Immigration: Legal vs. Illegal
My great grandparents came here from Italy. They immigrated legally and assimilated into American society as upstanding, law abiding citizens. As they united with other family members who immigrated here legally and their family grew, they passed the pride of being an American to all of us. Mother's Day, The Fourth of July, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter were the five big holidays we celebrated each year. My parents always flew the flag, they taught me to vote in every election (which I do), and they made sure I registered for the armed services when I turned 18. They taught me to love, respect, and never forget how fortunate we all were to be citizens of the United States of America. To this day, when I am somewhere and our national anthem plays, I remove my hat (if I have one on), I place my right hand over my heart, and I either shut my mouth or I sing along.
When I see throngs of Hispanics and Hispanic Americans protesting in our streets, waving the flags of any country but ours, speaking any language but English, and demanding unconditional amnesty for entering this country illegally, I am sickened...by their demands and by my own opinions that I'm forced to recognized.
I'm conflicted. I have contradictory feelings about this. On one side, I have the experience of my family. I also have friends, people that I love, who (I don't know for sure) may be here illegally. I feel very lucky that I was born in the United States. I, my soul, could have been born anywhere. I probably know this better than most since I was adopted. I totally lucked out in the parent department and I totally lucked out that the United States is my country of birth. I could have been born anywhere, but somehow, through luck, fate, whatever, I'm a US citizen.
When you look into the eyes of an immigrant, any immigrant, sometimes you can see in their eyes the hard realities life has dealt them and they are so happy to be here, legally or not. I just want to hug them and help them and say, "Yes, you are home. Welcome." I am a compassionate person and a sentimental person. Afterall, we are, ALL of us, brothers and sisters.
On the other hand, this country's infrastructure can't handle an open immigration policy. I have a friend who used to teach in the LA school system. Many of her 1st grade students were illegal immigrants. Their parents REFUSED to speak English at home or learn it themselves. Further, the students were not ALLOWED to speak English at home. The amount of effort she had to dedicate to those students, sucked away from what she was able to teach the entire class because of the Hispanic children's inadequate language skills. This refusal of Hispanics to learn the English language is offensive and unacceptable.
Assimilation. That's what America has been built on. Yes, I know that the American Indian was cheated out of their land, and that we stole most of the southwest from Mexico. Such are the spoils of war. Life isn't fair and it sucks to be on the losing side. On the other hand, we, the United States, have somehow, miraculously managed to build a society that offers a safe haven to those that are oppressed and downtrodden. Our government may suck and I may rail on here about that idiot in the White House, but at the end of the day I can say it and like our Hispanic brother and sisters protesting in the streets, have the right to critique without fear of reprisal. Unlike the third world corrupt governments that run the countries these immigrants are fleeing.
Which makes me wonder, well, we had to fight against England, and their corrupt governing of the Colonies back in the American Revolution. I mean, why not stay in your HOME country and overthrow the Mexican government. Stick Fox on a stake in the center of the city and say "No more!". Shed some blood and earn your freedom. Make your country great and thumb your noses back at us.
Or, if you're so determined, come here. Just show yourselves and us, the citizens of the US, (who, somewhere in each of our lineages, have relatives that immigrated here legally), some respect. Give up the, "you stole our land" crap, assimilate, be American's first, and enjoy the dream (or nightmare).
When I lived in LA I was a starving actor scraping along trying make a living. One day in 1988, I was driving to work in Hollywood. I went through an intersection where I had a green signal. A car ran their red light and broadsided me. The two men in the car had no vehicle registration, no drivers license, no insurance, and the police officers just let them go. Let them disappear back into the shadows.
A couple of weeks later as I was fighting against a chop shop scam, I received a letter from a lawyer representing the two boys, threatening to sue me. Somehow, I had obtained their addresses, and decided to go visit them. They were scared at first when I arrived. I explained I just wanted to see how they were doing. Their sister was there, a very nice woman who spoke English, and I explained to them that while I was relieved that hadn't been harmed in the accident, that it was they who should be getting sued, and if they didn't cease the nonsense, I would counter sue and since they had no drivers license or registration, I would certainly have their immigration status investigated. I never heard from them again. I, on the other hand, ended up losing my car and my job from that one incident.
