Illegal Aliens Rally Again

The crowds of illegals were smaller this year than last. I don't know what to make of that fact. But still, across the country, thousands of illegal immigrants and their supporters rallied in city squares. They marched. They learned from the criticism of last year's marches to carry American flags in lieu of, or with the flags of their country of origin.

I acknowledge that most of the people who come here are looking for a better life and are hardworking.

It's a fact that illegals burden hospital ERs. It's a Snopes-verified fact that 70% of births at Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas, Texas for the first quarter of last year were to illegal aliens.

There's some debate as to whether illegal immigrants depress wages. I would think that it's just common sense that if I, as an employer, have a cheap labor pool to draw from, I have no incentive raise wages.

The people who rallied on Tuesday were calling for everything but the kitchen sink. They want amnesty for everyone here, an end to deportation, an expanded guest worker program and a path to citizenship. Oh really? Is there anything else we can give you? A chicken in every pot? Forty acres and a burro?

There's something unseemly about people here illegally demanding things. Some protestors called for illegals to be treated as citizens.

If a prisoner escapes and leads a hardworking law abiding life for ten years, he's still an escaped prisoner. And we're supposed to welcome with open arms people who's first act in America was to violate America's laws.

And what of legal immigrants? Why even have an immigration system at all if you can just sneak into the country and be awarded the rights and privileges of a citizen? Where's the fairness in that? What does it mean to be a citizen? Surely, it should have some meaning.

It's hard for me to get past the fairness argument. Protestors believe that their need for work, for a better life, is all the justification necessary to sneak into the country. That we should embrace anyone who violates our laws to get here.

Other countries don't do that. Other countries don't allow citizens of other nations to flood in illegally and then just grant them citizenship. Yet, when an American voices concern about it, they're labeled a racist or xenophobic. Labels that are designed to shut down debate.

Why can Cubans escape to the United States and be welcomed with open arms while Haitians are sent back home? Are you going to tell me that llving in Cuba is worse than living in Haiti?

How can the US put together a guest worker program if it can't control how many people come here?

One of the things nations regulate immigration for is disease. Someone carrying the avian flu over the border unnoticed could be devastating.

We not only get tons of illegal aliens pouring in through our borders but tons of drugs, too. How hard would it be instead of smuggling cocaine in to this country for it to be anthrax, botulinin, sarin, VX, ebola or some other
virus or chemical? We can't stop it right now.

We don't know who is here. We don't know if Al Qaeda has already smuggled in operatives through our porous border. The numbers of OTMs as they're called have gone up since 9/11.

I don't know what the answer is but I'm not for throwing the borders open and conferring citizenship on everyone who wants to come her. Mexico doesn't do that. It's a felony to illegally enter Mexico.

Like I said, the majority of illegal aliens are hardworking people looking for opportunity. But this system is broken. There's got to be a solution that acknowledges U.S. borders and sovereignty, limits the influx of illegals, maybe pay a penalty and have a path to citizenship. I don't know. Deportation of all illegals is out because it's just unworkable.

But non-citizens demanding things just doesn't sit well with me.