What Midwest said brought up an interesting thought on how one views things.
Calling those in this country illegally undocumented legitimizes their situation.
If there is a law that one doesn't agree with, is normalizing and legitimizing the situation that is a result of that law productive, or not?
Personally, I'm of the opinion that legitimizing a non-legitimate situation has the effect of making people forget that the situation isn't legitimate, and therefore reduces the urge to actually fix it. It's kind of like this thing I heard once (I don't know if it's a saying or what). If there is a bad law on the books, the best way to get it addressed is to enforce it.
What think you?
Thank you, immigration is an issue that I'm eager to get your thoughts on. My opinions on this have drastically evolved over the last few years, since I moved to the NY metro area. Previously, I didn't understand why people couldn't wait their turns... I'm big on fairness and I hate line jumpers.
A few years ago I considered hiring a young woman, recommended by a friend, as a babysitter. But because I try to do things by the book, I couldn't do the paperwork involved in paying taxes for a household employee... because she was here illegally. She had a son the age of one of my children and I liked her a lot, so I thought maybe I could somehow sponsor her to settle here legally. No dice! She didn't have a protected skill (though she was wonderful with children), the waiting times for an employer-sponsored domestic employee green card ranged from 3-10 years, but the number of H-2B visas are very limited and they are only seasonal, etc. So that was that. I did not help her and I did not hire her.
Meanwhile, my dental hygienist, a nice Chinese lady, came over here 3 years ago, to join her parents. She had put in her application for a green card over a decade before, had grown up and gotten married in China and was employed there. So she had to debate whether she still even wanted to come. She did in the end come with her young son, but her husband is still in China waiting for his card, and so they only see each other every 6 months. She obeyed the law, and has suffered.
I get the resentment that legal immigrants have for illegal immigrants. But I feel that the system is very broken. And though I don't like scofflaws, I don't like that immigrants (unlawful presence= civil offense) are getting treated as less than human than DUI citizens (criminal offense).
Lately I've come to realize that I know and live among a considerable number of illegal (undocumented) immigrants. None of them seem to have been smuggled over a border, most of them arrived here comfortably by plane and but overstayed their visas (not that it makes an ethical difference although in terms of the law, it is not considered criminal to overstay than to cross a border illegally). All of them are decent working folk who are valuable to society and whom I feel comfortable among. They're from all over the world, including white Europeans, and indigenous peoples from Central and South America. Things seem to be working pretty well here. We have great food, employment is high. But on the other hand I know I am not seeing the abuses and bad effects of having people working under the table. And we can't just let everyone come over, right?
All this wall and ICE craziness is telling us that it's high time for a reform.