‘Letting them be’

After appearing on BET's T.J. Holmes show last night and engaging in a very intense debate with actress Rosie Perez regarding immigration, it forced me into deeper examination of this issue.

You know why immigration brings people to a boiling point, separates races and creates classes in our society? It's simple, really: OWNERSHIP. Hard-line Mexicans and Latin Americans coming across the border to Texas and California believe the states belong to them.

Because of the United States' contentious history with its southern neighbors, these extremist Mexican immigrant groups coming across the border couldn't care less about assimilating with American society, and in fact prefer not to. For they believe that it's their land and that Americans had better leave or get used to their presence.

The great irony that is overlooked in the immigration debate is that the typical political players in this fight are absent. Where are the unions and their leaders, who pounce at every opportunity to protect wages and worker rights? Why aren't they railing against the notion of unskilled, cheap labor flooding into this country?

Why do the ends justify the means when it comes to immigration? "Sure, I jumped a fence and came to this country illegally. Yes, I've spent the past ten years dodging and ducking law enforcement. But because of it, my wife has a better job and my kids a better life. So please, just let me be."

How is "letting them be" fair to the millions on the other side of the Mexican-United States border who played by the rules and waited their turn? How is that fair to the millions of Americans who are paying taxes so an illegal's child can go to school for free and his wife can go to hospitals without charge? Moreover, why is it that the longer one has broken the law (i.e., remained in this country illegally), the more he or she is entitled to be supported by it (i.e., get amnesty)?

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