As a 'legal' immigrant to this country, and now a full citizen (arrived from England in 1979!), I have to applaud the actions of the OK state government from a principle perspective. It took me an undergraduate degree, TWO postgraduate degrees and 10 years experience as a 'rocket scientist' (LOL...true actually!!) just to get a green card, and then after about 10 years I went through the lengthy citizenship process. In my 27 years of residence, I have paid well over $1.5 million in federal taxes and god knows how much in sales taxes, so I feel I have 'paid my dues' to be here and contribute to this thread...
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I am 100% behind the bill and the 'bravery' of the Oklahoma legislature, BUT...
...my ONLY issue here is that it will be interesting to see how the economy of Oklahoma deals with this legislation. IMHO, Oklahoma's economy is primarily agricultural and
oil based...relatively little manufacturing or high-tech, and the agricultural economy of the US (at least in the south, west and central US) has traditionally relied HEAVILY on illegal labor to keep costs low. This will be a 'test' case for how well these legislations will fare in the rest of the country, particularly in the economic powerhouse states of Texas and California!
While the whole immigration issue is immensely complex, we should beware isolationism and xenophobia until we are confident that LEGAL Americans are once again willing to take on the jobs that we currently feel are 'below us', but are the very jobs which keep our economy running at its current economic levels and which allow us to reap the luxuries of the greatest consumer-based economy in the world.
Just food for thought in that while this is a
wonderfully demonstrative and jingoistic measure, it may not be the ONLY solution we need!
Little in politics or human society is
simple to fix !!!!!
Glyn
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