OK…there are plenty who do not agree. Admitted. But those who do not agree are generally in favor of open borders…period. When I said that we all agree on step one, I meant to include that group of people who feel that open borders are not an option, that we have an “illegal” problem and want to have something done about it.

Can you agree with _that_ statement?

Well, that just about says it all. And that IS the problem. Because we do NOT all agree on step one: secure the border. All the rest is just smoke and mirrors intended to hide this basic fact.

being in the US illegally is a crime, they are stealing something that does not belong to them. If I went to church and told the Pastor that I was a shoplifter, a bank robber, a rapist, a murderer — would that Pastor offer assistance to help be steal more, rape more, murder more?

Group 1: Criminals and terrorists. What I mean by this are the slave traders, drug runners, smugglers etc. that come in to do us real harm. I don’t need to explain the terrorists part do I?

Group 2: People chasing the dream. Yes I know that they are here illegally and many lump them into group 1. These are the people that want the same dream we do, many of them have been here for years and have kids that were born here. This group is the one that we need to get documented and get them on the path to citizenship. This way they stop draining the system and start paying into it, double bonus… Now we’re all adults and realize that there is always going to be a percentage that will take advantage of the system. But that happens with every system, my wife deals with employees who take advantage of their disability and FMLA benefits all the time. It does not mean that everyone should pay the price and lose their benefits just because of a few people.

Now I do agree with many things people have been saying. We really need to increase the fines for people and companies that knowingly hire illegals. Instead of fines in the 100K range it should be 10 times that easy. If companies start getting fines in the millions per infraction the cost of business will dictate that they can’t afford to run the risk of hiring illegals. And if businesses go under? Well, I’d bet the next company won’t go down that road. That includes big companies and small ones. We also need to give companies a route to report fake ID’s and falsified I-9’s because I don’t think there is anything they can do right now.

We also need to turn this flood into a trickle of illegals so that we can really enforce the laws we have now. Then we can start figuring out who is here and what group they are in. Group 1? Send them back. Group 2? Get them into the system and paying their fair share.

But none of this matters as long as the border looks like a giant colander because they’ll be coming in faster than we can send em back…

We can probably all agree with step one – secure the border. Keep out anymore illegals. The next few steps are where it gets tricky.

I’d start with the jails. Make a deal with Mexico to send all Mexican national prisoners to Mexico and make arrangements for them to be kept in jail in Mexico. It would cost us, but it would be cheaper than it costs in the US. (Gotta make it so we could check to see that the prisoners are actually there, too). Ship out any illegal arrested in the same way – quick sentence (”you’re illegal, 6 months in jail – send him/her to Mexico”). If that isn’t possible, start setting up Arpaio style prisons right along the border. Highly fortified, no comforts, and providing a deeper protection for the border. “Dot” them along the border. Send all Mexican nationals to these prisons.

Reduce benefits available to unpapered clients – meaning _check citizenship_ before rendering social services. Any cost of social services should be paid by the federal government or the bill should be sent to the state of Mexico. I know it won’t get paid – although maybe we could offset the cost of those jailed in Mexico prisoners!

Then start with the schools. Require citizenship for entry into schools. I hate this one. I’d rather be giving aid to a foreign country by directly educating their children than any other method. If they then don’t send their children to school, they become a bit conspicuous. If the children have been born here, then they can return when they’re 18. If they don’t speak Spanish, then I guess they’ll just have to learn. After all, there are plenty of them whose parents have brought infants here – or older – who don’t speak English, so how much of a burdern can it be? English is _not_ an easy language to learn. Spanish is much easier. And they’ll be bilingual! What a bonus! Then require that a baby be born of _legal_ immigrants to acquire citizenship.

Make English the US official language.

