Xordelia (dot) COM

Immigration is a funny business in the United States.

Most of my life I have been very critical of “illegal immigrants” ruining our country. I thought they were a terrible menace that should be shut out, kicked out of our schools, thrown back over the border. I think I even joined a Facebook group called “line the border with land mines to keep ‘em out”.

I’m glad to say that I no longer feel that way. Our country is full of immigrants, that is what makes America beautiful. It was originally religious and sociocultural refugees from Europe who came here seeking freedom and opportunity in the (literally) “new world”. For that reason people still come here, from all over the world, for a new life in the (figurative) “new world”.

Conservatives love to make comments about doing it the “legal way” and illegals coming here to rip us off and take our social services – but I don’t think any of them really understand the truth of the matter.

The truth is that there are many barriers in the way of immigrating legally. Not only does the US make it almost impossible for people from the “third world” (developing countries) to immigrate here, but it’s an expensive and time consuming process. The working poor not only don’t have the financial means to immigrate legally but in most cases they do not have a marketable trade to even be considered for immigration. Thus, their only option to provide a better life for their families is to immigrate illegally.

As black and white as conservatives make it sound, illegal immigration is not an easy process. “Border hoppers” not only risk the lives of their families during the trip through rugged unforgiving desert but it oftentimes costs them a lot of money to shady traffickers who leave them to die in the desert at the first sign of trouble. Once they get into the US, if they get in alive, they have limited civil rights, no voice, cannot find legal employment and are almost always abused.

Contrary to popular belief, they general do not abuse social services; most of the time they do not use social services because that would “out” them as illegal immigrants and get them deported. Some do come to the US to have their babies as American citizens, but that is few and far between. Plus having a baby in the US only makes the baby a citizen, the parents still have to return to their mother country until their child reaches age 21 and can petition to have the parents enter the country.

The ironic thing about immigration is that the philosophically black and white conservatives and tea partiers do not seem to have the ability to empathize with immigrants. They are very fond of their civil rights as Americans but not only do not WANT to share them with others, they are unable to understand WHY others would desire the rights. They completely dehumanize immigrants.

Today I watched a powerful movie with Harrison Ford called Crossing Over. Not only was I surprised to see Harrison Ford in such a movie, I was pleasantly surprised that it was a deep psychological movie. It really makes one think about the state of things in the United States. It really gives a face to the different groups dealing with our broken immigration system. It isn’t all Mexicans “anchor babies” who want to steal our social services, it’s plenty of people from developed countries as well who are abused and mistreated because they have no legal rights without a proper immigration status and do not want to draw attention to themselves.

For a while now I’ve asked myself why I want to go into law. Yes I want to make a difference, yes civil rights have always interested me. But deeper than that, I want to stand up for people who do not have a voice, who cannot stand up for themselves, who are victims of a broken system.

Human rights are everyone’s business. Immigration is everyone’s business. We cannot accommodate everyone who wants to immigrate to the US, legally or illegally, but we ought to treat them like human beings with dignity and rights. It is not only a shame but an injustice that the DREAM Act still has not passed in the legislature. It appears that conservatives hate immigrants even more than gays. Rather than allowing immigrants of good moral character to legally immigrate to the US if they go to university or join the military, our politicians have decided to demonize them all as menaces to society. Not only is the DREAM Act the right thing to do, but it would be good for our country. Not only would it provide us upstanding citizens (regardless of their national origin) but it would stimulate the economy in terms of tuition, housing expenses, money spent in American stores, etc.

I will make it my goal, upon finishing law school, to help all of the gays and illegal immigrants that feel they do not have their own voice, to stand up for the people who are victims of evil corporations and unjust laws.