No political issue other than abortion angers me as much as illegal immigration. That these criminals have the absolute gall to actually rally in favor of their law-breaking is disgusting to me. An illegal immigrant is no different than a person who trespasses in my backyard and sets up camp. I have a great deal of sympathy for the suffering of people in places like Mexico, but the solution is to fix Mexico, not for Mexico to export their problems over our border.
Possibly the most offensive part of it all is that these illegal immigrants have the nerve to lay claim to the greatness of America's immigrant history as if they're equal to the people who waited in line and came here legally. They're not. There's a world of difference between someone who works through the process and obeys the law, like all of my non-Indian ancestors did, and someone who sneaks over the border like a thief. That shouldn't be hard for anyone to understand. And then, after unjustly laying claim to America's generosity and taking advantage of our openness, do they stage these rallies and wave American flags?
No. They march through our streets waving Mexican flags. Their claims to want to be a part of America's rich history and unique diversity are completely disingenuous. They're liars as well as thieves.
Get out.
If they came to America illegally, but learned the language, worked hard and paid taxes, and pledged allegiance to the United States of America, while facing an American flag, I wouldn't have a problem with it (other than the "illegally immigrating" part).
It's when I'm taking public transit, and a little old lady tells the bus driver she's from out of town and doesn't know what bus to take, and the bus driver can't help because the driver doesn't speak English, that's when I have problems.
I wouldn't go into Mexico, wave my Stars and Stripes, and ask for things in English. I wouldn't fly to Germany, then plant myself there in a government job, and reply to every "gutentag" with "What? I don't understand German."
I don't even have a problem with all the food products I buy being bilingual as I've gotten used to it. But when a gardener has "English Speaking American" on his truck, and he's told to remove it or be fired from his government job, because it offends non-English speaking workers, I'm left asking where my country went.
I hope I didn't rant too much =P One of the big things for me is that I have friends who came to America through the legal process, or their parents came here legally, and it's no walk in the park. Even now I have friends in the processing on immigrating to America. Friends who will be [nay, already are] hard working Americans, even though they're still living in a socialist country which they're trying to leave.
I know what it's like to be called anti-Mexican for not supporting illegal immigration. And I've seen what it's like for someone who came here legally from Mexico being called all sorts of nasty things for "turning his back on fellow Mexicans". Maybe living down near the border, I simply see this more than a lot of Americans and politicians do?
the people who waited in line and came here legally
which line do you speak of?
I am in the US as a legal immigrant, but its not the same for me as it is for the people you see demonstrating. I am a college-educated professional. My visa doesn't even require my employer to look for an American to do the job. On the other hand, if you are trying to get a visa for unskilled labour, the employer has to look for an American to do the work every year. And the bureaucracy that you have to deal with in proving that you looked hard enough is onerous...and you have to do this annually.
It should also be noted that individuals, like myself, have no power to be legal or not. The burden of doing this lies with the employer..these people may have crossed illegally, but its their employers who can make them legal, not themselves.
You've said that you want them to leave..well I ask you then what? There are 12 million or so illegal immigrants in the US. Who is going to work on the farms, the restaurants and hotels? Getting rid of all of the illegals would be like nuking New York City. Do you think that the economy could sustain a hit of 12 million people suddenly being gone?
I have an idea for you...why don't you boycott those industries that employ illegal immigrants and let the power of the free market do its magic..its easy just don't eat any American grown produce, shop at Walmart, stay in any hotels..how about that?
They march through our streets waving Mexican flags
Thats a little unfair as there were many images of people carrying American flags such as the front page of CNN:
http://i.a.cnn.net/cnn/2006/US/03/25/immigration.rallies.ap/t1.rally.la4.gi.jpg
Take a chill pill, Mike. On this one I have to agree more with the Dems. It is only Mexican undocumenteds that we are worried about. Are you sure all your ancestors came in legally. Lots of Irish, Italians, Polish, Russians, and Jews came by various methods beyond the law. Right now and in the past folks from all over Asia have been entering through visas and overstaying.
You know folks right now who are not Mexican who are overstaying visas. Why aren't we raising any stink about them.
We do need to stop the inflow, but we better figure out what to do about those who are here, and it the answer needs to be better than "get out." See my blog for one solution.
Mentioned in Randy Kirk's related blog post, and by Manish, is the idea of "jobs Americans won't do. I will agree that many Americans (surely a majority) would see themselves as being "above" many "lesser" jobs. I also know Americans who make a living off of cleaning, gardening, farming jobs, and are proud of it.
My own solution comes in the following parts, although I know it'll never happen:
That's my own solution. These are jobs already-working Americans won't do. After all, they have jobs already. These are jobs welfare-recipients won't do. If they're the working type, they'll be off of welfare soon enough. Otherwise, they'll just hang out on welfare for life. BOCTOAE [But of course there are obvious exceptions.] Then let Jr. High and High school students who want to work work those jobs, and make sure they can work them at a reasonable pay for the work they do. If it's $4 an hour work, they should be paid $4 an hour. If they won't work for that low, they can get a job elsewhere.
Surely these illegal immigrants are doing neither more nor less than the illegal immigrants to the Floridas, the Hudson's Bay Company part of the Oregon territory, Texas, California and Hawaii? Sure, many went there legally, but many breached their conditions of entry and they did regularise the whole infiltration thing.
Two wrongs don't make a right, of course, but is there really anything here to get so worked up about? Wouldn't it be better to deal with matters dispassionately - and avoid making mistakes in the heat of the moment?
I have to admit, there are no easy solutions, and maybe no solutions that fix everything "fairly". We either make a hard decision, or we don't. The problem is, politics don't usually allow for hard decisions to be made definitavely. That's why virtually no politician will touch this topic.
My solution? Let's have a vote of the nation. A federal ballot sort of event using the Ellectoral College system for proper weighting. Let's have the elected officials creat our options to vote for on the ballot and then we'll make the decision that they can't seem to, thus elliminating the political hot-potato for our poor poor overworked politicians.