Us vs Them--A Compassionate Look at Immigration Posted

Lisa Ancona-Roach
Writer, Blogger at TheJuggleStruggle.net
Posted: 09/24/2015 12:55 pm EDT Updated: 09/25/2015 5:59 pm EDT


Don't get me started on Donald Trump and how much it scares me that there are some people out there--including women, which astounds me--who think he should be our president. The focus here isn't on the polarization of politics, and certainly Donald is polarizing, if nothing else. I only bring him up because it amuses me that he has taken credit (of course) for creating the conversation on illegal immigration, and that is my real focus today. (Perhaps another time, Donald.)


Illegal immigration is definitely a hot--and complicated--topic, and one that makes my heart hurt.

Whenever I hear people talk of keeping "them" out by building a wall or whatever method, I can't help but feel the sad irony of it.


Recently, I had a conversation where someone asked me, "What do you think about all these refugees ready to overtake our land?"


"You know who else said that?" I asked.


"No...who?"


"The Native Americans."


I really don't understand how folks can forget that truth about the history of the United States.


I can take no credit for being an American citizen. I didn't earn it. My parents lived here, and voila...I was born an American citizen. And while America is far from perfect, and we need to address some tough issues rather than sweep them under the rug, this country is a beacon to so many who were not fortunate to be born into a land of opportunity.


I could have been born in a country racked by civil war.


I could have been born in a country that allows "honor killing" of women simply because their family feels insulted.


(Though different, we must face our own women's issues in the U.S., as there are plenty of men in suits up on Capitol Hill that are trying to prohibit me from having rights to my own body.)


I could have been born in a country with rampant poverty and little, if any, opportunity.


I could have been born in any number of places where rights are nonexistent or there is no such thing as safety.


I wasn't...but millions and millions of others are.


While I was born in America, my grandfather wasn't. He came to America for the same reasons that so, so many others do: to make a better life for himself and his family. And, obviously, he wasn't the only ancestor of mine to make that choice.


Because of my grandfather's journey of hope, my family is here.

Grandpa was a hard worker, working as a manual laborer his whole life. Though he wasn't able to move beyond that kind of backbreaking work, his children were. He paved the wave for that better life, and today's immigrants are no different. How can we blame anyone who wants to escape danger and poverty for safety and food?


We can go ahead and argue that they should do it legally, but that process is very flawed and outdated. For me, all I need to do is put myself in the place of someone who is living in poverty or war and think, "What should I do for my family? Should I wait years--maybe even decades--to go through the proper channels? Life is happening now. My kids are hungry now. I need a job now..." My grandfather was able to come to America legally, but I wonder what he would have done if that option wasn't available to him.


Ninety-eight percent of undocumented workers prefer to live and work legally in the United States and would do so if they could. Now, I don't pretend to know even close to everything about this issue, but I personally believe that if we put our resources into ascertaining any criminals or terrorists who are trying to come to America and make sure that they don't get in, while we facilitate an effective process to welcome those who are ready to be law-abiding members of our society, we would have a much healthier and vibrant country.


Years ago when I worked as a waitress, I worked with a number of busboys who were from Mexico. In a job that is very low on the pay scale, they could earn enough to send money back to Mexico and provide for their families. In order to do so, they shared cramped apartments to save more money, all the while missing their loved ones terribly. We would talk, and they would tell me how much they were looking forward to the month that they would be able to go home and visit. They worked their butts off eleven months out of the year while longing for that one month. I learned a lot from them about dedication and sacrifice.

America's legacy is written on the pedestal tablet of the Statue of Liberty. Many of us may know the "give me your tired, your poor" part, but if you've never read the poem, written by Emma Lazarus, in its entirety, take a look:


"The New Colossus"
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
It doesn't continue, "Until we decide that we no longer want them."


It's not Us vs Them. It's Us and Us.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lisa-a...usaolp00000592

I truly hope when Trump is President that the stupid misunderstood, misapplied "poem" on the Statue of Liberty is removed. It's not a poem about migrating to the United States, it's a poem about finding liberty. The Statue of Liberty is a beacon to the soul of freedom, not a lure to leave your country and come to the United States.

This writer is one of them. One of those Americans who wants to determine US immigration and economic policy by illegal aliens busing dishes in a restaurant, violating occupancy laws in apartment buildings, and sending their money out of our country into theirs. And don't whine to me about the "hard work". I have a relative who is a busboy, he works in a restaurant busing dishes to the kitchen. He's retired in his 60's, does this work to pick up extra income, and loves it.

So all the illegal aliens working as busboys in the restaurant where she worked did was steal needed jobs from Americans, ruin the quality of life and value of an apartment building for the legal residents, and drain our money supply. That's of course before we know all the other laws they broke here.

How does the Media keep coming up with these clueless idiots? NOOOOOOOO! We are not inviting tradespeople and agriculturalists who will quietly go live on a farm 30 miles out of town. We are inviting hoodlums and desperados ready to fleece our system, displace us, bring disease, wreak havoc and with them their kinfolk participating in their desperate criminal activities, burdening our prison and police systems.

My compassion for others ends when I have my $$ taken from me and given to someone who is illegally here. Mom always taught me that Charity begins at home thus all my dollars go to helping our Vets or other agencies that fight illegal immigration.

http://www.alipac.us/f13/un-led-mass...onhood-323842/

Let me see if I understand this correctly. Is Ms. Lisa Ancona-Roach advocating for limitless immigration? How does she not understand that the quality of life she and her children are enjoying now will not be here for her great-grandchildren if we don't monitor and control immigration. Her compassion for her fellow man is to be commended, however it is misguided because she is advocating for future generations of Americans to suffer through the same things she says brings immigrants here.... opportunity, hunger, etc. When our country becomes a hell-hole after decades of mass immigration where will her great-grandchildren go to seek opportunity and relieve their hunger? :roll:

Its like these writers have no business writing so called *journalism*. They miss all the facts. In older days immigrants did NOT get any aid or help in form of welfare. They either had to succeed on their own building often from nothing their own success or they packed up and went home and every year many were returning home with their tail inbetween their legs. That is a major way how they were weeded out. People had an opportunity and that is what the US was, *The Land of Opportunity*.

Further in today's world we are connected to billions of other people instantaniously. Most of them want to come to the US and have a chance. However our country, space, economy, and infrastructure can NOT handle them all... ever. We already take in more legal immigrants every year then every other developed country (very possibly still more then all of them combined). Our system however is broken, broken in the way that we no longer look out for the interests of Americans over the onslaught of foreigners, foreign culture, and foreign interests. It is NOT broken however in us having a long and tedious process because we simply can NOT take in every person who wants to come nor do we have a duty to do so.

Immigration is about what WE need, NOT about what THEY want. If we do not have a need then there is no reason to have immigration. Its past time we have a 10 year hold on ALL immigration to the US other then spousal or minor children of US Citizens and in that time bump off all non Citizens from welfare programs on all levels along with deporting any convicted of any sort of felony.