illegal immigration gets a new name
by McKell Myers
Published: January 7, 2008
Illegal immigration. What a mess. You would think that “illegal” anything should be considered, well, illegal… bad… not good. Right? Illegal by definition alludes to an act of crime. So let’s call this national affair what it really is.
Criminal immigration.
Congress is not naïve enough to believe that every immigrant is a terrorist. But terrorist or not, they are breaking the law and should be held accountable. We cannot blame these immigrants anymore than we can ourselves, considering we continue to award their bad behavior by giving them jobs and medical assistance. Fortunately, in December, Wisconsin State Representative and Republican Legislature, Frank Lasee, proposed legislation that punishes businesses who intentionally higher illegal immigrants. This includes fining employers $5,000 for each illegal hired. He hopes this will serve as a wake-up call to citizens and illegals alike that the present circumstances have got to change.
On a national level, illegal immigration has become one of the big issues at the 2008 caucuses. Candidates are presently accountable to the voters in Iowa, and soon in New Hampshire, for their stance on the issue. So what are the candidates saying?
Senator Edwards believes we should create a path of citizenship for illegal immigrants. Perhaps he’s forgotten that a path already exists, if they would just follow the rules.
Hilary Clinton believes it is important to document all those in the country. That’s nice. This way if Bin Laden settles in New York City, no one has to worry. We’ll have him documented. I feel safer already.
While many of the democratic nominees, along with Republicans like McCain are for amnesty, candidates Romney and Giuliani are for rewarding law abiding immigrants and for punishing those that entered America illegally. Both Romney and Guliani believe immigrants should learn English and that our immigration laws should be drafted with the intent of attracting skilled laborers. They believe this will improve the immigrants’ ability to assimilate into American society, while at the same time reducing the number of illegals entering the country.
Our country prides itself on the justice of its laws. We have thousands of laywers handling thousands of cases everyday. We know that breaking the law is bad, don’t we? We know that illegal anything under our justice system should not be tolerated. Why is it that when we talk about illegal immigration all of a sudden white flags come up? The country puts its chin in its hands, crinkles its forehead into a frown, and lets out a sigh of wonder, as if to say, “Boy, oh boy. This one’s a toughy.” It’s as if we see the news clip of the man shaking a Mexican flag at a protest of American immigration laws and say “Yeah, that makes total sense.” We are so worried about offering justice to illegals that we don’t pay attention to the injustice inflicted on the citizens. The law-abiders.
Can we at least agree that an immigrant should have to meet the standards of international travel imposed on law-abiding citizens by the TSA? It’s crazy how many forms of ID I have to bring to catch a flight to Des Moine. How many hoops must my luggage and I jump through to board a plane? We’ve got metal detectors, security people, X-ray machines and secret agents. Airport trash cans across America are full of perfectly good shampoo as proof that the TSA means business. And why do we comply? Because it’s the law and we follow the rules. On the other hand, an illegal immigrant is always a hop, skip and a jump away from de facto protection under the American judicial system. Where is the justice in that?
So, while on one hand the government sheepishly builds a fence along the southern border and on the other triple checks American citizens at the airport I ask, “Does anyone see anything wrong with this picture?”
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