Good article....in that I hope it makes people think! Still, I wish the writers would really elaborate on the barriers to getting a legal visa...because I think that this is the point that most US citizens miss! The news media has been incredibly ignorant in their reporting. I remember seeing one of Fox's reporters ask an illegal who had been caught why he didn't go through legal channels? My question: Exactly what legal channels? From what I understand, about the only chance one has for a visa is to win the visa lottery (the number 97 total issued comes to mind).

Don't misunderstand...I think the solution is a little more complex than validating illegal crossings vs. "the wall". I do feel that the representation of the problem in the media and our politics has been seriously short-sighted.

Kevin, THANK YOU so much for posting the link to this article. My husband and I always seem to find ourselves in the minority when the topic of immigration comes up and this article uses a lot of our same arguments.

What's lacking in most people's perceptions of the immigration issue is a sense of compassion and a sense of history (what the US role has historically been in supporting the oppresive social systems in place in many of these countries). This article serves as a great beginning point of rebuttal.

I'd also recommend, if you haven't read it already, "Enrique's Journey" by Sonia Nazario. It's a great, eye-opening read.

Violeta

We have known our 27-year-old friend Jose ever since he was a skinny kid growing up in an orphanage in the western highlands of Guatemala. With a wife and baby to support, and with a year of college under his belt, Jose was toiling at a 50+ hour a week job in Guatemala City at the local equivalent of a Sam’s Club for the “princely” wage of $125 a week --- a little more than fifty cents an hour. When a new manager came to town and arbitrarily cut all wages by 20%, Jose made the painful decision to come north for a while to earn some money. On his first attempt, he was picked up by the Mexican army near the Guatemalan border (a highly militarized area), beaten up, and robbed before being unceremoniously deposited back inside Guatemala.

Some months later, he tried again, walking by night, hiding and sleeping by day. Eventually he made his way far enough into Mexico that he was able to travel by bus. The Border Patrol picked him up after crossing the river and desert into Texas. Because it was the end of the government fiscal year, “la migra” let him go after signing a document in which he promised to voluntarily leave the country.

It’s a long story, but he finally ended up working a decent job in a Milwaukee suburb (ironically, within James "Lock 'em all up and ship 'em back" Sensenbrenner's congressional district) for a company that accepted his miserable-quality fake Social Security card and hired him. While here, he did everything by the book. He obtained a drivers license, got an ITIN number so as to pay his income taxes, and went to work on time every day. Three years after arriving in the US, he was pulled over by the local Sheriff’s Department on a “routine” traffic stop (for driving 49 mph in a 50 mph zone). When they ran his license through the computer, an Immigration order for arrest popped up. He was taken to the county jail, and was not allowed as much as a phone call. Fortunately, after failing to return home or appear for work, friends alerted me that he was missing. I visited him at the jail 2 days later and let him know that we would do whatever we could. It turns out that he literally had no rights or recourse.

For his “crime” of going to work every day, paying his taxes on time, and supporting his family, the government locked him up for the next 6 weeks along with a bunch of drug dealers, rapists, car thieves, and other assorted hoodlums. Eventually they loaded him on a plane and shipped him back to Guatemala City.

In spite of the fact that he’s no longer able to send them the usual $500 or $600 monthly, Jose’s wife and daughter are delighted to have him back home. He is not likely to return to the US ever again. Jose, who our adopted daughter is quite fond of, is the kind of guy that I am proud to include as a friend. Our country is worse off by not having him here.

So when people talk about “illegals” I take it personally. I am outraged and disgusted by our nation’s treatment of undocumented immigrants. It is almost impossible for a Mexican or Central American to receive a visa to the US unless he/she is wealthy and politically connected. To expect that a man like Jose should accept his plight and live forever in poverty is mean spirited and unbecoming of our citizens.

I think it is amazing that so many Americans think that immigrants shouldn't be allowed into the US. Immigration is what this country is built on we are all immigrants unless you are 100% Native American. Most of the reasoning is because they don't pay taxes. This is ridiculous because if they could pay taxes then they would, and especially if it meant staying in the states. The wealthy get extreme tax breaks and we don't want to "ship them away." This was a great article and thank you for posting it.

I just re-read my comments, and realized that I made a mistake. I intended to write that Jose's "princely" wage was $125 per MONTH, not $125 per week...

Illegal immigration hurts honest people. For every Jose who sneaks into the country, there are many Akebos, Malachis, and Sangis who can't leave enter into the U.S. It's the very Jose's who drive down the quotas.

