Immigration
I wasn’t going to do it. I swore to myself I wasn’t going to make my blog about politics or religion…2 things I dislike discussing because I’m under the firm belief that we are all entitled to our opinions and it doesn’t make one of us right or wrong, but the recent happenings in Arizona seemed to have pushed a button of mine, so here goes.
Immigration, legal and illegal. As most of you have heard by now, the state of Arizona has passed a law cracking down on illegal immigrants. It allows local law enforcement to arrest people for being in the country illegally. However, there are many Latinos (who are citizens and non-citizens), immigration reform activists, along with several members of the federal government who are protesting this. There are several directions my post could go, but I merely am going to focus on the part that hits home for me.
I live in a community that has several (and I use that term loosely) immigrants from Mexico, both legal and illegal. If you want to come to this country, the right way…meaning, the legal way, I’m all for it! Feel free to come enjoy the peace and freedom that we enjoy. However, if you don’t want to do it legally, stay home!
My sister-in-law is not from America. But, she had to go through all the legal steps to be able to stay here permanently. If she hadn’t, they could have deported her! We are talking about a woman who has an established life here, a husband, a son, and runs a home based business. Her and my brother are provided health insurance through JOBS. They buy their own groceries, pay their own bills, and DO NOT live off the government. All this being said, she had to PROVE all that before she was allowed to stay in the country! So, why should others be allowed to freely enter the United States and take advantage of the programs here?
Another example for you. A friend of mine has a husband from England. He has gone through the steps to become a citizen. The reason he has done this…to join the United States Air Force. He wants to fight for our country. However, if he couldn’t pass the citizenship test, if he couldn’t prove that he had an established life here, he couldn’t have done that. So, why should someone else, who doesn’t want to go through all the steps to become a legal citizen get to take advantage of our government and health care systems, not to mention other things?
Again, I am not against immigration. I think America has lots of wonderful things to offe, just do it right people!!! Why should you be given special privileges?
4 comments
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Good post. I agree that we need to have either immigration reform and/or simple enforcement of the laws as they sit right now. The latter is probably the best way to handle this, although there’s a lot working against it.
What I DO NOT like about the new law in Arizona is that it assumes that the police officers stopping people and asking them to prove their legality will not abuse that power. There are a few supposed “checks” on this, conditions that must be fulfilled to do this, but it’s still not tied down tightly. And while there are plenty of good cops out there, you know as well as I that there are plenty of bad ones, too. So I’m really anxious to see how it plays out in the long run.
That’s the absolute hardest part, I think, about enforcing the immigration laws — how do you find and separate out the illegals from the legals without running the risk of bugging the legals all the time? And not only bugging the legals, but bugging *particular* ones based on skin or hair color. I mean, look at my wife — from appearances, can you readily tell she’s Australian and might be here legally or otherwise? No. Same goes for your roommate’s husband.
However, look at someone like Vic. Is it fair that, because he’s of a particular nationality that is visibly different from his neighbors, that the cops stop him frequently to check his papers?
That’s the hard part. Yes, I think if you can determine reasonable suspicion that a house with 20+ people in it might just be harboring illegals that you could come up with a method for getting authorization for checking it. But there has to be checks in place or in the wrong hands it’ll end up being harassment.
And, of course, there’s a lot, lot of people who like illegals, because they’ll do all the crap jobs and do them cheap, meaning we get some pretty awesome labor for next to nothing. Are they exploited? You betcha. But so are waitresses at short-order diners.
It’s a tough nut. I wish I could say there’s a clear path to it, but I’m not sure there is.
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We were intrigued to see what your blog had to say. Our ears always perk up when we hear the I-word these days!
I’m sure my hubs might add his two cents worth on here later!
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The law might not be perfect but you have to start somewhere! If obami has a better idea, let’s hear it!! Till then let’s get the ball rollin till they sell drugs in stores and americans get forced out!