Jonathan Shapiro Quotes
You can't undo a deportation.
Shapiro, Jonathan. "Jonathan Shapiro Quotes." QuoteTab, QuoteTab, 2024, www.quotetab.com/quotes/by-jonathan-shapiro.
The illegal alien problem had vexed Republican and Democratic Administrations for over 50 years and is one of the most complicated of all the problems facing the nation. She offered the voters a simple solution.
At that time the Republicans had adopted a political strategy of not passing any significant legislation so that they could claim the Democratic President Barack Obama could not lead or do anything. They were committed to limiting Obama to one term. The Republicans controlled the House and had enough Senators to filibuster anything that happened in the Senate. During that period, there was hardly any legislation passed—one of the lowest points of Congressional paralysis and partisanship in American history.
Clyburn was the Democratic whip of the House. He was opposed to his party’s initial position on Immigration Reform. What he and many others who opposed “amnesty” did agree to was a scheme where undocumented immigrants who had broken the law were declared guilty, paid a fine, and had their application for citizenship delayed for some years. Others who opposed amnesty saw this alternative as amnesty if citizenship would ever be granted to an “illegal alien”. The latter group were all Republicans who also believed that immigrants tended to vote Democratic once they became citizens.
At the time, many people referred to immigrants who had entered the United States without the proper documentation or by contravening our laws were referred to as “illegals” or “illegal immigrants”. Bank robbers and rapists were never referred to as “illegals”—only immigrants. Carroll and others pointed out that there was no such thing as an “illegal person”—only illegal acts.
The issue of admission of relatives of citizens had, in the 20th century, become controversial as some political forces worked to restrict immigration. The result of politicizing this issue was that the relatives who would receive immigration priorities would change every time Congress legislated about anything involving immigration and asylum. Immigrants from some countries could have their aunts and uncles get priority while other countries it was only siblings, children and parents. And still others would be children only. There was also racial and ethnic discrimination in that nations with white populations received a broader right to have relatives immigrate than non-white.
Jonathan Shapiro is a South African cartoonist, known as Zapiro, whose work appears in numerous South African publications and has been exhibited internationally on many occasions. He is the nephew of British magician David Berglas and cousin to Marvin Berglas, director of Marvin's Magic.
