Our View: Making a point on immigration with humor

Sometimes humor is the best way to make a point.

Thus was the case in the Montana Senate Wednesday.

Republican members proposed a plan to enforce the successful referendum held in November to place severe limits on employment of illegal aliens.

The GOP offered serious discussion on the need for such restrictions. The aliens might take jobs from Montanans. There ought to be a solid law to prevent people from entering the United States illegally. Every nation has a right and a duty to protect its borders.

Democrats responded.

They felt the rules were too difficult for businesses and the legislation was anti-business.

Others were emotional.

Sen. Christine Kaufmann was nearly in tears. Montana values call for us to be welcoming, she said, even to people who come here illegally, if they are working to improve themselves and their families.

Then, Hill County's Sen. Jonathan Windy Boy, D-Box Elder, one of a handful of Native Americans in the Senate, rose, and using parliamentary procedure, asked the chair for permission to ask a question of the sponsor.

Turning to the sponsor, Windy Boy dedpanned, "How far back does this apply?"

It took a second or two to sink in. Then lawmakers and spectators broke into laughter.

In the eyes of some Montanans, most of us are illegal immigrants.

Windy Boy made the point that an illegal immigrant is in the eye of the beholder, and most of the people in the room — Windy Boy and a couple of colleagues excepted — were once immigrants.

That's not to attack the supporters of the legislation. Voters approved efforts to curb illegal immigration, and they were just doing what the voters suggested.

But it does make you think. Most of us are immigrants or descendants of immigrants — legal and illegal. These immigrants have made Montana a pretty good place.

If we are going to reject illegal immigrants, we should make it clear that Montana is a welcoming place for legal immigrants, be they cherry pickers or computer software designers.

Employers shouldn't be made to feel that they are better off shunning all immigrants rather than run the risk of hiring someone illegal.

We ought to be welcoming to legal immigrants who have a lot to offer Montana.

We'll all be better off for it.