You fail to realize that illegal immigrants are given the opportunity to apply to come to the country to work. Society is not structured in a manner that we can do whatever we want simply because we cannot get what we want. When I said the rules I mean the law. There is risk and reward. If that boys parents wanted to risk coming to the country illegally in order to gain the reward of whatever they were seeking here... well sometimes when you run across the street you are going to get hit by a car. You cannot cry if you are caught doing something illegal and then have to face the consequences.
The situation is complex. My point was that our immigration laws are unjust, inconsistent, badly enforced, and should be changed because US immigration policy doesn't fairly acknowledge our dependence upon cheap foreign labor. It's the legacy of colonialism, as Worm's anecdote above shows. Try and apply for a green card. Some people wait 15 - 20 years, is that really worth it? Would you wait, or would you find a way around it? Maybe sneak across the border? Get married? Buy fake papers??
Since the 19th century US immigration policy has become more restrictive and protectionist, but during that time we've become increasingly dependent upon foreign or immigrant labor to do low paying jobs that keep our economy going. For example, the Chinese were considered fantastic railroad workers, but starting in 1882 they were denied citizenship - an injustice that wasn't cleared up until The Magnuson Act in 1943. US companies have been availing themselves of cheap Central American labor for years in those little maquilladoras and in the lettuce fields, and Mexican laborers have been coming here to do "guest worker" jobs since the 1940's. What we're saying to them is that we think it's fine for them to toil in our fields and factories, but but don't they dare try to overstay their welcome or, heaven forbid, think that they are one of us.
And what about those like the Haitians who are seeking political asylum? They arrive by boatloads only to be sent back, but if you come from Cuba and set one foot on dry land you get to stay here forever because the government has decided that they are special. Why?? Should they stay there and get murdered waiting for their application to wind its' way through our paperwork process, especially when other people can just show up??
Our laws are made by a class of people seeking to benefit themselves. Who are these people? They are my people, mine and Bush's, the Mayflower people, the ones who got here
first. Our ancestors came on a boat, but it was the
right boat and now we get to decide what everybody else can do because we grabbed the most. The United States needs immigration reform, plain and simple. People who contribute to the economy are stakeholders whether we like it or not, and they should share in the rewards.
Illegal immigrants are just that... they are illegal. While they should be afforded basic human deceny in an example of immediate medical care, they should be deported immediately upon discovery. The claim that they have to hide, they suffer horrible conditions is meaningless. It is meaningless because illegal immigrants are not supposed to be here.
But that's just it, they
don't get deported immediately. They're imprisoned in an immigration facility for months and sometimes years in some cases, stuck in a limbo where they are without rights and often without representation. Many of them no longer have passports to their native countries, so they're held while their home country decides whether or not to issue one. Get this...if their home government doesn't issue them a passport, they get to stay here. Where's the sense in that?
Sorry for the eleven year old but I would have no problem telling him nor lose a night of sleep that mommy and daddy did something illegal and that is why they are not coming back.
Then your country needs you.
