I was reading an article in a local paper today about a man who is trying to draft legislation on illegal immigration for the State of Arizona. In one part of the article he mentions that the proposed legislation will be "just to the country, fair to the undocumented, and beneficial to both." I appreciate that this man is trying to seek solutions and get involved in the political process.
What frustrates me is that almost every time we have a conversation about the illegal immigrants we seem to forget fact #1 - A law has been (almost always) knowingly broken. The only thing that is just for our country is that those who have broken the law are punished accordingly.
Now I will grant that there are parts of Mexico that are terrible places to live at all let alone try to support a family in. I will also grant that U.S.A. Inc. will give mass amounts of money to anyone and everyone. I will also grant that the process to be come a citizen (as I understand it) is very long and costly. I do not blame the illegal immigrants for trying to get out of a bad situation into a better one but they are breaking the law. If the law is bad, let's change it. In the mean time, we have people who need to pay their debt for breaking the law. We have the right and responsibility to control our land and our resources. Are they criminals? In one sense of the word yes but I do not condemn them as hopeless career criminal types.
So, first let's build a wall along our boarder. If we don't, any efforts to fix this problem will be like trying to put out a forest fire without first containing it. After that, we need to see who is contributing to our society and who is causing severe criminal mischief. We then deport those who are only causing trouble and we find a way to help those who are working hard, obeying the law, and paying taxes to pay their debt to society and then get on the road to citizenship if they choose. We also need to refine our system for seasonal migrant workers.
The whole issue of calling illegal immigrants "undocumented" is a rant for another day.
