I had a little rant at the expense of a rather wide e-mail distribution list that might have indicated that I support illegal immigration. I actually was going to comment on Andrew’s blog post regarding illegal immigration but I forgot my blogger id. My personal viewpoint is that illegal immigration is illegal … seriously. There are legal consequences that are rarely enforced. Were I to have been born in a backwater area of Mexico I would emigrate to the US. I would do so illegally, because even engineers and doctors end up waiting years to get in.

Don’t kid yourself. If you lived in an area where hard work wouldn’t get you ahead, where a short risk could increase your family’s income more than 10 fold, you would be the first guy running across the Arizona desert to get here and try to change things. When sent back, you would do it again. I know this because I love America. There is a cultural divide here but it can be overcome with hard work. The cultural, legal, and political divide can’t be overcome with hard work in Mexico. Those with the finacial means to influence will keep laborers in the dirt.

This does not mean I believe immigrants should be given a free pass. We need to know who is here and why they are here, now more than ever. I fully support and rant about changes to the immigration process. We need these people documented, receiving credit for taxes they pay, using their money in the US instead of sending it to Mexico (which means having their families here), and receiving the protection of simple things like minimum wage. I paint a pretty rosy picture but it isn’t all fun and games. The greatest benefit to current US citizens is knowledge that these people aren’t violent criminals, they aren’t terrorists, higher insurance adoption rates, and quicker assimilation into the US. Kicking them out isn’t an option. They’ll just come back. We could build an impenetrable force field that covers the entire southern border, and I guarantee they will still find a way to come back just to pick strawberries at $3.00 an hour then send the money they don’t spend on rent, for the one bedroom apartment they share with 7 other guys, to their family back in Mexico. We could make it so death was the penalty for crossing the border illegally, and they would still flock here. I know this because death is the penalty quite a bit of the time, and they still risk death just to come to our country.

If you speed and get caught, you get a ticket. If you’re male, I’m sure you’ve had a stoplight or highway challenge at least once in your life. In Texas you get your license revoked for a minimum of a year for racing on public roads. You still take the risk at times even though you know the consequences can be dire. There are always people vying for attention or attempting to shirk their responsibility for an action they’ve taken. So yes Andrew, they should send her home to Mexico. Until the law is changed it should be followed. That isn’t the problem. The problem is that less than 6 months later she would be back illegally with a new name, new fake social security number, and living in a different state. This indicates something about the law needs to change. If I were her I might not have claimed sanctuary in a church. Drawing attention to yourself is pretty stupid and will make it more difficult to get back. She is, however, betting that they make her a citizen. At the very least she has stirred up more controversy and made regular people talk about her situation. Good for her. The difference is the same as the difference Rosa Parks made. She might end up being a turning point or example of the weird realm of American immigration policy, or she might just be a lady who sat on her butt.

Categories: BJ, Philosophy etc