I have little problem with amnesty, since I think the laws that make it "illegal" ought to, most of them anyway, be themselves illegal.
Sure, there need to be some checks to prevent criminals, terrorists, fifth columns, and similar, but in my opinion these are a trivially small fraction of those seeking to emigrate to the USA.
To be honest, I just don't understand the argument that the accident of our place of birth privileges us to say "you aren't worthy of our freedoms." *We* did nothing to get our citizenship (most of us) except be lucky enough to be born to parents who lived here. The accident of our birth doesn't give us the moral high ground.
Especially since if you look back just a generation or three, most of our families weren't here to start with.
But, say many, what about all those damn illegals who are coming to get the free government handouts for welfare, medical care, social services, education, yadda yadda yadda.
First of all, that, too, is grossly overdone. Sure, if you live in Brownsville, Texas, or San Diego, California, you're going to see more Hispanic welfare mothers than if you are in rural Iowa. Just as you're going to see more black welfare mothers on the south side of Chicago than if you live in South Iowa. Are we going to argue that we shouldn't allow blacks in this country because some welfare cheats happen to be black.
And, second, the problem is not that too many Hispanics are joining the welfare roles. The problem is that we treat welfare as an entitlement. That we hold out this country as a place where we support everyone cradle to grave.
Well, I'm sorry. If we're going to think that, we can't have it both ways. Either we give it to everyone who's here, regardless of what we think of the color of their skin or the physical piece of dirt their mother happened to be lying in when they first fell out of the birth canal, or we should stop the notion of such entitlements.
If you think the damn illegals don't deserve all the stuff they're "getting" when they get here, then you ought to stop giving it to your neighbors, too. Because your neighbors deserve it no more than they do.
A few years ago I went on a silence-and-contemplation retreat deep in South Texas, no more than 20 miles or so north of Brownsville. I was there for personal spiritual reasons, but I couldn't help noticing how economically depressing the area was. (The only way for me to reach the House of Prayer was by bus, and this was not a fancy tour coach!)
When I left to come back, I had like a 9 hour bus ride to get to San Antonio (two separate transfers in towns I have since forgotten). But before I started that trip, I had to wait for a couple extra hours outside this dusty convenience store -- turns out that the bus had been stopped by border control just outside brownsville to roust out some apparent illegals.
The other end of my bus trip was San Antonio, where I stayed in a posh hotel literally across the street from the Alamo. Complete with jacuzzi tub and top-line "amenities" in the bathroom. When I went downstairs to the bar -- I have this weird thing, I like hotel bars -- I was the only one in the bar.
For like five minutes. And then the bar got invaded by a bunch of affluent suburban Texas women. Turns out there was some cheerleading competition that weekend, and the hotel was full of high school cheerleader moms. All of them I'm sure educated in the best schools and living in the nicest neighborhoods with hubbies that worked in nice glass office buildings in Houston and Dallas and Austin.
Sight unseen, I would take the busload of uneducated, dirty, poor, unskilled illegals that got taken back to Mexico, and a hundred more busloads of them, over the whole lot of Texas bimbos and their husbands.
Because unlike the bimbos, those uneducated, dirty, poor, and unskilled have both the capacity and willingness to produce value. It might take them a year, or ten, or a generation, before all that value is realized, but it will be. Just as my grandparents produced more value than my immigrant great-grandparents.
Too many people see immigrants as "mouths to feed". When what they are is hands to make, arms to lift, and brains to think.
The more hands we have, arms we have, brains we have, the more we get, and the more we are.
And the more we say, "No, not here," the more we deprive ourselves.
The more we show ourselves ignorant and unworthy of our wealth and our opportunities.
And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
Romans 12:2 (NKJV)