by Zach Bigalke

Created on: June 04, 2007

Even debating this topic reduces people seeking the opportunities provided by the United States to the level of our domesticated pets. It is okay to insert an electronic tracking device into a cat or a dog prone to wandering away from home; it is a sign of American hegemonic philosophy that we would even consider doing this to another human being. Citizens would riot if such a proposal was made to implant them in the name of national security. Why would we subject immigrants - legal or illegal - to such measures in this, the "Land of the Free"?

The majority of immigrants entering into the United States do so because of the dearth of opportunities in their own homelands. This is how the first settlers at Roanoke, Jamestown and Plymouth arrived on our shores. This is what drove the "indigenous" peoples that were here on their arrival to cross the Bering Land Strait millennia ago. The Statue of Liberty, that first vision of our country for so many immigrants in the late-19th and early-20th centuries, was donated by the French with the inscription, "Give us your poor, your tired, your huddled masses longing to be free..."

When we take away the freedoms of a large swath of the people within our borders, we subsequently decrease all our freedoms. We are threatening to bring to life the horrible fantasies of George Orwell when we give the government the power to play "Big Brother" with any human beings. The government of the United States was founded on the principle that "All men are created equal" - though the principle seems to often be circumvented in practice and precedent. When one man can be judged as free and another as a blip on a government tracking radar, we give too much power to the practice of government and deprive our principles of their just place in policymaking.

The broad immigration bill currently being debated in Congress should never be allowed to pass. Much like the absurdity of the debate over whether or not immigrants should have to pay back taxes for time spent as illegal employees within our borders, this topic reeks of inefficiency and a desire to simply "make a statement" regardless of expense or feasibility. If most of our politicians in Washington believe that it would be near impossible to track down back taxes from illegal immigrants, so it would also be near impossible to identify and implant those illegal immigrants for tracking purposes. The prohibitive costs alone are enough to cause one to balk at such a suggestion - moral debates notwithstanding.

People are always going to attempt to seek refuge and security within our borders. Implementing a tracking system, electronic or biometric, would offer little deterrence to those with no other opportunities. The government cannot even find the large majority of these illegal immigrants; how would it possibly implement a tracking program? Even attempting such a plan would be viewed as an insultory farce by the rest of the world, and would drain valuable time and manpower already depleted from wars on several fronts. On moral, practical and economic grounds, such a use would be deplorable.

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