Immigration, Integration, And Criminalization

I was born and raised in the west. To say I knew illegal aliens were an understandment. These people were mostly Mexican fresh from the border. Having crossed over, they sought any kind of employment they could. For many years, they became known to us by a demeaning name as "wetbacks".

They would risk life and limb, swimming the river to get to the USA. As I grew up, I became a professional in the Restaurant field. It was here, that these people came to mean more than just a poor worker from Mexico. In the course of managing, working, and keeping staff, they played an integral part of my business. Yes, even if they were illegal.

They stopped being "wetbacks". I do not like the term, it is a demeaning word. I use it here to illustrate the bad rap many of them received. They became close friends to me, good workers, and family men. Yes, there were bad apples, trouble makers, and the rest. You always have that. But overall, the ones who helped run my businesses and worked hard were simply family men and women trying to find a better life.

According to the Center for Immigration studies, during the 1990s, an average of more than 1.3 million immigrants from both sides of the field -legal and illegal- settled in America. From January 2000 and March 2003 an additional 3.3 million immigrants arrived. Not all of them Mexican. They come from all spectrums, all nations, and all tongues. The United States Census Bureau projects that in less than 50 years the population of the USA will increase from its present 288 million to more than 400 million. The question bares asking. What are we going to do with them all?

Within this group, you can be sure terrorists will also arrive. These people are bad seeds among the many good people who arrive with them. I have no problem with immigrants. My great-grandfather was one as well. On my grandmothers side, the generation goes back to the revolutionary period. Our family line in one way has been here along time. Great men and women from many nations came to this country to form a new nation. The real area of concern according to the Center for Immigration Studies Director of Research, Steven Camarota, says is that "every part of our immigration system has been exploited by terrorists". This is true, but then Camarota goes on to suggest that we "cannot reform in just one area, but must address the problem throughout". Within his statements are the reasoning that we must check not only Middle Easterners visas and backgrounds, but must "carefully check the backgrounds of all visa applicants, better police the borders, strictly enforce the law within the country, and, most importantly, reduce the level of immigration to give government agencies the breathing space necessary to implement fundamental reforms."

There is no way we can round up 13-14 million illegal immigrants or whatever the number is actually. Who really knows. The authorities have numbers, but then they don’t know either. The point is, no one really knows how many illegal people are here in the USA. No one knows how many terrorists have entered along with them. No one knows really what to do. The only thing everyone agrees on is we must do something. So we debate in Congress, put together legislation, then can’t come to a reasonable solution. Our borders are still open and the flood gates of people are coming in. While we focus on the southern border, our other borders are porous as well.

The National Immigration Forum conducted interviews of illegal people living in Los Angeles, Miami, and Chicago. A Total of 233 such interviews were done in Spanish by trained interviewers. The main premise here is"would undocumented immigrants come forward, get legal, learn English, pay taxes, pay fines, and become US Citizens". 81% said yes they would live and work in the U.S. the rest of their lives if they were able to legalize their status. 98% said they would make an effort to become legal over remaining undocumented if the U.S. would approve a new law that would allow them to become legal. Also within the questionnaire, the respondents said they would provide accurate information, become fingerprinted, have a criminal background check, pay a fine, learn English, notify the government of change of their address. 90% interviewed said they would become United States citizens if allowed.

No matter what you or I think, this is a big issue. The longer we do nothing about it, the more we have to lose. Making millions of illegal aliens criminals won’t work. They are here already illegal. This makes them a criminal right now according to our law. Many are afraid. Some are terrorists. Still, others are just family men and women working hard to survive. We need to try to legally integrate them into society. They are in our society but they are illegal. This makes them susceptible to crooks and evil men. They need protection of our laws. If they stay outside the law, our system can’t help them. I urge you to contact your congressman or woman and tell them to do something to solve this problem today. The longer we wait, the worse it will get. It will also provide ample opportunity for someone to enter that will cause terror. These kinds of people don’t care whom they kill, just as long as they kill someone living in America. Our future, the future of our kids, and our nation depends that we solve this issue now.

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