by Corey Widdison

Created on: May 18, 2009   Last Updated: May 19, 2009

Our government has turned a blind eye towards illegal immigration for so long now, do you even care anymore? With the presidential election still fresh in our minds, do you remember how often both sides accused each other of doing nothing about the topic? The Republicans said that the Democrats were way to naive about the open border and that it was not just Mexicans coming in. The Democrats said that the Republicans wanted the borders open so that they could use the illegal immigrants for cheap labor. Both sides are very good at pointing the finger, but in reality, neither side wants anything to do with illegal immigration.

With how far it has gotten out of hand, neither side wants to get their hands dirty doing what it would take to solve the problem. If you could make the decision on what to do with the illegal immigrants in the country right now, what would you do? And exactly what is it that makes this a problem in your eyes?

This topic comes up with my friends and family all the time. We all have our different ideas on how to deal with it but we all believe that it is a problem that deserves some attention.

My main concerns are these: We have in place the correct way to come into our country, which is applying for a Visa or workers card. With people just jumping the border they are essentially skipping over the people who are trying to come in the correct way. Also, with people coming in secretly, nobody knows who these people are.

If you look into how many illegal immigrants are in our prisons for crimes other than illegal immigration, than you can see that not all these people are coming here to do the jobs that Americans just won't do. Being an illegal immigrant also opens a door for abuse. These people have nowhere to go if their employer decides not to pay them for the week of work that they did. They have nowhere to go if their employer tries a number of other illegal things to them. Being here illegally forces them to stay in the shadows of our society and that looks like no life that I would want for anyone.

There are many more issues on this subject than just these few that I mentioned and our political leaders just run from the issue. If for no other reason other than it is called illegal immigration, shouldn't we enforce the law because it is a law?

If we are just going to pretend that it is not illegal, then how can the government expect that the illegal immigrants will respect our other laws? If you tell your child not to get into the cookie jar and he does anyway, what do you do? Do you enforce some previously stated punishment for his noncompliance with your orders? Or do you just pretend that he didn't do what you know he did? If you choose to do nothing then I would bet you that cookie, that your child will do it again, and not only take more cookies but also stop listening to your orders about other things as well. We have rules and laws for a reason and if we are not going to enforce them all, then we are putting ourselves in danger for more illegal acts.

Whether you find yourself on the side of the illegal immigrants or not, I think you would agree that making no decision is the worst thing we can do. For the illegal immigrants and ourselves.

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