming in, creating a massive underground economy. This isn’t good for either the people already here, or those coming in. Economically, we need the new workers but we need them to be part of the system, to pay in to the Social Security system and work safely. Currently, large food manufacturers take advantage of child labor to illegally under pay them and subject them to unsafe working conditions. I know that undocumented people do pay taxes (certainly sales taxes) but sometimes work for cash or under someone else’s ID.
Canada, however, is able to increase their immigration in a safe, secure manner that benefits everyone. According to a recent Forbes article, Canada will welcome 1,485,000 new immigrants through 2026. “By comparison, on average America has taken in about 1,250,000 immigrants per year in the past and it is ten times the size of Canada.”
Why can Canada increase it’s immigration based on the workforce they need and the U.S. can not? It is simply political will. Immigrants are used as a whipping boy by politicians using the same tired racist tropes of crime, drugs, terrorism that have nothing to do with immigration. And we see this happening in our race in this district.
Posted on 02 Jan 2024, 22:30 - Category: News