Immigration in the news

So it seems like there is some headway being made in the continued push for immigration reform. A bipartisan bill is making its way through, which would provide an avenue for the current 12 million illegal immigrants to gain citizenship, create a guest worker program, and boost border protection. For the longest time we have been so careless about our immigration policies and now we are paying the price. I don't know if granting citizenship to the 12 million is the right thing, but are we seriously going to be able to find them all? They're all already here and unless they're committing crimes then let them stay. The drain now is on us, the legal citizens, whose tax dollars get wasted on people who broke the law getting in here.

I believe many of these people are honest, hard-working folks who were looking for a better life. Is there a potential for a lower-class of workers in this country? Very much so. But let me ask you a question. Politicians want to argue these illegal immigrants are stealing jobs from American citizens. So why is it we don't see a large rush of Americans who need jobs heading out to harvest crops or serve as day laborers? Because Americans who could use the jobs think it's beneath them or the work is too hard. When I see the guys looking for work over in the day laborer parking lot (there's one near the house in DC) I know they're at least doing something about their situation. How about we take those jackasses on welfare milking the government and send them out to toil under the sun? Chris Rock said it best when he noted a single mother with three kids working two jobs hates a woman on welfare.

I heard someone today say companies should be punished for hiring illegal aliens. Let me tell you that if companies don't hire these folks they'd be screwed because I don't think people would take the jobs. Companies would take the fines and keep paying them because they'll keep hiring illegals as much as they keep coming across the border. But God forbid these people should become citizens and be entitled to minimum wage. Then the companies would be in trouble.