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A legal immigrant argues for following the rules

By Mark Alan Braam

My wife, Ana Maria, is:

A fiery Latina raised in the emotional climes of Venezuela.

A legal immigrant who has taken every single step on her path to eventual citizenship in lockstep with the law.

Upset - no, furious - with illegal immigrants who somehow think that being in the United States and earning a living and getting government handouts are God-given rights and not a privilege to be earned.
I advise you all to duck and cover.

Hurricane Ana is about to blow.

The Post has been running a series of stories about U.S. immigration reform. Massive swarms of humanity have taken to the streets across the nation to protest a congressional bill that would criminalize undocumented immigrants - and those who help them. The House plan was to make it a felony for charitable groups and clergy to provide food, shelter, health care and other assistance to undocumented immigrants.

The Senate didn't take the House bill standing still. One bipartisan measure - co-sponsored by Sens. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. - aims to allow illegal workers to remain in the country if they pay a $1,000 fine, prove they are learning English and settle their back-tax bills. They also would permit those currently in the country to apply for citizenship without first having to return home, a process that normally takes at least six years.

The professed motives behind the Senate bill? Backers talk of "compassion," "justice" and "humaneness."

And that choking noise? That's my wife trying to hold back her temper.

"I don't know if Americans are way too good ... or way too stupid. You are not going to solve an immigrant's problems in that way.

"You just encourage more and more of them to keep coming across the border to take advantage of your good nature."

Ana is not heartless. She does not want to see people starve, nor does she want to see clergy members in jail. "Once illegals are here, someone, unfortunately, has to keep them from starving. But that 'someone' is not the government. The clergy and charitable groups are only doing what is right in doing what is good for your neighbors.

"But illegal immigrants should not even be 'our neighbors' in the first place. Compassion for illegals is not the job of government - its job is keeping them from getting here in the first place."

If the government does not enforce its own rules - and punish scofflaws who laugh at our milquetoast attempts to keep them out - then the waves of illegals sweeping across our shores will become a deadly flood.

A little overdramatic? Ana points to an oversaturated Europe, filled to the brim with its own illegal aliens. Ana's niece - another legal immigrant - has lived outside Paris for more than a decade and watched first-hand as the government merely paid lip service to tougher immigration laws. Then she watched the city explode into flames last summer after many foreign disenfranchised youths decided to take matters into their own hands. Government handouts over the decades created an immigrant welfare society, and foreigners flocked to French cities to take advantage of French largesse. When the people of France finally protested and politicos began tightening the immigration screws, it was far too late - an entire illegal population class had been firmly established, and expected, no, demanded, its share of the pie.

And it's not just France. In Spain, 82 percent of population growth comes from immigration, in Italy 97 percent, and in Germany 150 percent. Each country struggles in its own way to protect its shores and its pocketbooks. Most of them have failed miserably.

My wife, a scientist working as a contractor for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, refuses to take any money from the government that she has not earned. If she were to be laid off - as contractors often are - she would take her financial lumps and move on to her next job. Talk of welfare-type subsidies for illegal immigrants infuriates her. "What right do they have to my money? I pay taxes. I pay medical insurance premiums. I work hard every day - legally - to help support my family.

"I had to work hard to get my residency, and refused to work until I had my work permit. I battled my way through hours and hours of English lessons until I was proficient enough to earn a master's degree in biotechnology from Johns Hopkins University. I had to work my tail off - and now I have to read about thousands of illegal immigrants protesting in the streets, waving Mexican and Venezuelan flags, demanding their 'rights'?

"What rights? They do not belong here. They have not earned the right to be here. And they certainly have not earned the right to make any demands. When you are illegal, you have no rights.

"If they want to be here and if they want to complain about their treatment, then go about getting legal residency and come back and complain later. It is not fair to the people who do come to the U.S. legally. What is the point in following the right path if this whole class of people can take shortcuts and receive the same benefits of society that I have fought to achieve?

"The government is letting these people slowly take over the country without a fight. Worse yet, they are giving it away. Overall, it's stupid.

"Wake up, American people. Your nation, my adopted nation, is at risk."

Mark Alan Braam is assistant news editor of The Post.