Tag: Americanism

Immigration: Back to the Future

Have refugees come by ship. It was once done, and it worked

Why can’t today’s refugees enter by ship like they did 140 years ago?

The Present

The border crisis along the Rio Grande is a definite problem for the United States.  I give credit to Donald Trump for bringing the issue to the forefront at a time when no one else did.  However, Mr. Trump’s main focus/concern is squarely on the quality of the people coming in.  He considers them criminals and has publicly said so.  Some may be, but the majority are simply seeking a better life for themselves and their children.  IMO, if there are murderers and thugs slipping through it is due both to the large number of people crossing and the process involved. 

The search for a better process in the future has me searching 140 years ago in our nation’s past.

The Past

In the 1880s we also had refugees pouring into our country.  Like the people at the border today, these were people not necessarily wanting to become Americans but were people looking to mostly escape—poverty, oppression, crime—and saw America as the best place to go.

Unlike the refugees of today, these people came from Western and Eastern Europe and by ship.  Early on many arrived at Castle Garden, formerly known as Castle Clinton, at the southern tip of Manhattan.  The number of people coming in overwhelmed this location, so land was acquired nearby at a former munitions site called Ellis Island. 

According to the History Channel website, from 1900 to 1914—the peak years of Ellis Island’s operation—an average of 1,900 people passed through the immigration station every day. Most successfully passed through in a matter of hours, but others could be detained for days.  On April 17, 1907, an all-time daily high of 11,747 immigrants received was reached; that year, Ellis Island experiences its highest number of immigrants received in a single year, with 1,004,756 arrivals.

Learning from experience, the Immigration department later began to prep refugees at the point of departure rather than at the point of entry.  This both sped up the process at Ellis Island and for those who were rejected, they did not have to be shipped back. 

Solution

Why can’t today’s refugees enter by ship in the Gulf of Mexico? They have been coming through the southern borders for decades. Their numbers do not appear to substantially be dropping anytime soon.  An arrangement could be made with Mexico to allow processing and ships to depart.  There are deep water ports in Houston, New Orleans, Mobile, Miami to provide entry.  In fact, New Orleans was also used as a destination port in the late 1800s. The U.S. could set up several processing stations so no one city receives them all.  This would allow the United States to take control of the process instead of refugees dictating to us how they enter. 

If an orderly process was set up, we could go ahead and seal the southern border.  Anyone then crossing the Rio Grande and slipping through would then be immediately subject to arrest and deportation, regardless of the reason for coming. Why hasn’t anyone at least looked into the feasibility of this idea?  As of today, no one has come up with any other, have they?  If rerouting their destination is a major inconvenience for the refugees, then so be it.  Those illegals already here could go through, but would have to find a way to get to the processing station.

Having refugees arrive by ship isn’t some made-up scheme; it was actually done a century ago—and it worked.  I don’t see any reason why it should not at least be seriously explored, if not implemented.

This isn’t a rant, but a look at a possible solution without demeaning anyone. If you have taken the time to read this and think it is worth exploring, share it with others.

AMERICA IS NO HUMPTY DUMPTY

It can be put back together again. Small businesses lead the way.

In the March 2016 edition of The Atlantic , author James Fallows wrote an article asking the question, “Can America Put Itself Back Together?”  It took him 14 pages, but his answer to his own question was an unhesitant “Yes.”

His was a journey, mostly by air, across the lower 48 to search for his answer.  He visited mostly small towns (cities that do not have major league sports teams), such as San Bernardino, CA, Duluth MN, Redlands, CA, the “Golden Triangle” of Columbus, Starkville, & West Point, MS, Holland, MI, and Sioux Falls, SD (and others.)

He reported how small businesses are providing the economic Renaissance in America.  He writes:

John Dearie, a co-author (with Courtney Geduldig) of Where The Jobs Are, argues that new business formation is the single most important guide to future employment trends.  This is because of the unlikely sounding but true economic observation that, over decades, all the net new job growth within the U.S. economy has come from firms in their first five years of existence (and mainly from fast-growing ones in their very first year).  Big established firms…employ a lot of people.  But the increase in jobs, overall, statistically comes from new firms, as they go from no employees to the first dozen or hundred.

America’s economic renaissance rests on a foundation of companies that are innovative, independent, and competitive with one another.  Taxes and regulations should allow these companies to exist and thrive and not be concerned with fighting off manipulative tactics from larger firms.