Nobody likes line jumpers and they are line jumpers. There are millions of people waiting in line for their visas, but their wait is made longer because there are too many people who populate the U.S. illegally already, and the infrastruture just cannot take anymore, legally or illegally.

What happens when someone "makes up" a SSN or worst, steals someone's SSN? Would you volunteer your SSN to someone crossing the border because they "just want to feed their families". Have you ever had your identity stolen? It's financial rape.

I feel absolutely zero remorse for anyone jumping the immigration line and sneaking into the country when there are children of legal residents who sit in their countries waiting to legally join their families. I feel none! Pack em up and ship em out. I lost 12 years waiting to join my own mother legally. I am an immigrant. I have an immigrant child. I am not rich nor am I ignorant. The immigration issues is also very personal for me.

Many different European and western countries are responsible for alot of problems in other countries, particularly countries which were rich in resources. They were raped of these resources and left with nothing. The immigration standards are the same for the citizens of those countries trying to get into the U.S. It should be the same for latin american citizens.

I fear the day I look at my credit report to find that some person is using my identity to "go to work everyday".

It's mine! I don't care how upstanding this person may be, my identity is mine to use alone. It is a criminal act.

Jackie

I also have a very firsthand perspective on this issue. I have worked all of my life in two industries that rely heavily on immigrant workers, restaurants and landscaping. In North Carolina, the landscaping industry was dominated by Mexican workers. They worked incredibly hard with ridiculously long hours. This issue for me goes back to a movie that I have yet to see...I think it's called A day without a Mexican or something similar. It basically portrays what our country or a certain area would be like without migrant workers. I'm sure it wouldn't bother George Bush, but our country relies heavily on this worker. Erik

I have very mixed emotions about this issue. ON the one hand, OF COURSE I don't want babies, children, women (or men for that matter)to suffer for a situation totally out of their control. As a single woman without a family that needs my support, I was able to donate $70/week to my church for the relief of the poor that live both here in America and abroad, including Guatemala. OF COURSE I think hard-working, honest people should get work and be able to keep it. I sincerely believe that we all need to dig a little deeper to contribute to the organizations that provide relief to those in such desperate straights. I also believe the governement has a responsibility to have much more generous negotiations with these countries.

But what happens when MY husband gets laid off from his job as a contract electrician at Christmas for ten days so that "Mexicans" can dig ditches and lay the cable he's begging to be able to do, just so he doesn't get laid off. I work both as a homecare speech therapist and a speech therapist in local school districts. What happens when 100 kids register for school, but illegals (fearing the INS) refuse to register their kids, but then send them ALL everyday once school starts. I'll tell you what happens. We share 100 pairs of scissors, 100 boxes of crayons, 100 pencils with as many kids as show up, which can be upwards of double those who registered. Kids have to wait for "their turn" to use pencils, scissors, construction paper. Should the teachers have to dig in their own pockets to make sure everyone in their class has the "right" to necessary school supplies? Should the parents (of ALL ethnicities) who pay $6500/year in taxes to live here legally have those taxes raised to pay for school supplies and tuition for the kids of illegal immgrants? What about the children of the Hispanic parents who DID come over here legally? Does their kid get placed on a waiting list for therapy because I am too swamped giving what amounts to English vocabulary lessons to the children of illegal immigrants? Do I care about the children of illegal immigrants? Of course I do. I would be deeply saddened to learn that one of "my kids" being "shipped back" to Guatemala. But, I also know that the current system is not working and is slowly but surely crushing those people who ARE legal residents of the US.

As a homecare therapist, I develop a very close and unique relationship with my "kids" AND their parents. Many of these parents are legal immigrants. Those parents struggled for years, worked their BUTTS off to come here legally. Many times they are laid off from their crummy, minimum-wage jobs because they can get illegals to work cheaper off the books. What about THAT Hispanic family who is living hand to mouth? It makes me so sad and angry to see them worried, crying, stretching one dollar into as many as they can, eating rice for dinner because it's been so long since a paycheck and even longer for an unemployment or welfare check to com in.

What happens when an illegal immigrant, racing to get to his job rear ends me and then takes off because he doesn't have any insurance and is drivng with stolen plates? What happens is I pay $1000 to replace my bumper OUT OF MY POCKET. And do I have $1000 sitting around because I am "rich"? No, I had to BORROW it. And now I will pay it back WITH INTEREST by working extra hours when I could be at home taking care of my child. I would have to be more than human not to resent those types of situations (which are quite common).

