Published: March 28, 2008 11:47 am         

The difference between illegal immigrants and us

EDMOND — Benjamin Franklin wrote, “Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.”

There’s been a lot of talk about House Bill 1804. Some people hate it, including most business leaders and many religious and humanitarian groups. Yet some are quite proud of it and point to the fact that some other states want to copy Oklahoma’s model. Maybe we shouldn’t be so proud.

Oklahoma wasn’t always the prosperous state it is today. In fact, in the Dust Bowl era of the Great Depression, Oklahoma suffered more than most of the rest of the country. Good jobs, or even bad ones, were hard to find. During the 1930s and 1940s, many moved their families to the West Coast where there was work and wages were good.

These people did something quite remarkable. They left the sovereign state of Oklahoma, crossed the sovereign states of Texas, New Mexico and Arizona, and entered into and established permanent residence in the sovereign state of California, all without the permission of any of these states. So what you say! Any American can do that. Yes, that’s true. But Americans can do so only because the sovereign states of the United States of America have worked out a system of unimpeded cross-border passages, and they may move freely within the states of the union.

No law forbade the Okies from leaving Oklahoma without approval of the Oklahoma government, and no law forbade them from entering California.

Actually, in 1937 California did enact a statute that became known as the “anti-Okie law” aimed at preventing certain Americans from entering the state. But the law was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1941. This law was designed to protect California jobs and the economy from being hurt by all the invading Okies and other poor outsiders. Is this theme sounding a little familiar? Are you feeling a little offended yet?

Occasionally, some of these people were rounded up and deported. What was their crime? Picking cotton? If so, many Okies were guilty, too. In the ’50s and ’60s, many of the ranchers had yet to switch from Okies and Mexicans to mechanical pickers. So far as most people could tell, the deportations pleased no one: Not the unlucky individuals wrenched from their homes; not the ranchers and business owners who readily hired these hardworking people; and not the rest of residents.

La Migra — the immigration officers — was like a natural disaster. These obnoxious state functionaries descended on the community like a swarm of locusts, benefiting no one, yet collecting salaries at public expense for their mischief. Are we now suggesting we go back to these types of practices today to rid ourselves of illegal immigrants? Surely we’re better than that.

Some claim that the “illegals” crowd the public schools and hospitals, sucking resources away from the taxpayers. Most of us attended public schools. Whether your parents paid any more in taxes to the state of Oklahoma and the school district than the “illegals” paid is doubtful. Everybody, regardless of birthplace or documentation, pays excise, gasoline and general sales taxes whenever they make certain purchases.

Everybody, regardless of birthplace or documentation, pays the property tax indirectly whenever they rent a house or apartment. Everybody, regardless of birthplace or documentation, pays fees for tolls and other privileges.

I am not suggesting that we open our borders and turn a blind eye to illegal immigration. I am suggesting that we work harder to increase legal immigration. We clearly need these people and they want to come. As our population ages, we will need them even more.

As for the illegal immigrants already here, whether we like it or not, they’re here. Most are hard-working, productive members of our society trying to make a living and support their families like the rest of us. We need to find ways to help them become citizens and become even more productive members of our country.

As the saying goes, be careful what you wish for because you just might get it. We already are seeing some of the adverse consequences of this misguided legislation and there is more to come.

Perhaps we Okies would do well to remember that the shoe was once on the other foot and we were once considered the invaders. That was unjust and so is this. If you look at it that way, maybe HB 1804 doesn’t make you so proud.



NICK MASSEY is an Edmond resident and a financial adviser who is a frequent guest analyst on CNBC and Bloomberg.

     

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