I don’t get the point that illegal immigrants are trying to make with boycotts. Maybe someone can explain it to me. Here’s the way I see it. If I am totally off-base let me know.

I think that anyone who comes here without coming through legal channels is basically disrespectful. They want the benefits of living here without following the laws of the country. So they want free public education and care at hospitals etc without putting in the time and effort to come here legally. They frame their discussion as basic human rights while claiming that anyone who disagrees is rascist.

I’ve been talking to recent immigrants lately and they are quite peturbed. They waited in lines and jumped through hoops to live here and get the same services that illegal immigrants are claiming should be theirs for the taking.

Living in the U.S. illegally has to be awful. The only people who will hire you are by definition unscrupulous. You have no recourse for poor working conditions. You live in fear of being discovered and deported. Why wouldn’t they want to gain the legal rights?

I was discussing this with the husband and his attitude surprised me. I usually think of him coming down firmly on the evil side of conservative on any issue. Legal immigration is causing him a bit of hassle at the moment too. He is in the process of hiring a new employee who has a green card. That isn’t as easy as saying, “You’re hired!” Lawyers have to get involved and weeks pass before she is allowed to change her work permit. His opinion was also that it is in the best interest of immigrants to have legal status. That way they can work for a higher wage and live better. He also dismissed the business cost of this by saying that post-slavery everyone thought that paying wages to ex-slaves would ruin the economy and the country survived so there is no reason to think that paying higher wages to immigrant workers will ruin this economy either. (I must say that that shocked me because we generally do not agree on political matters.)

So here’s my proposal. Open the doors wide to immigrants. Welcome them with open arms by making it easier to come here legally. At the same time crack down hard on illegal immigration. I can’t see any reason to let lawbreakers into the country. We grow enough of them here without importing.

I was recently reading a book called HOW THE IRISH SAVED CIVILIZATION. It talked about the fall of the Roman Empire. It sounded very familiar. The Germans routinely snuck across the northern rivers that divided the Empire from northern tribes. The legions did nothing about it most of the time because it was a small trickle of people at a time just looking for a better life. But eventually most of the northern empire was Germanic. This is now counted as the beginning of the end for Rome.

Do I think illegal immigrants are going to be the death of the country? No. But I do think that they are draining resources. I think the U.S. has been more than generous. It is time now to figure out a solution that benefits us both.