The United States is one of the most diverse countries on the planet, if not the very most diverse, when it comes to race and heritage. In the past few years the government and many US citizens have gotten very upset and unwelcoming of the illegal aliens (or undocumented immigrants if you want to be politically correct) that come to our country in search of a better life. What is so bad about people getting jobs in this country if they are serving the community?
Who helped you get that slurpee at the gas station? Who installed your new carpet last year? Who washed the windows of your school or work? Who drove you to the airport? Who sold you that ice cream cone?
Chances are that a lot of the people who do services such as those listed above are from other countries and are not US citizens. Don't get me wrong here, I'm not saying that all non-US citizens are illegal or undocumented. A lot of them have green cards.
But for those of you who think that the immigrants coming to this country with green cards and/or a desire to work should be sent back to their native lands, please consider this: we were all immigrants at some point. You think this is YOUR country? You think that Mexicans and Asians and other immigrants are stealing jobs in YOUR country? What about the fact that all white men and women who came to this country in the very beginning were immigrants? The truth is that we came to this land we call America, took over everything, killed and displaced thousands of natives, and stole the farmland and crops to make our own prosperity and wealth.
And if you still think we came here to be nice to the "Indians" and seek religious freedom and have "Thanksgiving," read a book. It wasn't all eating maize and turkey.
What I'm trying to say here is that technically our ancestors were immigrants at one time or another for various reasons. Yes a lot of us escaped famine and religious persecution but isn't that what a lot of people coming to America today are trying to do as well?
If you think all the immigrants in the US should be kicked out then you better be ready to leave as well.
Well the problem is that they have medical problems and who pays for it? Our taxes.
They are very expensive if they don't stay under the radar. Also, if illegal aliens are killed, nothing happens. Awhile back a Mexican was run over in my home town. He died and the man driving the car got numerous hours of community service. They are many many more gliches in some many of them being here. I really don't have that big of a problem with them being here (especially since I live in California, and without them we wouldn't have produce) but when they start being treated unfairly it becomes messy and costly.
Thank you for your opinion. I was mostly trying to get people to see that we were all immigrants at one point.
That is too bad that the Mexican man died and couldn't get a good lawyer to help defend him!
Well he couldn't get a lawyer because he was illegal, he has no rights.
And I don't really agree with the whole we were all immigrants once... because I was never an immigrant. My ancestors were, in the 1600s. So I really wasn't ever an immigrant, they were.
My thoughts exactly. It makes no sense to say 'well, you better be ready to leave too', because I was born and raised in the US, as were both my parents, all my grandparents, and even my great-grandparents. You have to go back to the early 1900's in order to find one person in my family who was an immigrant.
The children of immigrants, if born in the US, are US citizens just like I am. The government cannot force them to leave. Also, those people who have a green card are not likely to be sent back home, because they came here legally. If an illegal immigrant comes, the government has the right to send them home and make them come back the legal way.
~C
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Agreed. I welcome immigrants, just not undocumented ones.
Après la pluie le beau temps. ♥
The human race evolved elsewhere, probably Africa. If you go back far enough even so-called "Native Americans" were immigrants. And they were busy with their territorial fights and conquests long before white immigrants showed up. There is a reason why cliff-dwellers built their homes on cliffs; those are defensive positions and their enemies were not white people. And read about the brutal conquests by successive waves of tribes on the Yucatan some time. They were not all about turkey and maize either and they slaughtered each other by the tens of thousands. The fact that some of our ancestors who engaged in those things had white skin does not change anything. They did not change anything that had not been going on for a long time. They just had better technology.
The United States has the most generous legal immigration system in the world. We allow more immigrants to come every year than ALL of the other countries on earth COMBINED. Most Americans according to the polls are fairly supportive of continued legal immigration. Personally, I think we allow far too many to come legally. I don't want anybody who came legally and followed the law after they got here kicked out but I do want the future number of legal immigrants sharply reduced. America is close to full.
What most people object to are not legal immigrants but illegal aliens. One of the most important aspects of American culture that separates us from other countries and has made us great and makes us such a desireable destination for immigration is our devotion to the rule of law. When we allow the lawlessnes that is illegal migration to continue unchecked it diminishes all of us. Americans are absolutely correct to be outraged at this lawlessness and to demand that the lawbreakers who obviously don't respect this critical aspect of our culture be deported. We don't want to kick out immigrants. We want to kick out lawbreakers.
yes, you are not an immigrant if you were born in the United States. My only point there is that people honor the pilgrims so much and never stop to think that the pilgrims came here without the consent of the Natives and destroyed them. Yes you can argue that the Natives welcomed us but we still stabbed them in the back.
