Opinion Saturday #5
It's Opinion Saturday again. You give me your opinion on a topic. On Sunday evening I choose the best answer. The winner gets the prestigious (wink, wink) "Golden Keyboard Award"-- see it to the right-- plus a link on my sidebar for a week, AND a code to put the award on their webpage for as long as they like.This weekend's topic is illegal immigration, something Congress is wrestling with (over!) right now. Here are a couple articles that lay out some possible issues and solutions.
Bush Facing Difficult Path on Immigration
An Immigration Breakthrough
Do you think illegal immigrants should be kicked out? Given work visas? Made to go back home, THEN apply for work visas? Do you have a solution that is fair, humane, AND workable? (If so, maybe you should run for president!) Explain your ideas to me.
As always, this is not about which side of the debate you picked, but rather how well you stated your argument. If you prefer, you can give me a link in comments and answer this with a post on your own blog. Hit me with your best thought!
posted by owlhaven @ 12:02 AM
9 Comments:
I don't want to compete, but will offer my opinion.
I'm black and white on this one. If immigrants are illegal, then where is the grey area?
We have to worry about our own nation's security and economy, not the health and wellfare of those who enter and remain within our nation's borders "illegally".
We are very fortunate and blessed to be living here. I feel compelled to help others who may want to live and work here, too. But there are legal means to enter and stay in this country. Whether a person is from Mexico or Ireland doesn't matter to me.
Insight: We had an Albanian exchange student that skipped out on going home. He remained in this country illegally for some time, until he married a wonderful US/Albanian woman from his own country. He is living here now, doing much better. Had he TOLD us he wanted to stay, we could have helped him extend/renew his student visa. This would have saved him YEARS of aggrivation.
The problem is deeper than we know. In Canada we have very similar immigration / governmental issues. There are so many "deals" that countries make between each other in regards to this particular area, they trade people like commoditities. My hubby's cousin worked for Immigration Canada in Russia and they were given a "quota" of how many applications they could approve, if they didn't have enough legitiamate applicants then they let "whomever" in - just to make that quota, based on an agreement between the two countries for trade purposes. I don't think our countries are that different...
I believe that we are given laws for a reason, there are guidelines that must be upheld - both for citizens and for governments alike.
Not sharing an opinion... just wondering how long you've had the new banner? (I know, I know... I'm kind of slow!) Anyways, LOVE IT! Just thoguth I'd let you know. I guess that is an opinion... just on a different topic. :-)
OK.
Illegal aliens who are law abiding and not on the dole should be given three months to leave. We need not be harsh. I know many of them would make good Americans and they should be allowed to re-enter the country legally.
Anyone who wants to come here legally should be allowed to, provided they have no criminal history and they get a social security number that would delete them from welfare programs.
This way, they come to work and will mostly be law abiding. This will benefit our nation immensely.
Also it will reinforce that we are a nation under the rule of law.
momrn2, you're not slow--I just updated it this morning!
Mary
I also feel that we can't condone illegal immigration. If we really want to help, why cant we accept more legal immigrants, or perhaps make it easier to do? I feel like making illegal immigration acceptable in any way, is like a slap in the face to those who have entered thru legal chanels. Also, i'm so tired of seeing the term "undocumented aliens".
Welll. I live in a border town and my husband is working on a special task force regarding immigration and trans-national threats. Ya know that wall between US and Mexico? Yup He's working on that. My best buddy here in town is married to an FBI special agent who also has to deal with this stuff... All I can say about illegal immigration is "I'm agin it."
Oh and get this. Did you know that there has been talk in Mexico about suing us for violating illegal immigrants' civil rights by building a wall to protect out border?!
We definitely have a problem. It's one that we created and continue to perpetrate ourselves. We've set up laws that we are unwilling to adequately enforce or effectively apply consequences to when broken. We really only have ourselves to blame for this mess.
As to how to clean it up? Yes, they should be sent back. But it cannot be attractive for them to return. Remove all possibility of government assistance without proof of legal status. That would be a start.
Our jails could bust at the seams if we tried to incarcerate them all. Sending them back seems to have a boomerang effect. The only way to keep them on their side of the border is for us to a) want them to stay there, which we really don't seem to at this point, and b) make it so their government would also prefer they remain on their side. At this point, I don't think that's the case, either. It would have to be an agreement between the two governments so they work in tandem to establish and enforce a workable plan.
Europe doesn't seem to have this border problem. Is our border just too long?
Mary, the place looks GREAT! I really like the header and I'm so glad to see a pic of you...well, part of you, anyway.
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