Eventually, we’ll have to have new immigration laws. Work permits with a microchipped id card would be good. (visited friends at a military base recently. They had the id photos of all base occupants on file in a central computer. They could scan an id card at an entry gate, and it pulled up the photo in the guard gate device- handheld! – that the guard could compare with the person presenting the card. Eliminates forgeries. Impressive.) If a person works for x years (to be determined) s/he gets credit on an immigration list, but we have to make accomodations of the skills needed for immigration. At present, white collar/education are big plus factors – in fact, what we need are blue collar/field workers.
When they decide to immigrate, they _must_ include immediate family members. Decide on entry by the whole family, not just the individual.
Allow people who are here illegally and who have work but have _not_ done so on fraudulent papers (I’m guessing many would be self-employed) to register and stay, but they better have their tax forms in order!

I say all this as an RC who is _really_ upset with my Archdiocesean Cardinal Maloney who has stepped up into the political arena to support illegals. The RC is not a democratic institution, so I’m not sure there’s anything I can do about it personally, but I’d like to. I see this as a political issue, not a religious one. Yes, there are poor and badly treated people as a result of illegality, but that is _their_ fault for being illegal, not ours. Do charity work – definitely – but if the RC church isn’t protesting _Mexico’s_ enforcement of immigration laws (on Central Americans) then it sure as heck shouldn’t be protesting ours.

The significance of the Good Samaritan, is that the Samaritan, as a Samaritan, was not obliged to stop for the Jewish guy in the road; that’s why Jesus highlighted his ethnicity. The Jews who passed by their fellow Jew, on the other hand, were so obliged, but shirked their duty. The message was that you’re to take care of your own (to underscore this point, notice what Jesus said when He initially rebuffed the Canaanite woman who asked Him to exorcise her daughter*).

What problems illegal immigrants create for themselves are simply their own problems to resolve. They are not victims, as they had a choice every step of the way. In contrast, victims have no choice in what befalls them, that’s what makes them victims. We are duty bound to take care of our injured, not those who caused injury to them.

Illegal immigrants burden and at times imperil Americans, many of whom are their victims. By burden I refer to people who rely on a clinic for their medical needs finding that clinic shut down because it had been swamped by illegal immigrants–who did not even pay for the services they received. By burden I refer to students who have to settle for less attention and resources or just plain dumbing down because their teachers are obliged to deal with illegal immigrants in the class room–at the expense, no less, of taxpayers who have no choice in funding the situation. By burden I refer to would-be workers who are denied jobs because they are citizens and not serfs.

By imperil–I think of the PBS (IIRC) documentary last millennium about California’s prop. 187. The doc highlighted a school there and the opinions the teachers had about the proposition. A Hispanic teacher, who (IIRC) initially opposed 187, voted for it after being in a hit and run accident. She realized the driver may have run off because he had been “without papers,” leaving her holding the bag. She escaped without injury, others are not so lucky. Others are the victims of violent crimes, and the outrage is magnified when they know the perp wasn’t supposed to be in the country in the first place, and wouldn’t be if the laws had been enforced.

It is not unjust to any of those victims to fine employers who hire illegal immigrants. It is not unjust to any of those victims for the illegal immigrants to be shipped back when they are caught. What isn’t just is leaving one of our own to suffer for the sake of illegal immigrants.

By the way–to forestall stupid comments–the Samaritan vs. Jew parallel to citizens vs. illegal immigrants has nothing to do with race/religion/ethnicity. You can draw many Venn diagrams for those whom you regard as your own, but for sure those who beggar and harm your neighbors should be standing outside the circles.

*I am aware He expanded His target audience. The point is what He said at first, and the rationale behind it.

What is it about “illegal” you don’t understand?

You don’t reward a criminal for breaking the law, you PUNISH them. It’s NOT complex. People like YOU make it complex by denegrating THE LAW.

Either live by the laws of this country or leave.

Yes, we ask the ILLEGAL immigrants to leave and make room for the LEGAL immigrants. The ILLEGAL immigrants have stolen other peoples identity. This is a crime. They are criminals. Instead of doing time in our jails, we are offering them free passage back to their home country. That sounds compassionate to me.