I work very hard for my money. I toil and struggle at my job, too. I show up for work every day, too. So does my husband. It angers me when I see how much I and my neighbors lose when illegals come to this country and send their kids to school and therapy on our taxdollars. I resent it when illegals slip into this country and work at the jobs my husband and the husbands of my neighbors could really use. It makes me furious to know I have wiped out my savings and had gut-wrenching sorrows and frustrations to bring a child LEGALLY into this country? Or is that okay because I am a "rich" American and I can "afford" it?

Illegal immigrants threaten the very success and structure that so many of those immigrants want from America. They make life more expensive, more complicated and just plain harder for those of us who are here legal residents. Why would I want that to continue? We need to be selective about who we let in. Not to be stingy or to horde our own resources, but so that WE can feed OUR own children. They are our FIRST responsibility.

Tisha

i agree with Gwen

it is a bit ironic that a country created on the back of immigration now cries 'close the doors'! Immigration has always happened down through history - it becomes illegal once governments decide to draw lines and create rules - i am lucky enough to have a roof over my head, to have food in my belly and cupboard, i can drive the car i own, i can attend a local hospital with trained staff, i can buy medicine if it is needed, i can approach a police officer without fear.

If I was not lucky enough to have all these privileges in my life, i do not know what choices i would make - if i had a family to feed and i had no other way, i do not know what i would not do

I grew up in one country, but I now live and work (legally) in another - I feel very offended when people around me condemn 'foreigners' or 'migrants' - I am one of those people you are talking about. 'oh no' they say ' you are different' - and i ask them 'does it help that i am white and i speak english really well?' and then they change the subject

If america sends people home, then send everyone and just leave the indigenous population that was there before all the immigrants arrived.

We live in one world and we are all human beings - when will this idea become more than a concept?

When you were a child you went to the pediatrician and received vaccinations that have wiped out many life threatening or crippling diseases. These vaccinations were required for you to attend school. Your child may be attending school now with a child that may have entered this country with polio. This child may have entered school using a forged vaccination certificate with their forged SSN card and forged birth certificate. You may be eating at a restaurant that currently employes someone with hepatitis, diptheria, rubella, whooping cough, etc. These may be very good people that have come to this country for a better life that are simply unaware what they "brought along for the ride". With some exceptions, most of us would have little to fear because we have been vaccinated as children or as adults. That is little comfort to the immunosuppressed in our society. This group includes pregnant women, small children that have not completed their shots, and people undergoing chemotherapy, organ transplant, or with other serious health conditions that effect their ability to fight disease. Unfortunately, even though the pitiful wage that they are being paid is more than they would ever see in their own country, it is hardly enough for them to afford medical care or screening. Plus they are afraid to go until they are very sick. Diseases that have not been seen in decades are now appearing in areas that have large populations of people that have come into this county illegally and not just from Mexico. Everyone assumes that "illegal aliens" only come over the Rio Grande. There are many people here illegally from other poor countries as as well. Some have come over in cargo crates only to be abused or forced to work in degrading conditions such as the sex industry or sweat shops. Yes, slavery is alive and well in the north, south, east, and west. People in the media only talk about the poor and impoverished that come to our country of their "own free will" to "make a better life". One rarely hears about the thriving criminal industry that benefits from our lack of secure borders or the death and suffering that is a result. Our country has passed laws that are meant to protect the public health that are useless. Will it take an outbreak of Ebola to to bring attention to what is clearly a threat to public health? "Give me political correctness or give me death?" My father's family immigrated around WWI and received more of a medical screening at Ellis Island than 99% of the people that come into our country illegally each year. Those that enter our country legally, must produce proof of vaccination or submit to vaccination in order to receive a Visa to enter our country. Now, due to our goverment's refusal to prosecute any more than a token percent of business' that profit from illegal immigration and therefore want to make it easier for "illegal aliens" to avoid detection, Bank of America can now offer them a different kind of Visa or Mastercard!

In (a very belated) response to Jackie), the only reason that my friend Jose was deported was that HE DID NOT USE A FALSE IDENTITY. Other than a made up SS number, every document that he acquired, every account he opened, was in his OWN LEGAL NAME. So please don't make the illogical jump that undocumented aliens are all guilty of identity theft.

Gregg

I am all for allowing migrant workers. We need to provide for the poor and under-privileged in our society.