This might make me unpopular, but I've never been one for personality contests anyway.
I might sound like a Repubican, but I got a problem with illegal immigration. Since we've been talking about policy, this is one I got a problem with. I know, I know, I should be tolerant, I'm a Dem. Fuck that, know why? IT'S AGAINST THE LAW!
I don't give a shit whether you're from Latin America, China, Europe, the MidEast, I don't give a shit, you broke the fucking law when you entered this nation by subverting the process. Don't get me wrong, I think it's terrible, some of the conditions these poor people have to live under in their home countries, but the law is the law.
And every gain received relating to this crime should be forfieted. No, they can't have driver licenses. No, they can't have health care. No, their kids can't get an education. No, their kids born here do not get citizenship. Know why? Say it with me. They are here ILLEGALLY. What don't people get about this?
Look at it this way. If you're busted for dealing drugs, the government takes everything, house, cars, anything they figure you've purchased with money derived from your drug dealing. Same with the organized crime statues. Remember RICO? Why do we treat illegal immigration like is some type of 'victimless crime'? We bust people for soliciting hookers, we bust 'em for smoking dope, why don't we bust 'em for sliding under the wire?
Have some compassion, you might say. Fuck 'em. Know why? My parents came here from other countries. My wife's grandparents came here from Russia to escape the Pogroms. Know what? They did it legally. They came here taking the chance they'd be turned away at Ellis Island or the West Side piers. They took the little money they'd saved and squirreled away, packed everything on their backs, and came here in search of the dream. They put up with the medical exams, the lines, all the bullshit to be allowed into this country, and then became citzens when they were able.
Yes, I got a very big problem with illegal immigration. I got a problem because they don't pay taxes either. Come to my neighborhood and look at all the single-family houses being turned into 2 and 3 family apartments illegally. Guess who picks up the tax deficit? Fucking me. Guess who doesn't have kids in the school system? Fucking me. Guess who pays close to $8000 a year in PROPERTY TAXES alone? Guess who doesn't have sewers or sidewalks? Fucking me. Know why? Because I'm paying to educate the kids of illegal immigrants who don't pay taxes, who live in illegal apartments whose landlords are paying the taxes for a single-family dwelling. Sure as hell use the fuck out of community services though. I'm tired of paying other peoples' way. I gotta support the Jesuslanders with my taxes, problem enough, but they're legal Americans and that's the way the system works, it pisses me off that I'm supporting people who are, in effect, criminals. If they want me to do that, lock 'em up and I'll support them they way I do the rest of the convicts. 3 hots and a cot.
Then there's the problem of security. Strip an Islamic terrorist and a Mexican illegal down to their birthday suits and guess what? I dare you to tell 'em apart. Aren't terrorists one of our major concerns here? Isn't that why our boys and girls are fighting and dying in Afghanistan and Iraq? How is it that 8 million people can just walk across our southern border with impunity?
In my town, on Valentine's Day, a 16 year old girl was stabbed to death by the father of her baby. The father was deported back to his native Honduras last year as a sex offender for having sex with her when she was 15 and impregnating her. He made it back in the country and went to her house and killed her. Yeah, it's an indictment of our so-called Homeland Security. Look at how they had the nuke squad out in Boston a couple weeks ago when they thought one was smuggled in from south of the border.
And I hear from the White House that there are jobs Americans don't want to do. And I hear that allowing illegals to do the work keeps prices low for 'real' Americans. So that's the nation we've become? Let's exploit the Brown Men? Let's allow them into this country, illegally, pay them as little as possible, treat them like shit, so we can profit from their labor. Didn't we fight a war over this about 150 years ago? Amongst ourselves? Didn't we finally settle it about a hundred years later?
This problem is coming to a head, or will be soon. Whether it be the security of this nation, something the people in Washington talk a lot about, or the morality of what we're letting happen with a wink and a nod, or the illegality of the act, this has to be dealt with. I'm all for letting anyone who wants to come to this country become a citizen, if they do it legally. That's what America's all about. This nation is a wonderful tapestry, made up of peoples from all over the world, each with their own language, history, and culture, and that's why this experiment called democracy has worked so well here. It's the one commonality all the immigrants who came here share. The yearning to live free and chase the dream. My parents had it and my wife's grandparents had it, and so did the hundres of millions of other immigrants who came here in the past 400 years.
It's time for a new immigration policy, that's obvious, and it's a far more pressing concern than Social Security. I don't hold any animosity toward our Latin American neighbors (or anyone who wants to immigrate from anywhere), they are my neighbors and friends. I just want them to do it legally. I want this country to be safe from real terrorists and I want the gaping holes in our nation's borders closed. I want the residents of this country safe, and the folks trying to sneak in here too. How many die every year in the Arizona desert? I'm sorry that they live badly at home, and I'm sorry the U.S. doesn't do more to help them out in terms of foreign aid and incentives instead of fighting wars of conquest, but that doesn't give anyone the right to break the law and then be rewarded for it. Imagine the reaction if we allowed burglars to keep what they stole? It's the same thing if we allow people here illegally to remain, and then receive the benefits of this great nation while others must take their chances and deal with the bureaucracy of legal immigration.
Either that or throw the doors wide open. I don't care. If that's the policy then fine, but make the same rules for everybody, the same standards for everybody because, after all, that's what America's about. Equality. Ain't it?
Update: 07:30:
Eponymous has something related. Remember what I said about exploitation?
