Illegal Immigration

Article of Rebuttal

Illegal Immigration

I believe that America is an America of nations that would be fine if everyone here were legal. In a Washington Post interview President Obama said that he would stop deporting some young illegal immigrants who entered the United States as children and who meet certain requirements. To support his decision Obama was quoted as saying "This is not amnesty. This is not immunity. This is not a path to citizenship. It's not a permanent fix," Obama said to take on conservative criticism of the step. "This is a temporary stopgap measure." He goes on to say 'children of illegal immigrants "study in our schools, play in our neighborhoods, befriend our kids, pledge allegiance to our flag," Obama said, "It makes no sense to expel talented young people who are, for all intents and purposes, Americans" (Cohen 2012).

Before we start labeling people and giving them weight in the community who do not have the legal standing to be here, the law itself must be enforced. Following the law as written we would not be dealing with a nation of too much. As it stands America is overcrowded in large part because it is easier to come here illegally than to sit on waiting lists to come legally like the millions of others that sit on that very list. Our community's resources are stretched so thin we can see completely through them, and there are those in Congress who want to cut what is left. 'Since 1970 more than 30 million foreign citizens and their descendants have been added to the local communities and labor pools of the United States' (Beck, 1996), and those are the ones that have come legally. In Arizona one of the toughest and most controversial laws has passed and is in force to respond to the illegal immigration crisis where the numbers are approximately half a million (total population approximately six million). Passions were already running high but when a rancher was killed at a popular point of entry, Arizona lost its collective cool and went after stronger measures to close its borders and expel illegal immigrants. Proponents of a repeal say that' the law criminalizes undocumented status and turns dishwashers, janitors, landscapers, and our neighbors into criminals'. Chris Newman of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network goes on to say that 'The bill constitutes a complete disregard for the rights of non-whites in America.

I disagree with what President Obama and the immigrant advocate Chris Newman both believe. Unless the law is followed to the letter, not in the spirit, illegal immigration will always be a hot button issue. It cannot be helped because creating a sort of amnesty (which is what it would be if young illegals are grandfathered in) or working through legal means to make sure someone who is here illegally is able to stay, are both against the law. Before anything else the law says crossing the