And I think the reason the US allows more immigrants than any other country is because everyone wants to come here in particular. If everyone wanted to go to Mexican because Mexico was a good place to find work, then I'm sure it would be different. There is something special about the US that makes people flock here.
I'm trying to be on the immigrants side here.
And here is a little fyi on political correctness:
I do not refer to "Native Americans" or "Indians" as either because the native people of this land never called themselves Americans do saying they are Native Americans would imply that their land was already called America which it wasn't. The white men named it that. And of course we all know why "Indian" is not PC either.
A Cuban immigrant I know who came here very long ago said that immigrants prefer to be called documented or undocumented immigrants not legal, illegal, or aliens. That's just a little fun fact. I probably said illegal alien a few times myself though so don't call me a hypocrite here.
Anyway, didn't this immigrant shenanigans end already anyway? I mean wasn't that a few years ago when everyone was getting all upset and riled up? I was just bringing it up as an interesting topic.
The Pilgrims really didn't destroy the Native Americans. It was around the 1800's that the Native Americans started becoming destroyed.
The reason people flock here is for the foundations that the United States was founded on. Principles and a foundation that is rarely seen anymore because it has become distored by politics and the school system.
No it hasn't ended, it has just taken a backseat to the economic crisis.
I don't burden myself with political correctness much. It is a bunch of bunk. People should grow some hide and quit taking offense and playing the victim game. When I was a kid, people of African descent were often called negros (and worse). They made it clear that they wanted to be called blacks and I conformed. Then they wanted to be called "people of color". And I think now they want to be called African-Americans. How many of them were born in Africa? The heck with that! When I was a kid, American Indians were generally called Indians. Then they made it clear they wanted to be called something else and I conformed and started calling them Native Americans. Now you are telling me they want to be called something else but you can't even tell me what it is? The heck with that. And I don't give a damn if I insult illegal aliens with the word alien. It is legally correct and they are just criminals!
I am half Cuban. You can just call me an American thank you very much. Or you can call me an SOB, I don't care!
The illegal alien issue is still very much alive. The borders are better but they are still pretty easy to cross and we are still getting thousands of new illegal aliens nightly. They say apprehensions are down 25 to 40% and they say that means less people are attempting the crossing. But 60% of the previous insane levels is still a lot! Our workplace enforcement efforts are slightly stepped up from their non-existent levels a few years ago but they are still pathetic. And there are still millions of illegal aliens in our country and we have done nothing to make them leave. So the issue is still very much alive.
There is a bi-partisan enforcement bill in Congress called the SAVE Act that has over 180 co-sponsors. The Democratic House Leadership is blocking it from coming to a vote. The supporters need 221 petitioners to override the Leadership and force it to a vote. That may yet happen. There are also a whole slew of enforcement bills that were recently introduced in the Senate. I don't think anybody is taking them too seriously. They are mainly just there to point out how weak the Democrats are on enforcing our immigration laws.
thanks for everyones thoughts on this. I think a lot of you might not fully understand my point. I never said the Native Americans weren't immigrants or anything like that. I just want you to consider the fact that your ancestors were immigrants at one point.
You've re-stated that part of your point a couple of times. So I think we all get it that our ancestors were immigrants.
I am proud of my Scotch, Irish, English, German and Cuban ancestory. But I don't define myself by my immigration heritage. My ancestors and relatives spilled blood in the American Revolution, the Civil War, WWI, WWII, the Korean War and Viet Nam and probably various Indian fights. At various points in history some of my relatives immigrated but that is NOT what defines me. I am an American and only an American with no hyphens required.
I think it is the rest of what you said that is giving some of us heartburn. Like this gem:
If you think all the immigrants in the US should be kicked out then you better be ready to leave as well.
Our ancestors came as settlers or immigrants or refugees. They carved a nation out of the wilderness and people fought and died for that nation. They established a Democracy and one of the key principles of that Democracy is "government of and by and for the people". The people democratically made laws. Some of those are in respect to immigration. And as the citizens of this country we had every right to make those laws and we have every right to demand that they are enforced.
Some would be immigrants follow those laws. A lot of those potential immigrants for one reason or another they are not allowed to come. They may not like that decision but most of them respect it.
But then there is another huge group that does not even make the slightest effort to follow our laws. They just jump our borders and move in. This is a crime and the penalty for this crime defined in our democratically passed laws is deportation.
When you say that i can't demand that people who have violated our immigration laws be deported or that I should have to leave as well it chaps my butt because I have the right to be here and I have the right to demand that anybody who is considering coming here follows our laws or be punished.
thank you for your response!