The Real Issue With Illegal Immigration

[Rob's House]

We stumbled onto the topic of illegal immigrants in an earlier thread and I thought it deserved it's own. This is something I wrote a few years back. What do you guys think?

 

Friday, April 06, 2007

 

It's popular to depict those who want to secure the nations borders as anti-Mexican. Conventional wisdom would have you believe any such people despise those who leave impoverished Mexico to seek a better life here. The fact that we are born into the great prosperity that is America evokes guilt in many of us and many feel it is our duty to welcome illegal aliens with open arms and allow them to pour over our borders at will. This however, ignores the real issue at hand.

 

You can't blame the illegal alien for hopping the border. It's human nature to improve ones situation. By the same token, unless you want to pay all the education and medical costs for a vastly swelling population of illegal immigrants, it would be wise to secure the border.

 

The problem with the mass immigration across our southern border isn't that these people are taking our jobs. Capitalism adapts and adding productive people to the work force ultimately creates more and better jobs as well as raising the overall wealth of the country and standard of living for people at all levels of the economic spectrum. The problem is that they are undocumented.

 

Whereas this may seem a minor detail, a technicality if you will, it is actually the heart of the problem. If an immigrant is documented he can work legally. Therefore he will pay taxes that contribute to the social services that he and his family utilize. Imagine if at the office you pooled your resources to have a catered lunch on Friday. Everybody puts in, everybody eats.

 

Then a few people from the office next door, who make less and have no lunch pool in their office, begin walking over and partaking in your lunch, never paying into the pool. At first it's just a few people, you know and like a couple of them, so it's no big deal. You even feel good about sharing with them. Then more and more begin coming.

 

Eventually you have a very substantial number of people from the office partaking but not paying in. Along with the friendly guys you like to chat with you now have some undesirables who make a mess of the place and cause problems and have no regard for the rest of you. Normally this element would be fired or banned from the event, but you don't even know their names and the door is wide open. They come in, eat, spit on the floor and leave you and the rest of the office to finance what started off as a nice friendly office community lunch.

 

Now you have a few options. Would you, perhaps, lock the office door? Would you maybe see to it that the adjoining office made some kind of contribution to the event? Maybe keep a screened guest list so that only invited people whose names you know can attend? Or would you leave the door wide open, invite everyone who wants to come in, and force your coworkers to contribute whatever it takes to accommodate them? The last scenario is basically what we are doing in America, and the coworkers don't have the choice of opting out.

 

Immigration is what our nation was built on and part of what enables it to thrive. Mexican immigrants make contributions to our economy while building a better life for themselves and their families. But if they are to share in the glorious prosperity that is America is it too much to ask that they be documented and made to contribute in the same fashion that the rest of us do.

 

In addition to ravaging the coffers of numerous social service institutions, the problem of undocumented immigrants poses a great criminal threat as well. Illegal aliens perpetrate many horrific crimes of a violent and sexual nature.

 

Many such are also perpetrated by American citizens however, when a citizen or other documented individual commits a crime, that person can be tracked and prosecuted by the justice system. Undocumented immigrant criminals slip through the cracks of the system far more easily and frequently and are much harder to track and apprehend. Worse yet, once they are apprehended the solution, all to often, is to send them back across the border leaving them free to hop the border and come right back to victimize more innocent people.

 

In conclusion, it seems only reasonable that if we were to seal the border as best we can, we won't be able to keep everyone out, but we can come pretty damn close. This would allow us to vastly expand the number of immigrants we allow to come into this country legally which would result in us taking in people who are more inclined to obey the law. In addition to keeping order it would allow these people to be a proud part of this country and embrace it rather than being relegated to scavengers hiding in the shadows. It would also cause many Americans to be far more accepting of the immigrant population.

Edited August 30, 2010 by Rob's House

[drinkTHEkoolaid]

Nice Analogy, you "get it" sir.

 

To add to your point, in addition what else I do not like, is this seems to be the first major group of "immigrants" (legal or illegal) that seems to have no interest what so ever into adopting American values, assimilating into American culture and learning English.

 

When previous generations of immigrants came "off the boat" or however they arrived here, they wanted to make it on their own, they didnt look for government handouts. They wanted to blend into the great American melting pot and adopt our culture. There were no demonstrations of Irish or Italians or Polish or Chinese etc..marching through the streets hanging their own flags above the American flag, all they wanted to do was become American.

 

I think as much as it is a problem about being "undocumented", this group seems all too happy to exploit every social program they can forge identification for, mooch off the LEGAL TAXPAYERS, continue to alienate themselves with confrontational demonstrations of Mexican pride and "press 2 for spanish".

 

Granted I know I am painting a large group of people (no one really knows how many millions) with a broad brush and there are always exceptions to every generalization but "as a group" the illegal immigration problem we are facing is a huge burden on taxpayers and social services and needs to be addressed.