Over at townhall.com, Victor Davis Hanson has voiced -- and very well, I must say -- most of the primary troubles brought upon us by illegal immigration.
This hits home to me in a number of ways.
First, my mother's dad & his family came via the legal method immediately before WWI, and they worked hard -- all of them -- to acquire citizenship. They learned the language, they all took regular jobs (even the pre-teen boys), and jumped through hoops for years to keep the privilege of staying here.
Second, one of my good friends has been trying for 3 years to get his wife's daughter over here. She's been stuck in bureaucracy over in Russia, while dozens of illegals have already set up shop right here in our podunk junction locality, and nobody is making them wait their turns. Meanwhile, my friend and his wife have been forced to pay for airline tix to fly back and forth across the ocean, pay a veritable fortune in legal fees so that the INS doesn't read something nefarious into their marriage, and suffer constant frustration when the many bureaucracies on both sides (but especially our own) screw up and lose paperwork or give them bad information. So Natasha waits while her mother files and re-files and goes from office to office. And, if she misses one document deadline, she can lose her window of opportunity for seeing her daughter, let alone bringing her to America.
Meanwhile, another few thousand illegals cross the border from Mexico, and stay with their families. And the government doesn't penalize them for breaking the law.
Third, I chose to stay in this country, myself. I had a chance to leave it, to be with the man I loved, and I found I loved my country more than I loved a good man. I want to see that this country will always live up to its highest expectations.
Yes, we need hard workers. But no, we ought not break laws and endanger our population in order to get those workers.
This isn't about racism. It's about fairness to those who play by the rules.
Read VDH's column.
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