As immigration reform debates continue to heat up Washington and rankle the folks on talk radio and cable, in barber shops, and throughout the Web, we need to remember similar incidents throughout our history. As each new wave of immigrants entered the US, false crises were created and used to crackdown on the newcomers and expand government.
My grandmother was a Polish immigrant who never learned to read or write in English. She would, though, despite her poverty and 10 children, chase any government worker off her property with a broom. And she was not alone as her neighbors also refused to welcome government aid.
Contrast that with the trend started during the Great Society when government workers and their associated minions - the do-gooders - became more aggressive and pushed government services on anyone deemed in need of assistance, creating a dependent constituency and assumed positive rights.
Eliminate aggressive government interventions and the so-called immigration problem would cure itself. Absent government, those who immigrate would either have a job and be able to find housing and other essentials on their own, or they would be truly illegal trespassers and squatters.
As always, the problem is government and the solutions cannot be found in additional Progressive governmental interventions, such as welfare, etc., nor in statist forms of control.
Absent government interventions, all will work itself out well.
Jim Fedako, a former professional cyclist who lives in Lewis Center, OH, is a member of the Olentangy Local School District and maintains a blog: Anti-Positivist.
