Scapegoat, Noun: “A person or group bearing blame for others.”
A common response to a consideration of the role of immigration and immigrants in the problems confronting America is that immigrants are being “scapegoated,” i.e., blamed for ALL of these problems. This we emphatically are NOT doing.
Rather, this pamphlet is an attempt to lay out for reasoned debate the role which immigration plays – sometimes larger, sometimes smaller – in a wide range of American problems. Few if any of these problems can be solved by immigration reform alone; but likewise, few can be solved or even be adequately addressed without taking immigration into account.
Three Fundamental Questions
After all of the discussion – which hopefully will contain as few personal attacks and as little coarse and loaded language as possible – we need to get down to the hard work of answering the fundamental questions of immigration policy:
How many people should we admit, and what are the reasons for selecting this number?
Who should get the visas, and what factors should be considered in this decision?
How can these decisions be enforced in a humane and reasonable way, in light of large scale illegal entry into the country?
Providing answers to these three basic questions is the price we must all pay for admission to the Great Debate on Immigration – no fair criticizing current policy without putting your alternatives on the table. The only way to beat an idea is with a better idea. What is your better idea?
Who Decides?
Our elected representatives decide – at the local, state, and national levels. We suggest you provide your public officials with a copy of this educational booklet, and ask them for answers to the questions posed here. Then tell them whether the policy positions they take will merit your support.
And don’t stop there. Order more copies of this booklet (see the order form), give them to your friends, relatives, and associates, and urge them to join in the debate. That way we can get the job done.
– John H. Tanton, M.D.
Publisher www.TheSocialContract.com