Thread: Give illegal immigrants amnesty already

Give illegal immigrants amnesty already
By David Becker
Article Last Updated: 07/11/2008 11:12:17 AM MDT


It is time to grant amnesty to America's twelve million illegal immigrants.

By giving the illegal immigrants living in America a free pass, cleaning the slate, so to speak, Americans exhibit hospitality and put this nagging issue to rest.

Forgiveness is a tenet word in the Christian tradition and, by ending the chase on the border, it saves the American taxpayer billions of dollars.

In a recent cover story, Time magazine featured a photo of what they called the Great Wall of America. However, that 700-mile barrier is not high enough to keep hopeless people out as long as "poverty makes people desperate."

On a human level there are four reasons for granting blanket amnesty to all illegal immigrants. First, it enriches these very poor, the illegal aliens.

All the money that immigrants waste by hiding in plain sight, they can use to open bank accounts, fuel the economy, and send their kids to school. They end the shenanigans of pretending to be real constituents and immediately take steps to become citizens. It raises their spirits because mothers and fathers who have American children (who were born here) join the choir who sing words of the 1832 Samuel Francis Smith song "My country tis of thee, Sweet land of liberty, Of thee I sing."

Second, Americans acknowledge that desperate Mexicans come to the United States whether U.S. government erects that 700-mile wall or not. If we build a 14-foot wall, the Mexicans bring a 16-foot ladder. Many swim the New River, or what Time magazine identifies as "perhaps the most polluted river in North America — a foamy, green mix of industrial waste, farm runoff and untreated human sewage found to carry tuberculosis, encephalitis, polio, cholera, hepatitis and typhoid."

Undocumented immigrants arrive carrying all these potential illnesses so why should Americans pretend that they aren't coming?

Third, it is a spiritual calling for religious Americans to reach out to the most needy in society and give them help. Jesus told his followers that "whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me." It is a just and honorable calling of Christian social justice.

John Meacham, the author of American Gospel ("God, the Founding Fathers and the Making of a Nation") likes to remind his readers that the English Puritans, the original immigrants to this continent in 1620, sought "religious freedoms, new lands and better livelihoods." Does that sound similar for the Mexican immigrant standing on the other side of a 700-mile wall today?

The fourth reason for amnesty is to free up all the resources that Americans waste in excluding good people. We could use this wealth to battle the bad guys in other places. The government needs money in port security, to facilitate getting folks through those long lines at airport terminals and guarding our other borders.

America could bring in more Latin students to study in America universities and research facilities. America is generous with foreign aid but putting wall-building funds to use in training scientists they may find ways to improve crops in Latin America that could empower people on a path out of poverty. Immigrants come to America out of discontent with their homeland.

The single path to keeping them in their homeland is helping them with self-sufficiency.

Amnesty, the formal act of liberating this great mass of humanity who are in this country without American citizenship, is an innocuous, freeing gesture from a generous country. Only blind xenophobics want to waste the time and money tracking down those who are here illegally. It is grace, pure grace, to put it all behind us and just open our arms as a country and welcome the immigrants. Will we also let in some bad guys? Sure we will, but American law enforcement is also the best in the world. Just think of all the nice people who will suddenly come out of hiding!

David Becker is a writer living in Colorado. He co-edited "Problems with Death-Opposing Viewpoints."
http://www.denverpost.com/opinion/ci_9851552

Originally Posted by zeezil

Give illegal immigrants amnesty already
By David Becker
Article Last Updated: 07/11/2008 11:12:17 AM MDT


Will we also let in some bad guys? Sure we will, but American law enforcement is also the best in the world. Just think of all the nice people who will suddenly come out of hiding!

David Becker is a writer living in Colorado. He co-edited "Problems with Death-Opposing Viewpoints."
http://www.denverpost.com/opinion/ci_9851552

Dave, have you been doing drugs again? Must be nice to have a profession where you can work at home while you "toke up". Maybe some of those "nice people" you love so much will make you a "dope deal"...

All that bleeding heart drivel and not one word about one of the most common types of crime that IAs engage in, and is growing rapidly as well: identity theft and document fraud. I'll wager that David has never had his identity stolen or similar such problems...

No takers to your OBL pleadings here pal.

By giving the illegal immigrants living in America a free pass, cleaning the slate, so to speak, Americans exhibit hospitality and put this nagging issue to rest.

America is the ONLY nation in the entire world that welcomes such a large number of immigrants. WE WELCOME IMMIGRANTS WHO COME HERE LEGALLY.

IS THIS AUTHOR MAD! Why would America want to give illegal immigrants a "free path, cleaning the slate"?! Americans are fed up with supporting illegal immigrants who sneak accross our borders. Its costing us billions of dollars.

AND we would like to see people of different faces and different cultures from around the world have a chance to come to America, and not be limited to JUST HISPANICS.

....and theeennnn, they aalll lived happily forever after. Kumbaaaayaaaa, Kumbaaaaaayaaaa.....(hic) (puff)

There is a comment section with a comment board very similar to ours here associated with this article on the Denver Post at this location: http://www.denverpost.com/opinion/ci_9851552

HAVE AT 'EM!!!

Oh, GAG!

Give me a freaking break!

Who said they're are only 12 Million... Do you actually believe the Government that there are only 12,000,000 who counted all these people that are in the shadows

12 million was a 2004 estimate.