Immigration Issue

[deza]

Kasey's journal remark on 4/14 about how 5/1 is the "Day without an immigrant" boycott got me going about this whole immigration discussion. On cnn.com, there's an article about the 5/1 boycott, and it stirred mixed emotions for me. http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/04/28/boycott/index.html

I can see the point of the immigrants, but I also agree that the borders need to be more secured. I don't think that illegal immigration should be a felony, but I do think that if you're in this country, you should pay your taxes, learn English, and promote good citizenship. In the news, I occasionally hear about criminals who don't have legal citizenship raping/murdering people. But, I do know people who are here who aren't here legally, but who contribute to the economy, good citizens and know English, and ensure that they pay their taxes. I have no problems with that. As far as the jobs go, I believe that there are jobs (taco bell) that regular Americans don't want.

Seeing that fellow mokeys had something to say about it on Kasey's journal entry, I figured I'd wake up the forums and post this debatable issue here. So, let me know what you think!

[ryan]

I think illegal immigrants are regular americans. I think they are responsible for a lot of the backbone of this country, and when they get paid $20 a day, I don't really care about their tax evasion. I care about their employer's tax evasion.

Saying they take jobs regular americans don't want smacks of a caste system, something I don't want to encourage.

[chris]

I haven't thought about it overly much, and not much of the news coverage seems to give many details about what they are trying to accomplish. As I understand it one of the main things is to allow illegal immigrants to gain lawful citizenship more easily. I am all for that. Especially considering many of them have strong political communities and may represent a voice for change that much of the working class seems to have abandoned (voter turnout is abysmal). Especially if they have a record of working hard already, etc.
This may be an overly "liberal" view, but I think lots of the people supposedly not caring about education comes from perceived lack of relevance to their lives. If your dad is a manual worker, you are mostly isolated culturally due to language and racism, and nobody is reaching out to you telling you you can do something else or giving you an opportunity to genuinely ENJOY learning (perhaps because the schools just can't do it due to teachers being too busy just keeping control and working through a prescribed curriculum), why would you work hard at school? For the mokeys, the social norm is you get an education, and then get some white collar job. For some of the disadvantaged the norm is you grow up enough to do menial work, then you work. This is what many of the examples they see are, and nobody around them seems to be expecting anything more from them.
As far as securing the borders, as long as it isn't something ridiculous like a giant fence I guess that is ok. I mean, securing borders is important for security and monitoring goods (especially biologicals such as fruits and meat).
I think it would be better for all involved if these workers were given citizenship so they could be more accurately accounted for in economic plans, etc. What I am wondering is what the incentive is for illegals to become registered citizens is given that we don't have universal health care and they will have to start paying taxes. I suppose maybe unemployment? I hear lots of talk about "they just want a free ride", but I guess I don't buy that without some facts to back it up.