Legal or Out! My Thoughts on Immigration Law.

So, as its looking like a lot of the Arizona law will be allowed to take affect, I figured I’d give my thoughts on illegal immigration as its rather topical and also has me extremely pissed off. 

My stance isn’t very nuanced. 

If you are an illegal alien, as the very designation proclaims, you are not supposed to be in this country. 

I see no extenuating circumstances at all. The only right I think should be granted to people without legal documentation is emergency medical care. Now, I’m not talking about a yearly physical or “I have a wart on my foot,” I’m talking just hit by a car medical care. And then, from the hospital, you should be deported. 

Sanctuary states appall me. Absolutely appall me. Look at California. Part of its budget problems have to do with the money it spends on English as a second language programs. 

Now, if all those school children are illegal that becomes a necessary expense. If they are not, it is not just unnecessary, but goddamned criminal! 

I know all of this sounds conservative, but I’d argue that it isn’t conservative, but logical. 

We either have opened boarders or shut boarders. There really isn’t a middle ground. Either there’s an open immigration policy, where we turn this country into a walk in clinic for people who had the bad luck to be born in impoverished countries, or we have visa’s and green cards and all the rest of it. 

I think that we should be letting more people into this country legally. If there’s a work demand, that is, if there are jobs that only poor people from third world countries will take, then let them in. But just because the government hasn’t done that yet doesn’t mean we should ignore these laws. 

So I’m perfectly ok with the current state of Arizona’s immigration law. 

If a cop pulls someone over for an offense which is unrelated to boarder jumping, and there is a reasonable suspicion that the person might be illegal, a cop should be not just allowed to investigate, but encouraged to do so. 

If that person is illegal, there should be no trial, no proceeding of any kind. I want instant and emphatic deportation. Right back to where you came from. 

There should be no trial because if the offense that the person was pulled over for isn’t worthy of heavy jail time, then the fact of the person’s illegality should trump everything else, and they should be deported rather than prosecuted for breaking a window or being drunk in public. I don’t care what awaits you in your country of origin. Pissed off a druglord? Well, that sucks, but it is in no way the problem of the United States. Have nine kids and want to make money to send home. Well, you should have been reading the freakin speedlimmit signs more closely. If you wanted to do the legal thing you should have pled political asylum. 

I don’t really understand the counter argument. It seems like a bleeding heart thing to me. I guess people feel bad that these illegal immigrants weren’t born into a high standard of living so they don’t mind that they come here, caj off our high standard of living and send money home while only paying a bit of sails tax. 

Now, if you disagree with me, and you read the above paragraph you’re probably saying, “but Jason, these people are doing shitty jobs for shitty money in bad conditions.” 

My answer is that that’s a hardship that they assume responsibility for. As bad as the wages and the work is, they obviously want it or they wouldn’t be here. Morally I have sympathy for people coming to this country without papers. If I lived in some third world cesspit I’d probably try to get to the first world. But it doesn’t affect my response as an American which is either pay your taxes or get out. 

Now you should understand that I don’t much care which. If every illegal immigrant who didn’t have a conviction paid all there back taxes, and a five grand I snuck into your country without permission fee, then I wouldn’t care if they staid. But until that happens, I want these people out of the country. 

My reasons are simple and economic. If you don’t pay taxes and work here, you have an unfair monitory advantage. If you don’t pay taxes and use united states social programs which includes free medical care, education, welfare, roads, free speech, free press, you are stealing. There’s no counter argument. You are stealing from the government. Education costs money. Every tax payer contributes to the cost of it, and if someone is being educated without a legal guardian of some form contributing to the budget of the United States, then that person is stealing. It pisses me off when someone with no health insurance gets themselves a case of diabetes or obesity or lung cancer that was self inflicted. Because they have no insurance they can’t pay for the medical care. But because they are a citizen, I wouldn’t want them to die in the street, so I except the necessity of paying for there medical care. Grudgingly, but unquestioningly. But that’s because there citizens. It makes a huge difference. I believe that all men were created equal, but the difference between being an American and not being an American either exists or it doesn’t. If it exists, and you aren’t an American, you shouldn’t get to take advantage of America’s perks for the reason that you are not an American. So if you have lung cancer or diabetes, you should be deported. How’s Mexico’s national healthcare? What’s the standard of care like there? You know what you should do if you like America’s healthcare better than Mexico’s? Well, either apply for American Citizenship or go to Mexico, take up your civic responsibility and try to CHANGE HOW THINGS WORK IN YOUR OWN FUCKING COUNTRY! 

If the government, whether it be local, state, or federal, knows that a person is illegal, that should be the end of it. Out! No appeals, no nothing. You either have papers or you don’t, just. 

No detention centers, no nothing. Out with the clothing on your back and whatever you have in your pockets. Most especially if you’ve been convicted of a crime. 

Now I should say as a slight contradiction that illegal immigrants who go unnoticed, I’m not all that concerned about. If you never get convicted of a crime, and are here illegally, I’m still not happy about it, but there are worse things, namely the people who are here illegally and are convicted of crimes. I’m willing to ignore innocuous illegal’s. I’m not happy about it, but its the reality of the situation. 

Ideally, in my opinion we shouldn’t go on some massive deportation drive. We shouldn’t try to root out every illegal immigrant. There are too many, its a waste of money, and a lot of them are employed here, doing jobs that even in this recession, normal Americans don’t want to do. 

But if a cop stops a person for doing something illegal, the question should be asked, the answer determined, and if the person is illegal, then they should be shown the door. 

I’ll leave you with one final analogy. 

I’ve always wanted to stay at the Ritz. I’ve been there once. Its nice. You can smoke in the lobby, there’s a live band, the waitresses are hot. But if the manager of the rits caught me in the presidential sweet, he wouldn’t be like, “well, I’m not allowed to ask if you’d pay for a room,” he’d call the desk and if I hadn’t paid for a room I’d be deported from the hotel. We should think of ourselves like a goddamned hotel. 

2010

07/28

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jasonpolaski

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