Reply #25: Consider this:

[bperci108]

"I look at illegal aliens as people who do not respect our laws. It is illegal, and they know it is illegal, to enter this country without going through the proper process. If they cant respect that, how am I supposed to believe they would respect any other law in this country?"

I see your point, but they come here because they are wanted here.

Corporate Amerika has a vested interest in keeping them in illegal status; no OSHA, no Wage & Hour problems, no minimum wage, no benefits, etc. What a bargain!

Add to that the endless red tape and hoops to jump through, plus the years and years it takes to gain citizenship and these desperate people do what they have to do.

It doesn't make it right, but any rational, empathetic person can understand why they "break the law". Scrubbing toilets for 2 bucks an hour beats the hell out of starving down in Chihuahua or Chiapas.

On top of that, any person willing to risk their life to cross the desert, possibly dying of exposure or thirst, or risk being murdered by the coyotes who smuggle them, or be shot by swaggering, gun-fetishist, xenophobic "minutemen" will likely make a damn-good citizen.

"I am all for legal immigration. But if we allow people to just jump across the border whenever they want, we might as well not have a country anymore."

The Republic won't cease to exist because there are a few illegals here. It didn't mean the end at the dawn of the 20th century (when there were far, FAR more illegals, percentage-wise, than now) and it won't be the end now. If there were no place for them here, they wouldn't come.

"And my great grandparents came here legally. They went through Ellis Island. They were tested for disease. They didn't go to Mexico and jump the border and then protest in the streets by waving their country's flag."

As did some of mine.

But their ordeal to become a citizen was nothing like the one now.

When it becomes a jailable felonious offense to hire illegals, (and I mean the CEO goes to federal prison for one year, no exceptions), and violating companies are fined one million dollars per illegal per day, then the illegal immigration will stop that very day and there will be 12 million people lined up on the north side of the border waiting to go out.


We both know that isn't going to happen.