What the so-called anti-immigrant forces want is an instant replay of Ellis Island. They want immigrants to come to our country legally. That's not so far-fetched. It's the duty of every sovereign country. But one of the problems with that construct is that, for the most part, the people who passed through Ellis Island looked pretty much like the rest of us. There may have been Mediterranean men who looked Latino but back then, we didn't fear Latinos. And there were certainly no women in burqas or hiqabs!
In any event, people who really know about immigration tell us that banning burqas and hiqabs will be about as effective in controlling border traffic as the fences we've built.
Getting this job done will take nothing less than CIF Comprehensive Immigration Reform. CIF that puts illegals on a path to citizenship, that lets hard-working people do the jobs only hard-working people would want to do, that regulates the numbers and types of immigrants we wish to welcome, that treats immigrant detainees humanely, and that takes a big whack at employers who use wink-and-a-nod personnel practices to hire people who are in this country illegally because it saves them money.
That sounds like something we could actually do!
But at the same time, there are ominous portents of things to come taking place among our neighbors to the North. Quebec has recently tabled a new law, Bill 94, which will ban the niqab -- or any face cover -- when extending and receiving public services in such institutions as courts, hospitals, schools, and licensing bureaus.
Could this be the beginning of the slippery slope for the Western Hemisphere?
Having sounded that alarm bell, I have to say that whether or not there's a burqa ban in Europe, or in Canada, or even in America, we're dealing with a sideshow, a symptom. The woman who really wants to wear these garments isn't going to change because she's told they're banned. She's just going to get angrier and less assimilated.
So, until they find the smarts and the courage to come up with a lot more holistic and robust approach to immigration, governments should just get out of the way.
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