Meh, your great-great-grandparents were bitchin about the Irish, your great-grandparents about the Polish, your grandparents about the Jews and your parents about the 1960’s…..to every generation, a new immigrant ‘problem’.
I know its a serious issue, but I really do find it ironic that in a country – where 99% of the population come from somewhere else – there’s so much outrage that people from other countries have the temerity to try and do what your ancestors did.
Oh, the Horror!!
Don’t try and tell me that all your ancestors came here ‘by-the-book’, because its not true. I know mine came here every which-way, thier only excuse being that they did it long enough ago to be considered ‘legit’ now.
Unless you’re pureblood Native American then at some point in the last 400 years, one of your ancestors spoke a language other than English and/or was born in another country.
And, as an interesting aside – the ‘baying for blood’ volume is in direct correlation to the state of the economy – when I first moved back here 7 years ago, no one had anything to say about immigration.
Now, I can’t turn on the TV without someone frothing at the mouth about ‘illegal aliens’- but now things have gone to hell in a handbasket over here, and someone is to blame. Typical ‘kick the dog’ mentality.
And as for the tired old ‘they’re using our health/school/welfare system!!’ – maybe you should be directing some of that ire towards the huge enormous scam that is the Insurance companies/Big pharma….why does it cost so much more for healthcare in the US than it does, say, in the UK? The UK is hardly 3rd World, yet it does a much better job for about the same tax money, per capita.
On a more practical note and ignoring the Moral Panic a moment… how much will it cost to deport 12 million people? Detention centers, more ICE enployees, etc… is it less or more expensive than bringing in a sensible immigration policy and enforcing the laws that already exist?
As the wife of an ‘immigrant’ I have to say that US polices are very, very broken – despite my husband being head-hunted to come and work here- and the majority of the paperwork being dealt with by his company, it still took 6 years (and 2 overnight ‘campouts’ in front of the Los Angeles INS building, plus two overseas trips to exit/enter the US for visa requirements ) from his intiital application to him getting his Green Card.
God only knows how long it takes, how expensive and frustrating it would be to try and do it on your own, espcecially if you’re in low paying unskilled work.
Don’t get me wrong – I’m not saying we should do nothing, but it really chaps my hide to hear the amount of jingoistic and xenophobic $rap that’s been flying around recently – losing every single ‘illegal alien’ tomorrow will not make America any better than it is today. The illegal ‘problem’ is a symptom, not the underlying illness.
Enforce the laws that exist – fine employers who use illgal labour, bring in ID cards linked to the INS system.
Allow only spouses and children of people working here long-term (2 or more years) entry and issue short-term (6 months out of 1 year) guest worker visas for people ( without thier families) to the many thousands who come here to work seasonally.
Make it easier to work here legaly, and far fewer people will come (with thier extended families) through the underground. Far fewer will overstay thier welcome if they know that it won’t be a years long, life-and-death struggle to re-enter the next time.
BTW – don’t know if anyone watches Penn & Teller’s ‘Bull$%it!” on Showtime.
A couple of weeks back, on their ‘Immigration’ programme they hired some illegal aliens to build a section of wall similar to the border fences going up.
After building it, the construction workers were asked to try and get past it- fastest time – about 5 minutes with the help of some tin snips…
The border fence is at best only a psychological barrier. At worst, an insane amount of money for about 5 minutes of stoppage time for someone crossing the border ilegally.
And – the Foreman who recruited the workers (at a local hardware store) was also a Foreman on the section of fence built near San Diego. According him, his construction company was fined over 50 times for using illegal construction workers to build the Border Fence…. 😉
