Legal immigrant looks at illegal immigration
by John Mycroft
published April 16, 2006 12:15 am
AdvertisementIf you are a legal immigrant and break the law, you get sent back where you came from. I know because I immigrated here three years ago and the INS made that very clear. If you are an illegal immigrant, you have already broken the law so you get invited to stay here as a “guest worker” for six years. That’s what our politicians want. Why is the concept of “illegal” so difficult for politicians to grasp? U.S. immigration procedures are crystal clear and are there to protect the country while ensuring that everybody here is on record. A fundamental part of the process is demonstrating a respect for U.S. law. You don’t have to agree with all the laws, just show that you are prepared to live by them.

The immigration process is clear. First, pay the fee for handling your application. Then visit a doctor to make sure you have no nasty diseases. Considering our paranoia about weapons of mass destruction, it makes sense to keep TB, AIDS, smallpox and a host of other things out.

Next, you get interviewed at your local U.S. Consulate. They check your desirability and that you can support yourself when you arrive in the U.S. The trips to the Consulate are inconvenient but probably less inconvenient than swimming the Rio Grande. You get fingerprinted so the FBI can check your criminal record and the Consulate contacts your local police for the same reason. If all goes well, you are given a sealed package of papers with the warning that, if you open it before you get to the U.S., you go back to square one.

Now, if you have border hopped, you could be a disease-ridden destitute bank robber and nobody will know or be able to trace you as you infect the country. Bird flu, anyone? If you commit a crime, your prints are not on record, making the job of the police that more difficult. That’s why border-hopping is illegal.

Opinions on what to do with illegal immigrants range from packing them all off home immediately to various euphemisms for amnesty. If a legal immigrant gets in trouble with the law, it’s “pack your bags” time — I look forward to hearing why illegal immigrants deserve to be treated more leniently.

But let’s be humane — these are people we’re talking about. Criminals, certainly, but still people. So give them a month to get registered at the local immigration office, police station or town hall and fitted with an electronic tracking tag. Anyone who can’t be bothered registering gets deported.

Once registered, there are a number of options ranging from starting citizenship proceedings (tricky, considering you’ve already broken U.S. law) to applying for one of the range of visas that are currently available. If your application is eventually declined then you’re headed home.

One problem facing a poor immigrant is the difficulty of getting together the cash to pay for it. There is an obvious Catch-22 here that you need money to be able to afford to come to the U.S. to get some money. If we allowed immigrants to pay for their papers after they arrived, it would remove one incentive for border hopping. Naturally, you don’t get a green card until the bill is been paid.

The reasons for offering amnesty are many, mostly spurious and ignore the fact that illegal immigrants have knowingly broken the law, a sign of a profound disrespect for the U.S.

“Illegal immigrants do jobs Americans won’t do.” This depends on how you define “job.” If the job is raking lawns, picking oranges or washing dishes then there are thousands of Americans who would be glad to do it.

If you add “for $2 an hour” to those job titles then it is not right to expect an American to want it, any more than it is right to call it a job.

“Cheap labor keeps prices down.” According to a study by the University of California, Davis, laborers in Florida get 1 cent a pound — $40 a day — to pick oranges.

Paying three times that should increase the price in shops by 2 cents a pound. Hardly likely to break the household budget.

“Cracking down will alienate Hispanic voters.” This one really scares the Republican Party who have spent millions courting Hispanic voters recently.

Perhaps we should give amnesty to child molesters, too, so that we don’t alienate the child-molesting voter. The job of the government is to run the country, not to ensure their own continued occupation of the White House.

There is nothing ambiguous about the term “illegal immigrant.”

A person here illegally is as guilty as a burglar in a warehouse at night. They’ve knowingly broken the law and do not belong here.

John Mycroft graduated in Maths from London University in 1970. He has been involved in the computer industry in a number of roles ever since. Originally from England, he has lived in Asheville since immigrating to the U.S. from New Zealand in 2003. He can be contacted
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