May Day! May Day!

The "Day Without Immigrants" is at hand. By the end of the day, we will know how much support there was for this general strike and how badly, if at all, the streets of America's cities were clogged with protestors.

There are a few things that are lost in the debate (if there ever was one) concerning the illegal immigrants in the USA:

-There's one side that says "Kick them out" without realizing it's damn near impossible to find over 10 million illegals and have them dumped off to wherever they came from.

-Then there are some talking about how they aren't criminals. They're not violent criminals but their first act on American soil was a violation of the law.

-Then you have people thinking the proposed "amnesty" is amnesty when it isn't. There will be penalties (mostly monetarily) imposed over the next decade.

-Then you have people wailing for a wall to be built without remembering that plenty of people got through the Great Wall of China and not coming up with plans of where to get the needed manpower.

-Then there's a curious thing over why there doesn't seem to be talk of a crackdown on businesses and people that knowingly hire illegal immigrants.

So while Congress walked off the job for two weeks just after a compromise fell through, the shouting match got worse. And protestors clogged the streets of New York and many other cities for a day. And meanwhile, there still does not seem to be an honest debate that overpowers the rhetoric.

And having this May Day strike and/or protest will not help things.

For instance, the MSNBC article cites Mike Nava, the director of a day labor center in California:

In Pomona, Calif., about 30 miles east of Los Angeles, dozens of men who frequent a day labor center voted unanimously to close Monday, said Mike Nava, the center’s director.

“If anyone even comes around looking for work that day,” Nava said, “the men want him suspended.”

This should not be completely representative of the feelings of most people that will do something this day.

However, this might be closer to a view most of those people would embrace:

Some insist that a boycott is the next key step — beyond marches — to show the nation just how much economic power undocumented workers hold. “The marches are a tool, but they are being overused,” said Mahonrry Hidalgo, head of the immigration committee of New Jersey’s Latino Leadership Alliance. Like civil rights boycotts of decades past, he said, “this could finally be the spark for our people to advance.”

However, the Civil Rights Movement was born out of people that should have had all the benefits of citizenship but were denied those benefits because of Jim Crow laws and general intolerance.

Perhaps there is an intolerance towards illegal immigrants, but they are not citizens. As was stated earlier, their first act on American soil was a violation of American law. This is not an inherently racist or bad law in that it would discriminate against a group of people, unless one believes that immigration laws promote discrimination, intolerance, xenophobia, et al.

Also, if they want Congress to grant some concession, the risk of angering the American public with this demonstration will not work.

“To encourage people not to go to work or children not to go to school is counterproductive,” Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., said Sunday on CNN’s “Late Edition.”

And also as MSNBC reports, this demonstration may backlash:

Many worry that not working or spending money will alienate business leaders, and that cutting classes sends an anti-education message. Even Los Angeles’ Spanish-language disc jockeys, who helped fuel marches hundreds of thousands strong in recent weeks, have toned it down. “We have to demonstrate that we came here to succeed,” said Eduardo Sotelo, whose morning show, “Piolin por la Manana,” is syndicated nationwide.

In New York though, an idea to tone down the demonstration and make a different statement is planned:

In each of New York City’s five boroughs, thousands of workers are expected to take work breaks shortly after noon to link arms with shoppers, restaurant-goers and other supporters along city sidewalks for about 20 minutes. “This will symbolize the interdependence of all of us, not just immigrants, but all of society,” said Chung-Wa Hong, executive director of the New York Immigration Coalition.

A good idea, as long as it does not interfere with normal business too much.

Now is the time for Congress to come up with a real solution. Border security is essential as is enforcement of the laws. We will not be able to "kick 'em all out." It's also the price we pay for not paying attention to enforcement and security all this time.

However, a policy that would help integrate most of these workers into American society should be considered. It would include a wait towards citizenship (if desired) and also a penalty for the law that was broken. It sounds a lot like that scrapped compromise, doesn't it?

Well, it needs to go further, with plans to better man the border and also a deal on how such a program and policy would be implemented.

The time for rhetoric is over. There should be a real debate, between the American people, Congress, and representatives of the groups pushing for demonstrations. And this should be done before parts of the economy are hurt as well as the goodwill that may be lost after such demonstrations.

Before we're all shouting "May Day!" because of the trouble.