Immigration just got personal for President Barack Obama. Earlier this week, his 67-year-old uncle was arrested for drunk driving and found to be in the country illegally. Onyango Obama reportedly asked to make a call to the White House after police detained him.
With this recent development, Obama is caught in a pickle — does he deport his uncle or does he let him walk free? Either way, this could be the catalyst that sparks a legitimate discussion of comprehensive immigration reform.
Politically this is a tough issue for the president, and it is further complicated by the fact that a family member is an illegal immigrant. Obama can take a hard line on immigration and try to attract independent voters and moderate Republicans or he can push for a pathway to citizenship, what some deride as “amnesty,” and win the Hispanic vote.
Either way, this and another state’s tough immigration law took the spotlight off Arizona. With the passage of Senate Bill 1070 last year, our state pushed immigration to the forefront of the national conversation. Advocates said it simply enforced existing federal laws while critics said the law encouraged racial profiling.
This spring we made headlines because of a movement led by Senate President Russell Pearce to get rid of birthright citizenship. Now the hysteria has moved on to other corners of the country: first Alabama, now Washington D.C.
The new Alabama law penalizes people who knowingly give illegal immigrants a job, place to live or a ride, and also requires schoolteachers to report the immigration status of their students.
This is on top of provisions that are similar to SB 1070, including the ability for police to check the driver’s immigration status if they pull them over if they have reason to believe the person to be an immigrant.
Immigration is no longer just an issue limited to a few states. Similar SB 1070-like laws passed in Indiana as well as Georgia. When states in the Midwest and Deep South are targeting immigrants, the battle has moved beyond the Arizona-Mexico border.
Though our immigration problem might not be as crippling as Europe’s, the issue clearly needs solving, and it must be solved in a rational, humane way.
What should be remembered when dealing with this is that, as the president’s uncle’s arrest showed, illegal immigration has a human side to it — it isn’t just about deporting everyone that is here illegally.
In fact, immigrating to the country is not even a misdemeanor, let alone a felony. It is a civil offense and offenders are fined a small amount of money. If this is considered such a minor offense, why not establish a guest worker program and encourage more people to apply for student and work visas?
Whatever the outcome is, immigration is the next battle looming on the horizon. The fight will probably be uglier and nastier than the yearlong battle over health care this nation endured.
This is not just a question of what policy is better; it is a fight that will define our nation’s values, and, unfortunately, illegal immigrants have reason to be very apprehensive.
