I read this interesting article today and had to share it. http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/CollegeAndFamily/RaiseKids/WhatIfWeThrewOutAllTheIllegalImmigrants.aspx
I would love to have your thoughts on this subject.
What do you think the solution is? And do you think this effects you right now?
6 comments:
I absolutely HATE this country's policy on immigration. I think that if you can get here, you are in. Register and pay the taxes. Welcome!
This is not a popular opinion in Texas.
One of my biggest beefs is with the whole policy that deports parents of children born in the US, ostensibly forcing US citizens to be raised in other countries or be raised in foster care. Check out newsanctuarymovement.org
Grr.
I agree with the author--people really have no idea how illegals underpin much of our economy.
It does kind of remind me of UT governor a couple years ago who basically came out and said that we, as a state, weren't going to be doing anything about illegal immigration simply because of the crucial role aliens play in the state's economic engine.
The process is broken, but to me the fixes are clear:
More working visas/guest worker program
A path to citizenship
More access to come to the US legally
This country would stop functioning without immigrant workers.
That being said I agree wholly with Yen and Azucar. We need more ways to make it legal for them to come to this country. More ways for them to pay the taxes and costs associated with the influx, because clearly deportation is not the solution.
I think it's way too easy for the press to write about the immigration "problem." Well, to me, that "problem" is comprised of people that I see every day, that I teach, that my cousin married, that my neighbor married, that I go to church with. I can't separate the issue to a point where I can discuss it without the faces of these people popping into my head. When you're at the drive-thru window and all you hear is Spanish in the background, you get a sense of how hugely difficult it is for these people to afford to do things the "legal" way. Especially when "legal" usually lands you stuck back in Mexico because your application for a visa was denied and your American wife and kids are on the other side of the fence. I think it's a stupid system and nobody wins.
I can't really add anything new here. They're already here--let's find ways to help them become legal, raise their own families, and learn to speak English.
I think that if immigrants--illegal or otherwise--are here, we need to assist them in getting an education and becoming functioning, contributing members of society. I am so sick of the popular opinion in Utah--that we should make it difficult/impossible for immigrants to get college educations, health care, etc. Treating people like dirt and making it impossible for them to improve their lives leads to slums, crime, and violence, the very thing that we in Utah so self-righteously decry. We are pushing people to desperation and seeing the results of it. Also, it makes me sick to see the lack of compassion in Utah. I can't imagine what it would take to get someone to leave their homes, their families, their culture, their language, and risk their lives to come to a place where they are hated and looked down on. How difficult must things be for them that they would come here?
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