New Imigration Reform

[kandrathe]

I find myself wanting to take up a "tough-guy" stance and saying, "hey, 'illegal-alien' is coined 'illegal' for a reason dammit!" They ILLEGALLY crossed the boarder and obtained ILLEGAL identification cards; not cool!

But on the other side of the coin, I know most of these people and they are hard workers who only want to make a buck.

Doing the right thing usually flies into the face of personal anecdote. Bootleggers and Mafiosos are also hard working family oriented people who ignore the laws to be able to make more money than they otherwise would if they remained law abiding. Which laws can be ignored in order to earn money for your family? Who would you rather see employed, your son or your friend from south of the border? In a world of limited resources, there will always be the attraction to American abundance. Even a large pie can only be cut into a finite number of slices. Someone will win, and others will lose. Immigration laws favor those people who bring the most to our society. It is very easy for a doctor or nurse from Mexico to legally immigrate, so I would counsel your friends to seek their educations in Mexico, or elsewhere in central America first.

I have probably disclosed this before, but I am descended of legal immigrants, however that was a time when America had vast expanses of land liberated from the natives which they wanted settled (again for political purposes trying to influence national party balances of power). Hard working immigrants from destitute areas of Europe were targeted by the US government for a planned migration to northern states, they made it difficult and many of my ancestors died trying. The first ones here built houses from sod and lived in holes in the ground many miles from any organized town. They built their farms up from nothing, raised families, built towns, schools, and helped each other survive. Many of them were involved in WWI. I have researched and found numerous incidents in my ancestry where both parents died with children redistributed, or where entire families were wiped out. The next generation now spoke the native language, and most of them graduated from high school, or even college. Their children were born around the depression, and when older most fought in WWII, or Korea. Most of them were either blue collar skilled laborers or middle class professionals. My generation had it easy, and almost all of my siblings, cousins, and relatives my age have a college education and are successful upper middle class professionals.

I have friends all over the world and some have decided to become citizens. They do complain about how hard it is, but therein lies the value. Something easily obtained is cheapened. I don't want there to be a fast track to citizenship, and I would agree we should reserve that right to those people who really desire it and who have contributed or have the ability to contribute to our society. The illegals I know in the San Diego/Santa Barbara area usually actually drain resources, and funnel their earnings back to their families in their origin countries. If you want cheap labor to be imported from third world countries, then develop and regulate a guest worker program without the promise of citizenship.