I was someone who was playing by the rules of the game and was totally derailed by someone who didn't think they had to play by the rules. That wasn't fair, and it wouldn't be fair to my great grandparents or anybody else's if we allow illegals amnesty. I say we give them 30 days to go back to their country of origin, with no criminal records, and let them apply for legal citizenship. Otherwise, we round them up, charge them with a felony and send them back over the border with no hope of ever becoming a US citizen. Fair is fair and just because we kicked their asses in some war I wasn't even alive for, doesn't give them any special consideration. Assimilate or vacate! That's my protest sign.
When I see throngs of Hispanics and Hispanic Americans protesting in our streets, waving the flags of any country but ours, speaking any language but English, and demanding unconditional amnesty for entering this country illegally, I am sickened...by their demands and by my own opinions that I'm forced to recognized.
I'm conflicted. I have contradictory feelings about this. On one side, I have the experience of my family. I also have friends, people that I love, who (I don't know for sure) may be here illegally. I feel very lucky that I was born in the United States. I, my soul, could have been born anywhere. I probably know this better than most since I was adopted. I totally lucked out in the parent department and I totally lucked out that the United States is my country of birth. I could have been born anywhere, but somehow, through luck, fate, whatever, I'm a US citizen.
When you look into the eyes of an immigrant, any immigrant, sometimes you can see in their eyes the hard realities life has dealt them and they are so happy to be here, legally or not. I just want to hug them and help them and say, "Yes, you are home. Welcome." I am a compassionate person and a sentimental person. Afterall, we are, ALL of us, brothers and sisters.
On the other hand, this country's infrastructure can't handle an open immigration policy. I have a friend who used to teach in the LA school system. Many of her 1st grade students were illegal immigrants. Their parents REFUSED to speak English at home or learn it themselves. Further, the students were not ALLOWED to speak English at home. The amount of effort she had to dedicate to those students, sucked away from what she was able to teach the entire class because of the Hispanic children's inadequate language skills. This refusal of Hispanics to learn the English language is offensive and unacceptable.
Assimilation. That's what America has been built on. Yes, I know that the American Indian was cheated out of their land, and that we stole most of the southwest from Mexico. Such are the spoils of war. Life isn't fair and it sucks to be on the losing side. On the other hand, we, the United States, have somehow, miraculously managed to build a society that offers a safe haven to those that are oppressed and downtrodden. Our government may suck and I may rail on here about that idiot in the White House, but at the end of the day I can say it and like our Hispanic brother and sisters protesting in the streets, have the right to critique without fear of reprisal. Unlike the third world corrupt governments that run the countries these immigrants are fleeing.
Which makes me wonder, well, we had to fight against England, and their corrupt governing of the Colonies back in the American Revolution. I mean, why not stay in your HOME country and overthrow the Mexican government. Stick Fox on a stake in the center of the city and say "No more!". Shed some blood and earn your freedom. Make your country great and thumb your noses back at us.
Or, if you're so determined, come here. Just show yourselves and us, the citizens of the US, (who, somewhere in each of our lineages, have relatives that immigrated here legally), some respect. Give up the, "you stole our land" crap, assimilate, be American's first, and enjoy the dream (or nightmare).
When I lived in LA I was a starving actor scraping along trying make a living. One day in 1988, I was driving to work in Hollywood. I went through an intersection where I had a green signal. A car ran their red light and broadsided me. The two men in the car had no vehicle registration, no drivers license, no insurance, and the police officers just let them go. Let them disappear back into the shadows.
A couple of weeks later as I was fighting against a chop shop scam, I received a letter from a lawyer representing the two boys, threatening to sue me. Somehow, I had obtained their addresses, and decided to go visit them. They were scared at first when I arrived. I explained I just wanted to see how they were doing. Their sister was there, a very nice woman who spoke English, and I explained to them that while I was relieved that hadn't been harmed in the accident, that it was they who should be getting sued, and if they didn't cease the nonsense, I would counter sue and since they had no drivers license or registration, I would certainly have their immigration status investigated. I never heard from them again. I, on the other hand, ended up losing my car and my job from that one incident.
I was someone who was playing by the rules of the game and was totally derailed by someone who didn't think they had to play by the rules. That wasn't fair, and it wouldn't be fair to my great grandparents or anybody else's if we allow illegals amnesty. I say we give them 30 days to go back to their country of origin, with no criminal records, and let them apply for legal citizenship. Otherwise, we round them up, charge them with a felony and send them back over the border with no hope of ever becoming a US citizen. Fair is fair and just because we kicked their asses in some war I wasn't even alive for, doesn't give them any special consideration. Assimilate or vacate! That's my protest sign.
posted by David Ess at 6:52 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home