Immigration Law

There is a new immigration law being proposed in the US Congress. There are between 11 million and 12 million illegal immigrants within the United States. Most are hispanic, many are migrant workers. This bill, at first, made an illegal immigrant's presence within the United States a felony. Republican's are calling for the deportation of all illegal immigrants. Fortunately, the Senate judiciary committee amended the bill, adding certain provisions that allowed immigrants to stay and removing the potential for a felony charge.

Our country was built on the backs of immigrants. Our country is still, in many ways, built on the backs of these illegal immigrants. Our agricultural industry, our hospitality industry and our restaurant businesses are primarily driven by the labor of illegal immigrants. Illegal immigrants take jobs that no one in the United States wants. Politicians are saying that we should require immigrants speak English before they can legally enter the country. So, these educated English speaking immigrants will want to work in the fields for 60 hours a week in the sun for $4 an hour? Hmmm, that seems likely. I'm not trying to say that all immigrants work in the fields or are dishwashers or are uneducated, that's plainly not the case. There are 17,000 illegal immigrants in the UNITED STATES MILITARY!! That being said, a substantial amount of the jobs that non-English speaking illegal immigrants take are those that no other educated American would even consider taking. Why is this a problem for the United States economy? I understand the border patrol/security argument-the border should undoubtedly be secured for national security reasons. I understand the utility in having people enter the country legally. Still, I don't get the economic argument. Here's what would happen. Instead of paying illegal immigrants bare minimum wage, at best, to work on farms throughout the country, the agriculture industry will be required to pay American citizens substantially more than that of illegal immigrants. Those higher wages, in all those industries, will result in higher prices. Those moderately higher prices on produce and agriculture won't effect Bill Frist, or any politician, or you or me. It will effect the poorest of the poor. And that's it. So, instead of allowing illegal immigrants to escape the crippling conditions of Mexico and provide for their families, we'll give those ever-so-lucrative jobs to American's. Come on, is this really necessary? Our illegal immigrants are the most hardworking, underappreciated people in the United States. So they don't have some immigration lawyer in Mexico that can help them legally get into the United States-are we really going to make them felons? Ridiculous. Shameful and just kind of sad.

I remember when I was a kid, my parents had some work done on the house. They hired an older Mexican man that spoke English and was a legal immigrant. I remember them coming to the house and doing work that would've taken my dad 2 years in about 2 days. I remember them refusing lemonade, or water, or lunch from my mom. The man's two younger and illegal workers were probably 20 or 22. They were working in a room that didn't have AC yet, in August, in Georgia. It was really hot. Finally, my mom just started leaving water in the room and I suppose, they drank it eventually. They worked from 8AM-10PM one day. The fact of the matter is illegal immigrants don't ask for much. They did ask for something though at the end. The guy said he would knock $100 off the price if we had any spare clothes to give to his two illegal workers. He said they would send them back to their family in Mexico. They were in the US, supporting two entire families back in their native country. So, of course my mom threw together as many clothes as she could possibly come up with and gladly gave it to them. When I thought about this immigration bill, I thought about these two poor guys. Do I want them deported, do I want them to be felons? Absolutely not. They're hardworking, honest, happy people. Hell, they're more grateful to be in the United States than most American's are. I'm not saying we should have a free and open border, but we have to keep people like those two guys in this country. We have to have some remedy for them.