Illegal Immigration: what good is it?

The heated debate over illegal immigration often stirs up emotions on both sides of the issue. Like most issues, there are always two sides, right? Which side is right and which side is wrong? Both can't be right and both can't be wrong.

I see some major flaws and problems with the illegal immigration debate. One of them is very clear when you read most articles about this issue. Headlines like: "Government to address immigration problem" or "Immigration Issue causes heated debate", etc. Well, do you see a problem here? First off, it's not "immigration", it's "illegal immigration" that's the problem. You see, most of the time the word "illegal" gets removed from the issue. After all, we're not having problems with hordes of immigrants from all over the world. The illegal immigration problem is very centralized and very prominent to a handful of countries. Therefore, immigration is not our problem, specific illegal immigration is.

The second problem is lack of large scale action on the part of the federal government. Since illegal immigration is a federal problem, states are left without any real power to curb or control illegal immigration and most states find themselves providing public services. medical care, education, recreation and tax based amenities to those who are not legally entitled to them. That comes with a cost. In California, the education cost alone runs over $1.5 Billion dollars per year and in Utah, a mecca for illegal immigrants now, the cost for education was over $85 Million in 2007. Anything wrong with this? Many people see nothing wrong with revenues being diverted to the wrong place. Insane, if you ask me.

The third problem is ignorance. Unfortunately, American society is not known for high IQs and citizens who understand geography. Studies show that many Americans can't find their own state on a map unless it is clearly labeled!

Ignorance causes another set of problems. For example, if you ask most Americans what an immigrant is and where an immigrant comes from, you're likely to end up with references to Mexico and some Central and South American countries. The media has done a tremendous job in helping people disregard the fact that immigrants are from all over the world and not just one particular geographic area. To compound the ignorance factor, references to illegal are few and far between. "Undocumented workers" is the politically correct term used to minimize what the real problem is: illegality of one's presence in the country. It's not "undocumented". It's "never had documents to begin with" that's the real problem.

Fourth. Theft. Most states with large population of illegal immigrants have children who have fallen victims of identity theft when social security numbers real or made up are misused by those seeking and actually obtaining jobs.

Unfortunately, the IDs of children are often misused because small children don't work or pay taxes. Corrupt and sneaky illegals know that thus making social security numbers belonging to children the most desirable hot items to misappropriate. Most parents don't normally check their children's credit report to see if their children's socials may be affected. By the time they do, it's probably too late. Cases of ruined credit records are in the millions, that's before the child even gets his or her first job! Many people defending illegal immigration don't see anything wrong with this either. In fact, there is much they don't see anyway.

Apparently, such travesty flies right under the radar in most states with local leaders looking the other way while their citizens become victims of blatant ID theft. Chuches even condone the presence of illegal immigrants for the sake of conversions and numbers, or more appropriately, compassion. In one instance someone told me that the Lord is responsible for bringing illegal immigration to America. I'm wondering why we don't have more Africans here then! You'd think the Lord would bring an equal amount of people from an equal amount of countries if that was the case, right? No preferential geographic treatment? No discrimination. Yeah. The Lord has absolutely nothing to do with with illegal immigration. Someone's lame excuse to justify law-breaking and ulterior motives. Moving on.

The Internet is full of sites and articles about illegal immigration, many referencing threats of communicable and even rare diseases resulting from non-immunized people crossing the borders or , most likely transported in daily by vans across state lines to identity theft rings. There are many people who are pro illegal immigration because they see it as a persecution against immigrants. Again, misuse of the word immigrants, thanks to media misinformation and bias.

Illegal immigration has been monopolized and is not unique to the United States. In Europe, countries such as Italy, France and England have had huge problems with illegal entry, identity theft and social burdens. Italy seems to have tougher and efficient laws.

My view is that too many uninvited guests at a party are bound to stir up trouble, regardless of the reason why they broke into the party in the first place. I also believe that the U.S. itself is greatly responsible for making it very easy for people to come in illegally and abuse the system. A person who overstays or violates a visa is much more likely to be deported than someone crossing the border who ends up working at some big, well-known fast food chain. People with expired visas or who take jobs without permission are deported everyday from this country. Without competent legal advice, these visa holders typically get nailed if they accept unauthorized employment or violate the terms of their entry into the U.S. Who is reporting their stories? Did you hear about real immigrants who get deported if their American spouse dies while the widow/widower is waiting for their green card? I bet you haven't! These stories get very little or no press at all! Read more about it here.

Eventually, everyone will suffer the consequences of uncontrolled illegal entry. It will negatively affect everyone's pocket book, schools, the economy, courts, transportation, medical care, prison system and society overall. There is something obviously wrong with invading a country for whatever reason and then claiming entitlements to benefits normally reserved by the honest people who paid the price to do it the right way. While solutions to the problem have been available for nearly 2 decades now, nobody has the "cajones" to want to enforce current laws or even new ones for fear of reprisal, being called racists or simply doing the right thing for the good of the country.

I suspect the problem will continue as long as businesses are making profits off of illegal immigration and cheap labor. As long as the rich aren't affected by the social-economic problems caused by illegal immigration, nothing will be done about it.

Common sense is no longer common practice nowadays so you get what you get. If we really want to give people an opportunity to live the American dream, we should make sure that people from all nations get the same, impartial treatment and opportunities to live and work in this great country and not dimish the meaning of immigration by exploiting illegal immigrants from a particular geographic region. Just remember the rule: if you try to advocate immigration law, you will be called a racist, but I'm sure that's nothing new to you.The people who say that would probably advocate laws against using pepper-spray on assailants or imprisonment of criminals. Their favorite words are "bigot" and "racist" when it comes to solving the illegal immigration problem.

C'est la vie!