by Linda Sunkle-Pierucki

Created on: August 03, 2008

The illegal immigrant situation is one that gives pause to most caring people regardless of their political orientation. Certainly, no one wishes to arrest and deport millions of families to a land where there are no jobs and they have no hope of improving their lot in life. Americans are a compassionate people; give us a typhoon, a flood, an earthquake, a war-we will be packing up the kids' school clothes and the last can of peas in the pantry to help a stranger through tough times. We are generous to a fault, and in this case, maybe it's OUR fault-at least partly, that we face this dilemma. Because we've behaved with what we assumed was compassion and allowed this situation to go on for far, far too long.

I've heard every dis-ingenuous argument in the book: "We are a nation of immigrants!"-true, what nation isn't at some point in their history? The vast majority of our immigrants have been legal immigrants, however. How many readers can boast the name of a grandparent or great-grandparent recorded in the annals of the ships' manifests at Ellis Island? I know I can. And how many know that controlled, LEGAL immigration has been discussed as a part of government since before we signed the Constitution? It was and has always been an issue of utmost societal concern. Our forefathers were concerned that massive immigration of one particular group or another would be disruptive to the building of a cohesive and strong society. They came by this conclusion honestly; they were familiar with the need that had developed in their homelands for government to control its borders in order to assure lawful and tranquil society and business. This is one nation of immigrants that tried from the outset to avoid the pitfalls of a splintered society due to uncontrolled immigration, only to be undermined by government itself.

"They only do the jobs Americans wont do!" is another lame excuse for the fact we have allowed over 10% of the population of an entire country to sneak in here uninvited. And that's just Mexico! The cold hard fact is, there are NO jobs Americans won't do. Americans have done the farm labor, the domestic chores, the laundry, the landscaping, the construction, meatpacking, dishwashing-all of the jobs we now say Americans won't do. The ugly fact here is we have replaced OUR lower class with another country's lower class-and in the process, put our own poor out of a subsistence job or a skilled trade. In doing so, we have allowed the lowering of wages those jobs

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