Jordan S. Kushner wrote: > My post did not take a position about whether drug laws should > be enforced or should exist, but did acknowledge more rationale > for enforcing drug laws than immigration laws because of public > health and safety issues.
Not that I disagree with Mr. Kushner, but I think that it's necessary to point out that immigration laws do have an important link to public health (although in the past the link has been used fallaciously to discriminate against some groups). One of the arguments for NOT cracking down on illegal immigrants in Southern California was that doing so would force people further underground so that they would avoid using public health clinics to get treated for infectious diseases. It might be reasonable to argue that in terms of interpersonal effects immigration is even more of a public health concern than drug use, given the state of public health in many third world countries. Note: I believe that immigration is an important and integral component of American society and that one of the most negative outcomes of 9/11 was the reduction of the number of student visas. Michael Atherton Prospect Park REMINDERS: 1. Be civil! Please read the NEW RULES at http://www.e-democracy.org/rules. If you think a member is in violation, contact the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[email protected] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
