*Headdesk*

[gridlore]

Coming home from a looong day at work, I heard the following in a news story about a rally asking President Obama* to change immigration law. One of their complaints concerned Immigration & Customs Enforcement.

"We need to stop these indiscriminate raids by ICE. They're picking people up just for being undocumented workers."

Wait, what? One of the jobs of Immigration & Customs Enforcement is enforcing our immigration laws. Which means that if you are inside the borders of the United States of America without a valid visa, residency permit, or other proof that you have a legal right to be here, you are breaking the law. Period. End of story. Under the law, such people are subject to deportation following a hearing. Don't like ICE raids? Don't bust the border.

This isn't about not liking Mexicans (or Chinese, or confused Canadians), it is about having control over who enters our nation. Look, this summer Kirsten and i are flying to Montreal; a city spitting distance from the US border, a city where I'm told we could use US money with little trouble. Yet to enter Canada and re-enter the United States we need passports. This isn't a huge hassle, and I understand it. If I wanted to move to Canada, there is an amazing number of hoops to jump through because Canada gets to choose who lives there. Being the longest undefended land border in the world, I could easily cross into Canada, and probably find work, but I would be subject to arrest and deportation.

There is another consideration.. my health. Close to 14 years past cancer, and i still have a weak immune system. How do I know that the Mexicans working on a job site don't carry drug-resistant TB? Or Hepatitis B? Hell, Pneumonic Plague is still out there. Legal immigrants are subject to health checks. I don't want to die because Pedro/Chiang/Whoever decided that he deserved a chance to skip the line.

Do we need serious immigration reform? Hell yes! We need a way to allow the people who want to come here and work to do so without the nearly insurmountable hassles they currently face. But, on the other hand, I'm a US citizen, and the needs and safety of my nation have to come first. Grapple, grapple.

There's no easy solution, but don't complain because the Immigration cops are enforcing the law.


*I don't think I'm going to get tired of saying that anytime soon...

Comments

[pauldrye.livejournal.com]

Just to put your mind at rest about one thing, pneumonic plague is doing just fine in the States without immigrant aid. The American west has a large natural reservoir of Y. pestis in its rodent population.

Sleep well!

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

I know of one person in particular who is dealing with those hoops just to visit this country regularly, but I won't say more in a place where prying searchbots and nosy government search programs are apparently working. (And I'm not being paranoid; the lawyer warned us that such searches are possible, although not highly likely.)

I have my fingers crossed that "immigration reform" means more than "let a bunch of cheap labor in from Mexico." There are other countries out there, after all.

[bunyip.livejournal.com]

I agree totally. There's complaints about that all the time in Illinois, because we're one of the prime states for illegals to come to... the big three are Texas, California & Illinois.

[lysana.livejournal.com]

Try "subject to deportation after being held several months in detention camps and people who *are* US citizens wind up there as well because they happen to be related to the undocumented workers." The mass raids are indiscriminate. They do need to change.

[chaotic-nipple.livejournal.com]

Ya know, if they'd start deporting the illegals' employers too, the problem would go away pretty damned quick.