http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/14/us/young-immigrants-poised-for-deportation-deferral-program.html
Most of the time, the comment section on NYTimes, Reddit, and NPR agree on what is the right course of action for a certain topic. However, illegal immigration is NOT one them.
It always play out that the top opinion is anti illegal immigration. Their reasons being:
1. It’s unfair for people who are trying to get citizenship legally
2. It is rewarding people who are breaking the law
3. They are an undue burden on our already financially stressed society
The second most popular opinion will be one sympathetic to illegal immigrants. Notice I said, “illegal immigrants”, not “illegal immigration”. I don’t think anyone is pro “illegal immigration”, but many people are understanding of “illegal immigrants”. The reasons are usually as follows:
- Illegal immigrants who are productive members of our society should be accepted as such
- We can not punish the children for the sins of their parents
- Bringing illegal immigrants out of the shadow will end the cycle of abuse and neglect they have suffered for years by unscrupulous profiteers.
- Our immigration policies are broken, this is the start of how we can fix it
As a legal immigrant myself (a refugee actually), I am very supportive of illegal immigrants. My reasons are as follows:
- You can not treat a person who grew up here, and knows nothing but the US, like a second class citizen just because of their circumstance.
- I do not believe for one second that illegal immigrants have a negative impact on our society. If anything, they are the backbone that powers our economic engine.
- It would be a really stupid waste of talent and resources for us to deport college graduated, skilled workers because of their immigration status, when our companies are actively going overseas looking for those skills.
- I do not begrudge “illegal” immigrants. If we were put under the same circumstances, we’d all be illegal immigrants. In fact, I would venture to say, if under those same circumstances, you did NOT become an illegal immigrant, you are probably not a very good parent / family member.
- With all that being said. I am willing to pay more taxes and a higher cost of living if it means we can provide a better life for the illegal immigrants and work towards an effective immigration policy.
Anyways. I am just writing this blog because it really irks me when the places I rely on for reasonable and logical conversation, is instead dominated by xenophobic and misguided hatred.