Immigration Revisited
So today we have snot-nose students protesting the latest plans for immigration reform. Now, students will protest anything of course – I remember being part of a sit-in at UEA when some ‘facist’ speaker came to visit – but I become increasingly fed up with the “illegals are not criminals” mantra.
Of course the very term illegal immigrant is now supposedly racist but, by definition, if you do something illegal then you are a criminal. If I burgle your house I am not an undocumented visitor, even if I am desperate and only trying to better myself and my family.
At work today one of my new colleagues has been waiting 3 years to make progress on his Green Card application; $000s have been spent on his behalf to prove his value to the country. Why then should someone who has no interest in paying taxes or contributing to our society get a free pass? Make the process easier for all (note I said all, not just Mexicans) so that those who genuinely wish to belong can come; punish those who wish not to go through the process to the maximum.
Something that always amuses me – we all know that when people talk about illegal imigrants they really only mean Mexicans (and maybe Europeans). If the government was to propose real reform, say invite 75,000 Iranians and Syrians (I bet many of them are as desperate to live here as the Mexicans) I bet today’s protestors would be out again saying how the country is letting too many people in. Finally, let all the illegals who want to stay, stay, but they have to live in the same neighbourhoods as the protestors, paying no taxes but using all social services, refusing to speak English in schools…. Whats that I hear? Oh yeah, silence.