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Health & Fitness

The High Price of Using Force to Deal With New Jersey's Illegal Immigrants

While Chris Christie hangs on in Trenton by his fingernails, caught up in a scandal of his own making, the nation’s – and the state’s most pressing problems have not evaporated. In fact, they’ve manifested themselves in ways never previously imagined, and demand creative and bold solutions – before they metastasize into much larger perils. Perhaps the best example of this is a crisis so prevalent in the Garden State, that when one examines the latest statistics concerning it, they simply overwhelm you. I’m talking about the number 550,000. It’s the number, according to conservative estimates, of the illegal alien population in New Jersey.  The numerical source is unimpeachable, and relied upon by politicians, businesses and the press alike: the Pew Research Firm.

 

Let’s step back for a moment and try to digest that number. Remember, that number does not represent, again conservatively, the illegal alien population in the United States. That’s a number hovering around 9-10 million. No, here little in New Jersey, a state that could fit into California some ten times over, a state smaller than some counties in Montana, we’re talking about more than a half-million people.

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How much is a half million people? Well, to put it one way, it’s two Newarks. Now if anyone has ever been to the Brick City, you know it’s a huge, crowded place. Now put one more Newark on top of that thought and you’ll have a good idea of the number.

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Here’s another illustration. Yankee Stadium at full capacity seats about 50,000 people. We’ve all heard their roar at sold-out games, either in person or on television, when Jeter or Cano belted a ball out of the park, say last summer. I’ve been at that beautiful new stadium on a hot June day for a sold-out game, and you must know when I tell you, one cannot move around too easily. When the crowd rises to its feet, the place literally wobbles. So picture eleven of these Yankee Stadiums, all filled, but this time with over a half million men, women and children. And by the way, most of the children were raised here since near infancy, and bear no trace of an accent or even a foreign attitude. They’re not citizens, these kids, but they’re American as Independence Hall. They’ve never known anything else but this Promised Land. 

 

So we’ve got a 550,000 illegal aliens in New Jersey. Now for argument’s sake, to get a good idea of why one might not want to embrace the so-called “Rule of Law/Deport Them Now” argument, we need to examine the logistics of such a position. This, in fact, is the reason why I’ve written this blog entry.

 

This “crowd” currently represents the majority view of most Republicans and Independents, and a sizable minority of Democrats here. It’s a pretty straightforward argument:

 

Illegal immigrants are here unlawfully, and therefore are more or less common criminals and/or foreign invaders. Like any other criminal, they are entitled to arrest, a hearing or trial, some kind of penalty involving either a fine or incarceration, and finally, deportation. It’s just that simple. Illegal aliens are lawbreakers, and if the Federal Government had the will to simply enforce the law, the problem would be resolved.

 

Alright, so say you advocate such an approach. You respect the law. How might you enforce it? Think about it…how would you personally organize a campaign to identify, pursue, arrest, try, incarcerate and deport 550,000 in our state? It’s a good question, because Americans frequently like to take a stand on an issue out of principle, only to abandon or modify it after the logistics of enforcement make themselves obvious (a good example: Prohibition of the 1920’s and 30’s…wow, just a fabulous idea…such a moral achievement).

 

First, the state of New Jersey, or the Federal Government, or both, would have to find a way to identify these people. Where are they? How large of an investigatory agency would be needed to simply find them? What kinds of methods would it use in its efforts? If anything, the effort, even at this early state, would cost billions of dollars.

 

Okay, so now you’ve identified every illegal alien in New Jersey, all 550,000 of them. Now you have to pursue and arrest them. Yes, you heard that right. Illegal aliens are lawbreakers, and this is the way you deal with wrongdoers. So imagine the challenge of pursuing and forcibly arresting the equal to 11 chock-filled Yankee stadiums. It’s going to take a lot of handcuffs, more police officers and Federal agents that are already on the payroll (just for our state) and would be sure to provoke thousands of violent incidents. Deaths would surely result as well. How many vehicles would we need to haul away that amount of humanity? I guess we’d have to purchase trucks or put them on trains and secure or seal the cars until they got to jail.

 

And what about jail? Okay, so now you have your illegal aliens, you’ve captured them, so where are you going to hold them? They’ve got trial rights, after all…the Federal Government has to figure out who is here legally, who got arrested by accident, who might qualify or asylum, etc. You can’t put 550,000 men, women and children of over 90 nationalities and various stages of health in our county jails. Altogether, those jails probably can’t hold more than 20,000. No, you would have to build a system of secure, outdoor/indoor holding facilities. These facilities would have to be equipped with barracks, cafeterias, hospitals, showers, schools and prisons-within-prison for violent offenders. In an earlier era they were called concentration camps.

