It would be hard to find a time when we as a nation were blessed without all “your fussin’ and your fightin’.” I think the key word in this is “your.” How easy it is to get dragged into someone else’s fussin and fightin’ that then has you hip deep into their feud. If you are one with a limited amount of common sense, to often you gladly jump into the melee feet first; if you are lacking common sense, you dive in head first. This the way I see the immigration nonsense taking place in LA.

I will admit that this country’s immigration policy is out-of-whack, but hardly a Mars Attacks assault. This so-called immigration invasion in Los Angeles has stirred up a lot “fussin’ and fightin’.” Immigration Customs and Enforcement agents are rounding up day laborers at Home Depot–the low hanging fruit of snatch and grab–has gotten a lot people excited, particularly those at The White House. In fact, they got so excited they decided, not only to call out the California National Guard, but the Marines. Who better to call out then the Marines. Marines have a history of dealing with Central American insurrections that goes back to the early 1900s, the National Guard not so much. And who better to guard our streets against an immigrant insurrection of landscapers, dishwashers and a hodgepodge of day laborers then those who cleared the streets of Fallujah in 2004. This is Trump’s domestic surge to push back alien invaders from our streets. It may literally become overkill.

Listen to the radio, talkin’ ’bout the last show
Someone got excited, had to call the state militia–Creedence Clearwater Revival: Travelin’ Band

I am not condoning violence and the burning of driverless cars or surrounding federal buildings. But if there were a Richter Scale for measuring riots what is happening in LA is a 1.0: A microriot not felt, but recorded by main street news (and other bloviators). Take Detroit in 1967, that was a riot. That five-day riot was a magnitude 8.0 Riot: More than 40 people were killed, 1,100 injured (figures for injured vary), 7,200 people arrested and 2,000 buildings damaged or destroyed, its tremors were felt across the nation. Ironically, this riot started with similar early morning police raid on an after hours-bar that went amiss. A side note, the 1992 LA Riot was a 9.0 Riot.

The 1967 Detroit Riots were among the most violent and destructive riots in U.S. history. By the time the bloodshed, burning and looting ended after five days, 43 people were dead, 342 injured, nearly 1,400 buildings had been burned and some 7,000 National Guard and U.S. Army troops had been called into service.–History.com

The Paramount Riot seems like Trump’s Tonkin Gulf Resolution to escalate his deportation war. The big difference is there is no Congressional authorization, which today is a wink and a nod and a hardy “go for it!” It is a hyped up reason to bring out Title 10 U.S.C. 12406 and the military, which says “the president may call into federal service members and units of the National Guard of any State in such numbers as he considers necessary to repel the invasion, suppress the rebellion, or execute those laws.” In other words, the Administration just put a hiring freeze in Home Depot parking lots across the nation. Some poor drywaller is going have a hard time finding locals to carry in sheetrock up to the second floor addition. Boards that can weigh from anywhere from 30 to 100 pounds depending on the size, and usually bundled in twos.

Our immigrant problem began when the first European immigrants in 1617 brought in African immigrants to pick tobacco. (Native Americans’ immigration problems started in the early 1500s.) On a more positive note, in the late 1600s William Penn actively sought out Europeans to settle in Pennsylvania. According to The Historical Society of Pennsylvania, “William Penn had proselytize among Rhine Valley dissenters and invited them to settle in his colony…Between 1727 and 1775, approximately 65,000 Germans landed in Philadelphia.” And they had to travel hundreds of miles just to get to a ship to cross the Atlantic Ocean. Benjamin Franklin wrote “that at least one-third of Pennsylvania’s white population was German.”

Immigration is a part of our natural history as a country. We cannot deport our way out of 400 years of immigration. It runs as deep in our veins as tax avoidance; both have been necessary to sustain the growth and expansion of our country. It is interesting, however, to note, that the current Administration is trying to tackle both issues at the same time with The One Big Beautiful (tax cut) Bill and rounding up 3,000 immigrants a day–but not to carry drywall. It will be interesting to see if this administration can walk and blow bubble gum at the same time.

If our country is a melting pot of culture, our immigration policies have been a recipe created over time reflecting the singular view of White Anglo Saxon beliefs of race, religion and economics at various points along our history. According to heinonline.org, “The Naturalization Act of 1790 established that foreign-born residents of the United States could apply for citizenship provided they had lived in the U.S. for two years, had remained in their current residence for one year, and were free, white, and of “good moral character.” If we went by “good moral character” for being a citizen today, we might easily lose half the currently elected and appointed members of our government, to include Supreme Court justices–they could easily be DOGE(d).

Since then we have had a twisting immigration policy that has encouraging Chinese laborers to work on the railroads to then outright excluding them in 1882 from not only becoming citizens but denying those that were here the path to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The Exclusion Act was renewed every 10 years until it was finally repealed in 1952. In 1980 immigrants could now claim refugee status and could enter the immigration maze. And, In 1986 the Reagan Administration basically outsourced the control of immigration to business.

Prior to Reagan, Congress had created a niche out for businesses. According to The Congressional Quarterly Almanac, “it was illegal to enter or work in the country without proper papers, did not make it illegal for employers to hire undocumented workers.” It seems the government closed the front door but left the back door wide open to hiring immigrants no matter what their status was. In reality it is an economic problem of supply and demand in getting the cheapest labor possible.

That changed with the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986. It was now illegal to hire illegals “knowing that such person is unauthorized to work…without verifying his or her work status.” Employers could now be subjected to fines and jail. The new law also allowed a pathway for amnesty and legal status for undocumented aliens. Since then we have had Dream Acts that set requirements and conditions for illegal immigrants to apply for residential and permanent status. And of course there has been wall building and border openings and closings along with barbed wire across the Rio Grande. But that has not stopped businesses from hiring illegal immigrants.

A major problem with immigration is that we have had a Congresses that is too cheap to buy new underwear. But not so for foreign owned 747s. Our policies in dealing with immigration has a time-worn elastic band, it is ragged, and it is full of holes. You dare not put it in the dryer and you damn sure don’t want to hang it out on the line to dry after washing it in the sink.

“If you have a problem you can solve by throwing money at it, you don’t have a very interesting problem.”— American novelist and nonfiction writer Anne Lamott.

For the better part of 40 years Congress and various Presidents have created a very interesting political/economical problem” out of immigration. Businesses like agriculture, meat packing and construction run on cheap labor immigration provides. Employment for immigrants for decades was wide open. As a nation we have not invested the necessary money to control and accommodate business needs nor screen immigrants at the border. If we did, why are we deporting so many now? Instead, We have allowed our country to become a Walmart on Black Friday every day.

What I am sick and tired of is the political extremes on both ends of the spectrum creating all the insane fussin’ and fightin’. Without a doubt we have had a long running challenges with immigration. But now we have a president that has decided that things are out of hand. Have things drastically changed from 1980 to the present? If so, it is because immigration is part of our historical DNA. The problem today, is that this administration’s policy on immigration could be compared to a doctor using a guillotine to treat patients suffering from migraines. It is a bit radical and obvious not the best solution for the patient or his family.

Meanwhile, those of us that are in the middle looking for real solutions to immigration watch the ends never meet.