Thread: Opposing points of view: Offer illegal immigrants an earned

Opposing points of view: Offer illegal immigrants an earned path to citizenship through comprehensive immigration law reform
Aug 11, 2011
BY RYAN BATES

DETROIT FREE PRESS GUEST WRITER

Jose Vargas has lived in the U.S. for 24 years. He built his own landscaping business and employs several people working to clean up yards in many of Detroit's nicer neighborhoods.

He has two daughters, both U.S. citizens. The oldest is about to turn 21. Jose pays his taxes and his mortgage. He volunteers with his block club and his church.

Jose is exactly the kind of neighbor we wish we all had. Hardworking and community-minded, he is raising a family with his eyes on the American Dream.

Jose is also due to be deported in about a month.

When that happens, we all will lose a taxpayer, community leader and entrepreneur. His daughters will lose a father.

Why didn't Jose just "get in line" and emigrate the right way back in Mexico?

Quite simply, there is no line for Jose and millions like him. If you have hundreds of thousands of dollars or a skill like computer programming, there might be a line for you. If you have family already here with residency or citizenship, the line can be up to 13 years long. For working people like Jose, who built their lives by the sweat of their brows, there is no legal immigration process.

Why didn't Jose "get his papers fixed" during those 24 years? Surely there is a form he could have filled out?

For the 11 million undocumented immigrants currently living and working in the U.S., the sad reality is that there is simply no way to get their papers fixed. They're stuck.

We all understand that our immigration system is broken. Some politicians, with their eyes only on the next election, will tell you that we can simply "enforce the law" and be done with the matter. These hucksters are either lying to themselves or to you.

We simply cannot deport 11 million people. It is impossible.

To even try to deport 11 million people would leave our economy in tatters -- fruit would rot in the fields, meat would go rancid in the slaughterhouses, and all the vital, often invisible, work that immigrants do every day in our economy would simply go undone. And how many laid-off autoworkers do you know jumping at the chance to become migrant farm workers?

The 11 million should instead be required to register with the government, pay a fine and any back taxes, agree to learn English if necessary, and pass a background check. In exchange, they should be allowed to continue raising their families in the U.S. and get on an earned path to citizenship.

Then we need to fix our visa system. We need to create a way for needed workers to enter the country with proper documents and appropriate security checks, and continue our history as a nation of immigrants.

We cannot fix this with a wall in the desert. We cannot fix this with white-hot rhetoric and laws that turn every Latino into a suspected criminal. We can only fix this with comprehensive immigration reform.

Ryan Bates is director of the Alliance for Immigrants Rights & Reform-Michigan.

http://www.freep.com/article/20110811/O ... |Opinion|s

Why didn't Jose just "get in line" and emigrate the right way back in Mexico?

The reason the line in mexico is closed is because we have waaay more than 10% of their citizens already here! NO MAS! Jose and his compadres can work hard and make a life for themselves in their own countries. They all want to come here because of the freebies they can grab from us, which are not available in their own countries.

I DEMAND deportations of all illegal aliens and all children they've had!!

Two things come to mind:

- Why are his daughters "losing" a father? Take the anchor babies w/ you when your illegal rear end is shipped back home.

- I beg to differ. Jose is absolutely not the type of neighbor I want. Aside from a serial killer or carriers of the ebola virus, illegal aliens are about the last thing I want moving in on my block.

"We simply cannot deport 11 million people. It is impossible."
Take away the jobs and freebies and they will self deport. Hell, we would have plenty of volenteers to donate for bus tickets for them to leave. Really, it is NOT impossible. That is just an excuse.

They always bring up things like people being seperated from their families. We shouldn't allow anchor babies in the first place! If these people get deported, they took that chance and now have to suffer the consequences, or take the damned kids with you.

"To even try to deport 11 million people would leave our economy in tatters -- fruit would rot in the fields, meat would go rancid in the slaughterhouses, and all the vital, often invisible, work that immigrants do every day in our economy would simply go undone. And how many laid-off autoworkers do you know jumping at the chance to become migrant farm workers?"

Oh please! Either hire people at a decent wage or hire prisoners. We lose billions of dollars having illegals here, I doubt very much we'll fall apart without them!