 

What? Concentration camps? When did we get to these? But again, my law-and-order advocate, how else could you forcibly secure 550,000 people? You cannot offer them bail…they’ve long been fugitives!

 

Okay, so how long would they have to persist in these camps? Well, 550,000 hearings have to follow, if by this time you still believed in this sort of thing. So I think it would be safe to say that each prisoner could face at least six months to two years behind bars before a judge could see them…and that’s just to see them, establish their rights before the court and move to trial.

 

And while they were incarcerated, all of these 550,000 people would need to be clothed, fed, and policed. Guard towers would have to be constructed, walls erected, barbed wire deployed. Of course we might have escapees, so we’d need dogs and men with guns…lots of them. This effort would amount to a foreign military occupation, albeit entirely within the boundaries of the New Jersey. Again, I want to reiterate, we’re only talking about little New Jersey here, not the nation as a whole.

 

Fine, so you’ve arrested 550,000 people. You’ve imprisoned them. You’ve tried them. They’re all found guilty. We can skip the imprisonment part, because let’s face it; it would be cheaper (I guess) to just deport them. Now what?

 

You’ve got 550,000 people, all probably pretty angry and desperate at this point (well tough luck!) in need of secure transportation to their distant homelands. Many are from Latin America, some from China, others from Portugal, etc. The Federal government would have to forcibly transport these people to our major airports or rail stations and secure them for the long trip to their native lands (In Cattle Cars? Children cuffed to their parents who in turn are cuffed to airplane seats or air marshals?). Picking up the tab for this modern day “Trail of Tears,” of course, is the U.S. Taxpayer.

 

First, allow me to be cynical. How much would this cost? Billions of dollars? A Trillion dollars? Again, we’re just considering a half million individuals. There would also be lawsuits, mistakes, and embarrassing scandals. And, of course, the presence of concentration camps in foreign sounding places like Somerville, the Pine Barrens and Cape May County (lots of open space there!).

 

But there is more to cost than just money. How would such an effort fundamentally transform the landscape of New Jersey? How would it affect life in the state? How would it shake the way we look at ourselves? And what of all of those friends, neighbors and co-workers that, surprise…you never knew were illegals and now they’ve been rounded up and deported too? How would you explain to your kids that some or even half of their classmates, though they were always thought of as Americans, had simply vanished and been hauled off to a concentration camp outside of Morristown?

 

So, to my law and order advocates, you must remember this. Yes, the law is important, but so is justice. Now what constitutes “justice” or “injustice” is certainly debatable, but the notion of 550,000 men, women and children chased down in places like Paramus and the Quaker Bridge Mall, arrested, jailed, interned, and then deported…well, you’ve seen that image before…what do you think? Are you ready to see a million hands dangling from rail cars or trucks on the Garden State Parkway? Is that what you’re really hoping for? Because, and I ask for all replies, if you have another idea on how we can solve this problem using force, I invite you to post. But I’d bet you couldn’t come up with a logistical, workable alternative. These “criminal aliens” are not just going to turn themselves in to face poverty, imprisonment and deportation.  

 

Okay, so what do we do? How do we confront this issue, even solve it, without selling our souls and creating a fascist-inspired infrastructure?

 

We offer them permanent residency and, eventually if they so desire, the opportunity to apply for full American citizenship.

 

Yes. We should say to these hardworking people, stay. Stay and build this nation with us, as you’re already doing. Stay like our relatives and ancestors did and love this land and its freedoms. Stay and gain the protection of our laws. Yes, you came here in violation of our laws, but if our illustrious businesses and upper class households had refused to pay you (again, to illegally to avoid minimum wage and tax laws), you would have never come and remained here in the first place. So while some of this is your fault, sturdy immigrant, most of it is ours. Stay and raise your families, pay your taxes, live your lives, and help build our diverse democracy. Diversity is our strength and always has been. We have seen states dedicated to so-called “purity” and “homogeny” and know where they result. We have no desire to go down such a path. Stay with us, suffer with us, prosper with us, become one of us. And maybe, during this process, we can learn more about what’s good about life, liberty and democracy from you…

 

Now that would sure beat a network of concentration camps.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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