You mean eager to do everything they can to become legal AFTER they have violated the law by coming here illegally. If they were eager to become legal, they would stay in their own country and apply from there in accordance with our laws, not violate our laws as their very first act of trying to become a citizen here.maiforpeace wrote:As I posted elsewhere Kiki, not all people have the ability to pull themselves up by their bootstraps like you did - it's just a sad fact. And I would say that in the case of most Mexican immigrants, which in California is mostly who we are referring to, it's not laziness that prevents them from doing so, it's fear.kiki5711 wrote:Did you have the presence of mind at 15 to take yourself to the DMV office to get your driver's license? If you did, I'd be impressed.
I did. And I spoke broken English and did it all myself, no help from my parents. I learned how to drive on one of those old Lincoln Towncars (my father's car) that was as long as a bus. I also started working part time at a bakery at 14 and helped my parents with household expenses and had my own pocket money.
I volunteer for Sunday Friends. I have a lot of contact with illegal, Mexican immigrants. We help them to do exactly what we are discussing here...assimilate them to become legal. One of the first steps is to get them in the tax system. Yes, that's actually one of the ways....they start to pay taxes on income they earned without legal status (obviously not on illegal activity). We can't assist all these families fast enough...they are eager to do what they can to become legal, even if it means they don't get to reap the benefits that paying taxes provide until they get a green card.
I'm sure they are very nice people. I know some very nice illegal immigrants too, who have developmentally disabled, autistic children that are costing the state hundreds of thousands of dollars every year to serve because they are US citizens who were born here as "anchor babies" to their illegal alien parents. We'll serve those children because they are citizens, but they should never have been citizens because their parents never should have gotten across the border. Our military should have stopped them and deported them before the mother was able to give birth, if it meant putting them on a plane to get her out of US jurisdiction before she delivered.Then, the next step is getting the local congressperson involved to help. It takes time, and resources and so far all they get in the form of assistance is the help that organizations like Sunday Friends can provide.
Maybe it's my personal contact with these actual immigrants that we are discussing that makes me a bleeding heart liberal, but I do empathize and would rather lend them a helping hand than kick them to the curb.
The United States simply cannot afford to take in all the "huddled masses yearning to breathe free" any longer. Sorry, but the Golden Door is closed, and you have to knock and ask for, and receive permission to come to the United States. If you can't, then stay where you are and fight to make your country more like the United States. You can start by getting rid of all the Marxists, by whatever means necessary, and then by adopting your own version of the US Constitution and recreating the American dream wherever you happen to be a citizen. It might take some bloodshed and revolution to make it happen, but that's the price of liberty.