It greatly annoys me that it is easier to live and work in the US as an illegal immigrant than it is to find a legitimate way for someone like me to do the same.
I don’t blame the illegal immigrants, though. The system is fucked up.
The number of illegal immigrants in the US has dropped by 18% since January 2009, largely due to the lack of jobs. Even Michigan doesn’t have an 18% unemployment rate.
Everything in my life is impacted by illegal immigration. From family members who came to this country as children–whose parents didn’t do anything to ensure their “legality”, and to the fact that if I am in Arizona with my precious grand-daughter, who could be accosted because she has brown skin and brown eyes, rather than her “MeeMaw”'s blue eyes—everyday I drive on roads where I could have the misfortune of running over the handmade “nail stars” used to incapacitate Border Patrol vehicles–yaa. I’m afraid to go to the local reservoir for fishing, because Mexican army helicopters are making incursions into the United States. You might also run into people with nothing to lose–they don’t care because if they don’t make their drug delivery they know they will die. You can sometimes tell the illegal immigrants because they drive cars with license plates from places like Iowa and Michigan. And yes–they do not have car insurance. People who think the illegal immigrants get free healthcare do not know what they are talking about. A hospital cannot refuse treatment to any patient. They are billed like anyone else. Just a few years ago, the illegal immigrants were mostly coming here to work, and yes, taking the jobs U.S. citizens wouldn’t do. But now, the cartels have taken over, and people crossing illegally are just as likely to be carrying drugs, or as coyotes bringing people over for human trafficking. Don’t get me started!:smack::mad:
And none of those people were non-skilled (i.e. non-college degree bearing) Mexicans (or actually non-skilled anythings). Because there is no way for such a person to become a U.S. citizen barring marriage or refugee status. We no longer have any path to citizenship for people who just want to come here and try to find their fortunes. The predominant means for people to gain citizenship is to first enter on a sponsored work visa, the criteria for which are quite narrow.
So when you say that citizenship is a nice thing, and you’re all for immigration so long as it’s legal, what you’re saying is that, given 2010 standards, you’re cool with no one getting to stay in this country unless they’re able to serve a corporation.
That may be, but it doesn’t make it any easier for me to find a legal way to stay in the US.
Like I said, I’m not saying my difficulties are their fault. But it is frustrating to me personally. tumbledown has it in a nutshell.
Illegal immigrants, and I can tell that they are just by looking at them, don’t really have much respect for fish and game laws. I’ve seen them netting fish in a wildlife refuge, had to deal with tons of them coming in to buy hooks to illegally snag lobsters, etc. I’m sure legal immigrants do so too but at nowhere near the same rate.
Illegal immigration doesn’t have much direct negative effect on me. It probably (I’m not checking green cards) gives me better local food choices and cheaper lawn care.
Legal immigration, on the other hand, is killing the wages in my industry. I’d rather see a drastic cutback on H1B and L1 visas than a clamp down on borders.
What? No, we’re different people. Why would you think otherwise? 
Thank you for fighting ignorance, Rushgeekgirl.
I’ve decided that the main highways of our society are usually kept in half-decent repair, but if you’re on the outskirts–INS, CPS, prison–you’re dealing with official lunacy. Why fix the system when those who complain have no credibility?
Wait, what? I thought you grew up in Chicago?
I agree with most of your position, but would point out that it’s not necessarily incorrect to use “illegal” as a noun. American English commonly turns adjectives into nouns in everyday use - we say “liberal” and “conservative” rather than “liberal voter” and “conservative voter”, for example.
This is my sentiment, as well; at least on one hand. On the other hand, the status quo is not working out well, and should be changed, just not the way a lot of people think. 12 foot walls beget 13 foot ladders, and all that.
I lived in Mexico for two months and stayed with a family there. I would have loved to have had my host brother come up and visit me in the US. At the time, we were sort of on the precipice of maybe starting a relationship, but I wanted to make sure he understood who I was and what my life was like here.
