Thread: Confessions Of An Illegal Alien

Confessions Of An Illegal Alien

July 21, 2010 by John Myers
Confessions Of An Illegal Alien

I believe Arizona’s Immigration Law S.B. 1070 is going to be damn effective. In fact I think it should be adopted across the United States. What special insight do I have into the matter? I used to be an illegal alien.

Twenty-seven years ago this month I was sitting at my desk in the Peyton Building in downtown Spokane, Wash., and I got a letter from the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). I jerked it open and realized my worst fears. My work visa had not been extended.

Immigrating to the United States had been a disaster right from the start, even though it shouldn’t have been. My dad, C.V. was a U.S. citizen by right of his father being born in Oklahoma. At least that’s what the U.S. State Department said when they issued C.V. a U.S. passport.

Yet INS thought otherwise. They hadn’t forgotten that C.V. had sold gold to Americans when it was illegal for them to own it. INS wanted to deport him. It was a legal fight that would take a decade to resolve. In fact a U.S. Federal judge finally ruled in C.V.’s favor a few months after his death in 1990.

But on that day in 1983 the only thing that mattered was the letter on my desk; the letter that said I had to leave the U.S. or face deportation. It didn’t matter that I had paid my taxes, bought a house and that my wife and I had an American-born son.

Despite the fact my dad was ill I decided that I didn’t really have a choice. Better to move back under my own terms than to be roped-up like a criminal and be “escortedâ€

That's a great story. There should be more stories from legal immigrants and more media focus on REAL immigrants. But that's not going to happen because the focus is on illegals, their needs and wants.

If a Canadian or _______________ was picked up on illegal status, you can bet your money they would face deportation. They don't even go after Mexican displaced foreign travelers unless they commit a serious crime against person or property.

While you state that immigration law is color blind, I don't think it's ethnicity blind. I've seen and read stories about scores of visa violators or illegal immigrants from countries OTHER THAN Mexico who get picked up, are told to leave within a certain number of days or ordered to be sent back to their countries.

It looks like the push if for Mexican illegals to maintain the status quo, not to disturb them except in cases of murder, drugs or crimes beyond just being illegal, which by most current standards is looked upon as a trespass and legally categorized as a misdemeanor. However, it's a federal felony to aid, employ and abet an illegal alien. Makes a lot of sense, doesn't it?

IMO, the focus for detention and deportation is on visa violators and citizens from countries other than Mexico. Why? Probably NAFTA and whatever agreements have been made to keep Mexico happy and trade flowing without any disturbance over illegals.

You have a great story and I agree with you. But even if AZ cops have the ability to detect and arrest, it's still up to federal agencies to actually deport. What can happen is a lot of arrests and lack of deportation for those put in jail, unless they're from Canada or ____________.

Jails will be overcrowded with displaced foreign travelers (pun intended) and the usual bleeding hearts will start complaining about jail conditions and create a big media fuss about inhumane treatment, separation of families, blah, blah and probably even ridiculous comparisons to concentration camps, they will probably plant legal residents and citizens to get arrested just to file frivolous lawsuits and whatever dirty scheme they can come up with in order to defeat the law.