Ironically, the current situation leads to the breakup of families, human trafficking, and the exploitation of those here illegally by private employers as well as the government.
Respectfully, unless you can prove all of these, they are just rhetoric. There is enough of that blocking the throat of this problem already, making it very confusing for people to grasp what is/is not good/chritable/dignity/etc.
I find it very disingenuous if not outright ludicrous that people can take the example of a person leaving country A, going to country B at ANY cost, violating ANY rules, respecting little or no rights of others (such as property), and when that person is distinguished from the person who did it the harder but legal and proper way, the shadow of injustice is cast upon he who does the distinguishing. Why is it there is always a gloss-over of the same cited documents wherein it talks about respecting the laws of nations?
Here is what that kind of thinking breeds. A nation has a law put in place legally and lawfully, another person breaks it, and suddenly the nation is the villain for making it? Well, okay, why stop with illegal immigration? Taxes cause burdens, people lose their homes and families are split when the IRS confiscates property, so why aren’t we crying for taxes to be rescinded also, being they can be shown to cause separation of family, hardship, and certainly anything to do with the IRS equates to loss of human dignity?
It is very difficult to emigrate to the United States of America legally.
Really? Tell me how it is so difficult? The members of my family who have didn’t find it that hard. Let’s hear your evidence of the great difficulty.
The penalties for not following proper procedure are harsh.
Maybe. What legal immigration assumes is that you WILL follow the proper procedures, not avoid them.
Many of those legally in the country are subject to exploitation by their employers because of their immigration status.
What does this mean? Are you saying that a person snuck across the border illegally, and is now upset that another is exploiting his illegal status to make him work for lower wages in horrible conditions? Isn’t that a good argument for doing it the legal way, and removing the ability of an unscrupulous person to have a lever over another person? Also, such an act is not in accordance with the laws of the nation, any more than sneaking in is. How do you imagine such activity ought to be policed when by its very nature it is secretive and out of sight of any authorities?
Consider the case of someone who engages in a very clearly illegal activity; let’s say selling drugs on the street. They get robbed by some other criminal. Are we to say then that “the nation” or its laws are faulty because they fail to protect the person from harm who secretly goes about breaking laws themselves? This twists the whole concept of justice on its head.
Conversely, it is very easy to emigrate to the United States of America illegally. The government penalties for doing so are negligible.
What else does this say other than our society places a high value on being a citizen of a land where people have worked hard and sacrificed a lot to have the something good we have? All too often this is painted as “because we have, we don’t want anyone else to.” That’s false - we do want others to have, but we have a process we expect people to follow, a process no less demanding of proper procedures than joining the Catholic Church. Always there is the pointing to the poor fellow trying only to help his family. There are 7 MILLION people a year sneaking across our border - are you so bold as to claim they are all all hungry and starving and have nothing? None of them are felons with records, not interested in a better life but only wealthier targets?
Comprehensive reform is necessary, but the majority of Americans seem unwilling to address the issue.
I respectfully disagree. I think most Americans WANT this to be addressed but there is too much political baggage in the way resulting in no politicians wanting to touch it. Americans do want a system that is fair and just and dignified, lifting up the poor and the needy while at the same time restricting the ability of evildoers to capitalize on charity and create chaos. Our entire history is that of people immigrating, often suffering great hardships and prejudice to do so. Not that we want those bad things for others, but it serves as a living illustration that refutes the notion that the world will fall apart and no one can have any dignity unless there are no controls on the border.
