These are a few thoughts I had on Illegal Immigration, but haven’t had time to really develop them.

If there is a to a “path to citizenship” and a fine, the fine should be cumulative for each year that the immigrant was here illegally. If the fine is $2,000 and you’ve been here 5 years, then your fine is $10,000. If you’ve been here 20 years, your fine is $40,000. Why should the people who have broken the law the longest be the ones with the lightest penalties?

There isn’t enough social security for those of us who are citizens (born and naturalized). People who were here illegally shouldn’t be able to get a penny for the time they were here illegally. If they become legal, they can start then. Naturalized citizens started contributing when they were legal. Why should the people who broke the law have any kind of head start over those who followed the rules?

Anchor Babies. There is the argument that we can’t deport the families of anchor babies because the anchor babies/children are U.S. Citizens and we can’t deport citizens. These children are minors and are the responsiblility of their parents, not the U.S. Government. If their families are deported, they should go with the family. Once the child reaches his/her majority (or the parents go through the hoops and come here the right way) the child can come back as a U.S. citizen.

Some argue that the illegals’ only “crime” (note the scare quotes) is that they crossed the border illegally. Nothing else is wrong. They are wrong. Those that have crossed the border illegally are working under the table (also illegal), driving without a license in most states (also illegal), and living in residences with too many people (out of code and illegal). The illegality that begins at the border crossing does not end there. And as an aside to the living situations - cities that have tried to enforce their occupancy codes have been called racist because - get this - they tend to target hispanics. If hispanic families/extended families (this is my second cousin, three times removed) are living 12-15 people in a two bedroom apartment and people of other ethnic backgrounds (being hispanic is not a “race”) are not living 12 people in a two bedroom apartment - of course you’ll be “targeting” hispanics as they are the ones who are breaking the laws regarding occupancy. When you “target” the people who buy drugs (as opposed to the people who don’t buy drugs) of course you are targeting drug users.

If you make it so easy to become a citizen after coming here illegally and not following the rules, what does that do to the value of citizenship?

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 20th, 2006 at 9:39 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.