No dice. It is not possible to get a tourist visa if you are the average Mexican, because you have to prove you have x amount of money and ties to Mexico (ie - property, a upper middle class/middle class profession, etc.) in order to be given the visa.
I knew this when he was talking about coming up to visit me and explained this to him. It was just too hard, so that relationship went nowhere. Who knows where it could have gone.
In addition, I got to know and admire his mother. She and her naturalized US citizen daughter had gone through all the hoops for her to get her green card and immigrate to the US legally (which involves a lot of money and time and trips from Cuernavaca to Juarez). She was approved by the Department of State and was all set to come to the US, but is not able to because she can’t get a Mexican passport (and so cannot cross the border) because she doesn’t have a Mexican birth certificate (because the church burned down with all the records in it). Mexico itself experiences a lot of illegal immigration from Central America and passport fraud, so they have made it harder to get a Mexican passport and have no system set up for situations like my friend’s mother. So, even though she’s been approved to legally immigrate to the US, she cannot because she can’t get a passport.
If she can’t immigrate, that means that her son won’t ever be able to, either, via his relationship to her. They are both stuck where they are with no options even though they both would like to legally immigrate to the US.
I’m confused by people talk about car accidents with uninsured motorists and use those as examples of “illegals are bad!” There are LOTS of people (knock on wood, not myself) who are hit by American citizen uninsured motorists EVERY DAY. Why does the fact that you got hit by an “illegal” matter - you got hit by an uninsured motorist. It could have been Blythe Worthington III, rather than Pablo Garcia, and the result would have been the same.
I’m confused, too. You Australians all look alike.
Indeed. And when you change the law so that undocumented aliens can’t get a driver’s license and therefore can’t get insurance? Guess what, people still drive. Now all you’ve done is create an additional problem when they do hit someone.
Well, Blythe would at least have had the decency to hit me in a BMW 5-series, so I wouldn’t have to smell the motor oil constantly being burned off by Pablo’s El Camino.
I wonder to what extent that’s really true. Aren’t most citizens descendents of people who came through Ellis Island and other such places where there was at least a cursory check?
I know in my own case, my parents came to this country from Europe in the 50s after obtaining visas.
Responding to the question posed by the OP, I have to say that illegal immigration has not really affected me personally in any direct way. Sure, the area is more crowded than it otherwise would have been, and there are more Spanish-speakers, but that doesn’t change my everyday life.
I live in Southern California. My youngest was taken care of by his 'Nana until he started Kindergarten, and he still sees her regularly. She does not have legal residency in the United States. If I could sponsor her, I would in a heartbeat. For the record, I paid $12 an hour for her services - well in line with what the market was charging at the time. I have also paid cash for her to see the dentist.
I will hypothesize that some of the people doing the landscaping at my house during projects were not holding legitimate work credentials, but lacking the magical glasses to see work status, I can not be sure.
I was an illegal worker in the UK, working in the pubs for cash in the 80s. I came in on a student visa, and made extra money on the side pouring pints.
Today, illegal immigration doesn’t affect me at all. But a few decades ago, I had a lot of illegal aliens in my family.
No, I’m not Mexican. Not Hispanic at all. But before Ireland became “The Celtic Tiger,” a lot of Irish kid came to America and got jobs illegally. Several of my cousins were among them.
Now, Irish illegal aliens didn’t have to wade across the Rio Grande or pay a “coyote.” They just came to America on visitor’s visas (ostensibly to visit relatives; what Irishman doesn’t have relatives in Boston or New York?), and overstayed.
Back in 1984, you’d have met a lot of Irish girls serving drinks at bars in Boston, and you’d have heard a lot of Irish brogues on construction sites in New York.
Thing is, if a roofer is white and has a name like “James Kelly” or “Edward Murphy,” you tend not to ask (or even wonder) “Is that guy working here legally?”