Related Posts

A Day Without Immigrants…

Wouldn’t you think that as a person living illegally in a country, the last thing you’d want to do is draw attention to yourself? I have some mixed feelings on the whole situation that’s occuring today, coming from a family with Mexican immigrants.

Although the United States is made up of nothing but immigrants, I have to support the legal method of entering and living in this country. In my opinion, illegally entering and working in a country just ends up costing money and jobs to those that live here legally. Certainly they contribute to the economy through purchasing products in stores and by working in the jobs that they work in, but they also cost us money because they aren’t accountable to pay taxes for city services that they most likely use. So they basically get to keep most of their income and don’t have to help pay for roads and schools and everything else.

I definitely support tighter restrictions on our borders, but don’t think building a wall is the solution. A wall seems like stone-age technology and I don’t believe it will really stop anyone from entering the country. If we can see people sitting in their backyards from space, you can’t tell me that we don’t have the technology to watch a border.

Also, we need to have tigher restrictions on illegal immigrants and if it takes making them felons to get the point across then so be it. But also, companies and people that hire illegal immigrants need to be held accountable. The reason these immigrants come to our country is because they are able to get jobs and live a relatively good life. And even if there aren’t jobs available, chances are that there’s a church or some kind of government service that’s willing to give some kind of handout.

Finally, there are a lot of immigrants to this country that don’t support the plight of the illegal immigrants. Many people go through the process, spending money and time to learn the language and go through the proper channels to become legal citizens. These people are a huge contribution to our diversity and bring in the tax dollars we need to keep our schools, roads and other publicly used areas funded.

As one legal immigrants said, “We understand the importance, contribution immigrants have made to the economy and the industry of this great nation, but the difference is that we and millions of others like us did it legally. We’re all here today to tell all those illegal protesters, ‘You do not speak for me.’ ”

To me, having a rally with tens of millions of illegal immigrants marching for their rights just points out what a huge problem we truly have. And if businesses are suffering, maybe they need to find a way to hire some legal workers, instead of relying on people that are essentially breaking the law.

I’d probably support a guest-worker type of program where workers could legally sign up for the program and in return be allowed to work in the country, while also having to pay the necessary taxes that all workers have to pay. After a few years, these guest-workers would be able to apply for some kind of citizenship, having shown that they’ve contributed during that time period.

Something needs to be done. More than what is currently not being done.

Tags: immigrants, immigration, illegal, legal

 Print This Post
  Link to this Entry