I am an immigrant myself. In my case, citizenship was imposed on me and 3 million other Puerto Ricans after our country was “liberated” one hundred years ago. Instead of going over the usual list of talking points, I will give you two case studies and you make up your own mind.
I have two friends. One came here 12 years ago on a tourist visa, and stayed (let’s call him X). X hasn't been back home since. Another one came here legally on a work visa obtained through a visa lottery system (let’s call her Y).
For the last ten years X has been working as a hardware specialist for an information systems company, he has no college education, but has some understanding of academics, and did well in school back home. His employer hires most of his employees in the same fashion. X is seriously underpaid (he makes less than me, an artist, so you can imagine), and he works more than 8 hours per day with no overtime pay. During the time that X has been working for this company, it grew from a mom-and-pop shop to a medium size business with offices in two cities, yet if his employer finds out that he has taken on freelance jobs that the company could have handled, he will be fired on the spot. During this time, X’s salary has actually decreased. X is an active member of his community, has no vices, speaks good English, and is a good citizen in every respect. At one point X had hopes of studying and earning a degree in his field, but as a result of his paper situation, X has become increasingly withdrawn, and this depression was augmented by the fact that his father passed away while he was here. He has become the principal breadwinner for his family back home, and he is so conscious of this fact, that, in fear of being deported, he avoids most official transactions, like plane travel, applying for a driver’s license, regular health care, and many other things that you and I would take for granted as members of this society. In turn, he has watched many people arrive from his country on visa lotteries, and secure their status while he is left behind. So to sum it up: from X’s work this country has directly benefited economically (his employers have become wealthy, more jobs have opened, he spends money locally, and never claims his taxes back), but he has traded in his most productive years, his health, and ruined his chances for marriage due to the lack of a civil status.
Now let’s look at Y. Y is a college educated, brilliant young lady with a slight physical disability. Her English is not great, but she manages just fine, and even reads García Márquez in translation. All her life she suffered harassment and discrimination because of her disability, and she has fiercely fought off any attempts at being labeled or treated as anything less than normal. She hides her disability so well, that I didn’t even notice it the first few times I saw her. She is a fighter indeed. She is very intellectually capable, and has a curious mind. She doesn’t have any vices either, and tries to be a good practitioner of her faith in a moderate, middle-class, sort of way.
The circumstances under which she came here are somewhat interesting and interwoven with US policies in her world region. In her country, she worked as an engineer for a fabrics manufacturer whose main clients were here in the US. She had toyed with the idea of coming here, but didn't seriously pursue it, as she had a good job back home. She had filed a visa lottery application in her country in the same way that in all countries where the US has this practice, people file these things “’cause you never know.” Just like the lottery! Ha, ha! :-(
So one day, the US decided to invade her neighbor, unjustifiably, and all orders from the US suddenly stopped coming in. She lost her job immediately. The pattern followed throughout her industry, coupled with the increasing US dependence on China for fabric imports. After looking for work for some months, the visa lottery happened to come in, and, of course, she took the opportunity.
Y is now also very underpaid for her position (she is basically an executive assistant, insanely overworked and making less than a secretary). She performs at extremely competent levels, and her workdays easily reach 12 hours (no overtime pay either).
When she told me how she came here, a deep sense of irony hit me. On the one hand, we destroyed her livelihood with our stupid bombs, pulling her out of the country where she expected to live her life, with her loved ones, and we stole an outstanding citizen from a country that had invested in her for its own benefit. While on the other, we did so when we had people here like X, who wanted to be here and fulfill the American Dream --the old one, not the new frivolous one.
When our moron President talks about “skipping the line,” he is asking you to place emotions before reason. It is unreasonable to keep handing out work visas abroad when so many willing and able people are already here. It is also unreasonable to keep so many of your people, yes YOUR people, here in limbo when you know you need workers. What is happening now is exactly what happened during the Jim Crow era. We have an entire sector of our population that wants, and NEEDS, to be lifted, in order to make this country a better place, and our society a more equitable one, but we keep choosing to ignore them, even as we need them too. No offense to Italian-Americans, and other European-American groups, but they got to “skip the line” ahead of Blacks thanks to US American racism. As a result, a whole section of American society has been mired in the ills that accompany poverty for the last 150 years. We haven’t even helped them (ahem, Katrina), and now there’s 11 million more members of our society going down the same tube, and this imbecile is talking about “skipping lines.” Like we’re in the third grade.
Hey Mr. Asshole pResident! My friend has been standing in your stupid line for the last 12 years! He learned the language, paid the taxes, and even added a company to your ailing economy (that’s one company more than you have added), now it’s your time to do something for him. Not only would X or Y make a better President than you, they would make a better American...
Human beings are not illegal!
