Former Washington Post Reporter: My Life as an Undocumented Immigrant

For instance, why couldn't Rosa Parks just take her seat where the law said her seat was supposed to be? IT WAS THE LAW!!!!!!!!!!!

 

You just continue to come off worse and worse with each post. It would really behoove you to walk away from this discussion.

 

My paternal grandfather and grandmother came here on a boat in the 1930s from Europe. Their grandchildren are college professors, engineers, educators and doctors, and citizen ship was never an issue for anyone.

My grandfather made steel and so did his sons. His daughters married steelworkers.

The fact that this country does not have open doors to the rest of the world will be one of the reasons people will study in 100 years about how this country came to greatness and then later fell into ruin.

If a person is willing to leave everything behind to come here for a better way of life, we should welcome them as a potential very productive member of society. You know, those members that make a society great.

 

I wonder what percentage of people in the United States follow the letter of the law at all times. I'd put it at less than 1 percent.

 

This country has set limits on immigration since the 1870s.

 

The problem with everyone's argument on illegal immigration is they're playing both sides. You want to keep the ones that have been productive in, but kick all the drug-dealing, raping, assaulting ones out.
You can't do that. And I don't.
There are ways to get into this country legally and the people who don't should be punished. They shouldn't have rights; they shouldn't be able to suck off my tax dollars. If they're doing well for themselves, awesome - go get your green card. It's a tough process, but do it.

 

Still time to nuke that post before anyone quotes it.

 

I really don't care what anyone does.
The people who want to keep making excuses for these people will continue to do so. I'm fine with my stance because it involves the one thing the people who defend this issue don't use - logic.

 

You're saying the process of getting a green card is logical?

 

My wife received her green card two years after our wedding and seven years after she came to the country.

We spent a decent amount of money going through the process to get her card. There was a tiny bit of stress - "What if they split us up in the interview and think our marriage is a sham? Do we both get arrested or does she just get put on the first plane to Cape Town?" And perhaps I occasionally briefly think that it's unfair that she went through the lengthy process legally and endured a few small headaches along the way while those here illegally don't have to worry about that stuff.

But then there's this: The majority of illegal immigrant have endured stresses and journeys that are a hundred times more difficult than my wife's. Forget lawyer's fees, their worries are often incomprehensible to her. She came from South Africa in 1999. She did not escape a worn-torn country. She was a white South African, too. She did not escape a township, or crushing poverty or institutional racism. She didn't ride in the back of a van for days over a border with 20 other people, not knowing what would greet her when the door opened. While she did leave her home country and everything she knew and everyone she loved, she did not do it because she needed to get to America to find work so she could send money back to feed her family.

She didn't endure the humiliations that so many immigrants - legal and otherwise - go through, simply because they're not white. She's an immigrant, but a white South African is not who's being referenced when people rail about "immigration," and neither are people from England, Spain or Ireland (not anymore, at least). She didn't have to sit on a bus or in the back of a rusty pickup truck and have people yell that she was taking "nanny jobs from true Americans!"

But she also has something in common with illegal immigrants. She chose the United States. They do it for adventure, studies or love. But so many times, they do it for pure survival. Legal or illegal, they gave up everything they knew for the great unknown. And most of them, legal or illegal, often have a deeper appreciation of all this country can offer. They truly understand the opportunities available here, much more than so many who talk about how great America is but then express bewilderment when others seek it out. They do contribute, whether you're talking culturally, spiritually, or, yes, economically.

A tiny card says my wife is different than millions of other immigrants. But the similarities are endless. And mindlessly shouting "ILLEGALS" and simply advocating a round 'em up and ship 'em out policy ignores the fact that people - no matter where they're from, no matter what they look like - shouldn't be defined by an adjective.

Are there easy solutions? Of course not. But it's the illegal immigration zealots who seem to have the toughest time understanding that.

 

Funny that in the immigration debate, the same folks that would normally be against big government and federal bureaucracy pin their entire argument on the "simple, logical" solution of would-be immigrants to get green cards or work visas.

 

"Logic" means a little more than "It makes sense to me so it's true."