I'm actually caught in the middle on this matter. I'm friends with some illegal immigrants.
They are very much like all of us or our anscestors, came here at one point looking for a better life.
Not everyone has a way to come 'legally'. I'm not just speaking of the Latinos. If you don't have a direct family member here (father-mother, son-daughter), or passed test and have been accepted into colleges, or being sponsored to come to work because of 'special' skills, you will probably never receive a visa with a work permit.
What's wrong with granting worker's visa of 3-5 years? Americans aren't going to work in car washes, hotels... They are too good to do such jobs. Someone has to do them. Who are we to say: 'that's it, the door is closed. No more.'
I've become friends with EVERY, and I do mean every, immigrant from Mexico that I've met at school or worked with. I honestly couldn't tell you if they were legal or not, because they never talked about it.
I used to do personnel for the company I worked for. There were times when obviously bogus SS#s came my way, and I'd have to tell them that it would never pass. It was pretty sad considering I know they paid a good chunk of money for that number.
A bad experience I had is that when I tried to sell my first house, a family said they'd take it, so I took down my sign and starting making preparations to move to Colorado with my husband. The bank called me and told me that the family buying it were here illegally and the dad had been using his cousin's SS# and had only gotten his OWN number 4 months earlier, so he didn't qualify. That caused a
lot of problems for me.
I agree that they probably will have a better life in America than they would in Mexico, but herein lies the problem......
We are supposed to punish people for breaking the laws of our government, not reward them. If our hospitals go bankrupt, and our Social Security goes bust, then America isn't going to be that great of a place to live either. We'll all be trying to get to Mexico for a better life.
Where I live, there are a lot of chicken plants (Tyson Foods). Don Tyson had signs put just across the Mexican border that basically said "Come to NW Arkansas! We'll guarantee you a job and a place to life."
Lots of people came (NW Arkansas has the highest population of illegal immigrants of anywhere else in this country), and our roads weren't prepared for that kind of traffic, our schools didn't have enough spots for the children (or
teachers that were prepared to teach English as a second language), and we didn't have nearly enough apartments in this area for them.
It caused a huge amount of problems here. It was basically forced growth, when we didn't have the funds for it.
Also, if you go to an emergency room here and you aren't bleeding from every orifice, be prepared to wait for
at least 3 hours. Medicaid pays for hospital visits the same as a doctor's appointment, so immigrants use it just like a doctor's office.
I don't like generalizations, so I won't say that EVERY illegal immigrant is on Medicaid here, but when you take what you said about the TYPE of jobs they're willing/qualified to take, you have a recipe for public assistance for sure. It's money we don't HAVE and we're just going deeper and deeper into debt.
OntheDL said:
I know alot of illegal paid thousand of dollars in fee to the smugglers to take a dangerous trip to come here. Their dreams and future depends on it. For them, America is still the land of opportunity.
Isn't that the spirit of America? A refuge for ALL who wishes to come for economic, political or religious reasons, regardless?
I have seen families being torn apart. When one parent is deported or going back, they won't see they children for years. Why not give amnesty to those have been for a long time and have family and children here? They don't deserve health care when they get sick? Most illegals work, to repay the fee and support their family. That's what they came here for. They are different from the homeless. Give them work visas, have them work on the book, pay tax and receive fair benefits.
This is the same argument I have about the terrorists. "America is great because America is good. When America ceases to be good, America ceases to be great". America is blessed is not because of the land, the law or the system. It's because the people are righteous and just. When Israel was right with God, it had no enemies.
Think about it, we are all immigrants. This land belonged to the indians who were slaughtered to make room for the immigrants. What if your grandfather or grandmother came here illegally? Did you know that many killed themselves on Ellis Island rather than being forced to go back? Many of them today still risk their lives coming to America.
One thing I know for sure is that when our families first came here, they followed the rules. They HAD to.
It all sounds good, but if America is going deeper and deeper into debt, then the opportunities are going to stop for everyone.
There have to be rules. And people have to follow the rules.
Look what happened when Dog the Bounty Hounter went to Mexico to get a very dangerous criminal. Mexico certainly didn't look the other way.
And the thing is, if you go to any bank in this area on a Friday afternoon, you'd better be prepared to wait a very long time. These illegal immigrants are lined outside the doors to get money orders to send back to their families in Mexico.
Mexico is getting aid from us AND Mexican families there are receiving funds from their family members here. I just don't see that as fair.
Personally, I think every time a hospital goes bankrupt, or any time tax dollars have to pay for something (be it a public defender, whatever) then our aid over there should decrease by that amount.
If we make it a SHARED problem between us and Mexico then they'll have to do something about it.
OntheDL said:
When the Pilgrams landed on the shores, did the Indians ask them to sign a legal paper to promise to learn the native indianlanguage and to never kill them and take the land? No. They brought food out for them. People come in search of a better life. You got yours. Let them.
To what end though? When America doesn't have the resources anymore, then it will be a state of emergency. Why should we let it get that far?
Don't get me wrong. These are human beings we're talking about and I never disqualify them as such, but they're breaking our laws. Even scripture tells us to obey the laws of our government.
Add that to the fact that 99% of these people coming over are Catholic, and we really do have a recipe for disaster.