The [Immigration] Papers

1. In a national address, President Bush pledged last night to secure our borders, and proposed a temporary worker program as part of an immigration reform package that he says will "live up to the promise and values of America."

Oh, wait. That was two years ago.

2. Jesse Jackson recently noted that until 1918 the United States didn't require passports to enter the country and the Mexican border was unguarded, in a column debunking immigration myths.

3. Finally, a presidential plan that would reverse the flow of people across the border.

4. A new development: Illegal Immigrants Returning To Mexico For American Jobs

5. These foreign flags didn't seem to upset a soul.

6. Wait a minute, what year is this? The naturalization application for immigrants still asks if you have ever been associated with the Communist Party? And worse, if you have ever been "a habitual drunkard?"

7. Jobs Americans Will and Will Not Do.

8. Us vs. Them.

9. Hispanics continue to remake the city, but skyrocketing home prices noted as an aside in a graphic here may be having a more dramatic impact as Chicago becomes unaffordable to the middle- and working-class. A Lou Dobbs two-fer!

10. Sue Ontiveros got me thinking.

What if we all rallied around the immigrant coalition as an animating force of unity, a vehicle with which to move forward with optimism in these dreary times. What if we took now the road not taken after 9/11 - the road of affirming our values instead of eroding them out of fear. The road of uniting ourselves before the world as a true beacon of democracy by winning hearts and minds with our best qualities, instead of leading through the evangelical fervor of misguided military misadventure. We live in a world changed far more by the ever-more-entwined global economy (and a seeming worldwide trend toward democracy) than by terrorists and Al-Qaeda.

This country made a grievous mistake in Iraq, and indeed in its "war on terror." We never should have tried to fight a "war on terror." We should have fought a war for freedom and tolerance, the true enemies of Al-Qaeda. We would still have much of the world on our side if we did, and our country would be stronger and safer. We should have led by example. Instead, we are a historic cautionary tale.

Perhaps immigrants can set us free again. The immigration issue forces us to confront our own past, who we are, and what we want to be. We are a country where your ethnic, geographic ties are to be celebrated, but aren't supposed to define you or your life. We are the country where people from all over the world come because they believe in the idea of America - free speech, free religion, and, yes, a free economy. America is not popular because it is a police state. Immigrants new and old have come here to escape countries where the government spies on its citizens and fights phony wars. That is not supposed to be us.

So perhaps the immigration "movement" can infuse America with something more important than their labor: Their spirit.

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