The Dreamers' Legal Problems
Let's do something the politicians on both sides neglect or refuse to do: be clear about who is responsible for the Dreamers' legal problems. Without addressing that issue, we really cannot have an meaningful conversation, and without that, what's the point?
The Dreamers' parents bear one hundred percent of the responsibility for their being here illegally. Their parents knew they were bringing their children here illegally. Their parents knew their children would suffer severe and life long legal consequences, yet their parents brought them here anyway.
Giving the dreamers citizenship, or even legal status rewards their parents' illegal behavior. One gets more of what one rewards. Do we have so few native-born scofflaws that we need to subsidize the importation of yet more?
Change the conversation: Put the onus where it belongs: not on the federal government, but on the parents, and speak of rewarding bad behavior vs not rewarding bad behavior. Giving Dreamers citizenship rewards their parents' bad behavior. Do we want more bad behavior, or less? Should we praise and reward bad behavior, or make people ashamed they treated their own children so shabbily?
The Dreamers' parents bear one hundred percent of the responsibility for their being here illegally. Their parents knew they were bringing their children here illegally. Their parents knew their children would suffer severe and life long legal consequences, yet their parents brought them here anyway.
Giving the dreamers citizenship, or even legal status rewards their parents' illegal behavior. One gets more of what one rewards. Do we have so few native-born scofflaws that we need to subsidize the importation of yet more?
Change the conversation: Put the onus where it belongs: not on the federal government, but on the parents, and speak of rewarding bad behavior vs not rewarding bad behavior. Giving Dreamers citizenship rewards their parents' bad behavior. Do we want more bad behavior, or less? Should we praise and reward bad behavior, or make people ashamed they treated their own children so shabbily?
posted by TTB at
6:10 AM
1 Comments:
The parents came here because they thought that life as illegals in El Norte was a step up from their shit-hole country of origin. They were probably right, regardless of whether a reward or punishment is applied ten or twenty years later.
Long-delayed reinforcement has very little effect on behavior. This is really about signalling what kind of people we are.
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