The Bridge

A few weeks ago the country was forced to stop and take a look at illegal immigration. I think this issue is different then most issues we are currently facing today because there isn’t a right or a left, a democrat or republican slant, conservative or liberal view. In fact we aren’t even looking at two options but rather we are having a tough time narrowing down what the options even are. We have heard everything from amnesty, to deportation, to building walls, fines, guards, and driver license. My post has less to do with ideas or a personal opinion on the issue but rather it is more of a historical observation.

Life often operates under certain laws/rules of the universe that cause things to work a certain way most of the time. An example could be the worker gets the wage but the lazy get unfed. Although most can point to individual situations where this isn’t true by and large this rule holds up. A rule that seems to be in operation in the issue of illegal immigration and border control is “What goes around comes around.”

If asked most of us would recall that Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California at one time belonged to Mexico. Mexico was in possession of these territories until the 1830’s and 1840’s. The United States was currently working towards territorial expansion which was an ideology known as Manifest Destiny. The United States was also in search of a Pacific Coast in which to use as a trading port with the ever growing Asian trade market. President James Polk made an offer to buy these lands for 30 million dollars. Though most of this land was unpopulated at the time Mexico refused to sell on numerous occasions. Polk soon sent a small group of military into a disputed area of ownership (Rio Grande) to build a fort. They were met with opposition by Mexico which then gave Polk full permission to launch a grand assault on Mexico. When it was all said and done Mexico lost half of it’s territory to the United States.

I’m not saying this was right nor am I saying that illegal immigration is right. I just thought I’d point out that what goes around comes around. You steal - you tend to be stolen from. It may just be that they are getting what is theirs.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 18th, 2006 at 9:19 am and is filed under Current Events. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.