by Chris Kling

Created on: August 13, 2009   Last Updated: August 14, 2009

We are gathered today to discuss whether or not illegal immigration helps or harms the country of destination.

Before we get to the meat of the discussion, however, let's first examine the definitions of our terms, shall we? Our definitions come from http://dictionary.com . Many discussions and debates tend to lose their flavor to me when terms are not clearly identified.

"Illegal" is an adjective which has two possibly relevant definitions: "forbidden by law or statute" and "contrary to or forbidden by official rules, regulations, etc.: The referee ruled that it was an illegal forward pass". Of note it's interesting for the purpose of this discussion to divulge that there was - indeed - a third definition: "Informal. illegal alien."

"Immigration" is one of those tricky words that seems circuitous: "the act of immigrating". So now, of course, we have to look up "immigrating". The first of three definitions is: "to come to a country of which one is not a native, usually for permanent residence."

"To Help" has several meanings, the one perhaps most germaine to our discussion is: "to give or provide what is necessary to accomplish a task or satisfy a need; contribute strength or means to; render assistance to; cooperate effectively with; aid; assist: He planned to help me with my work. Let me help you with those packages".

In contrast, "to harm" has only two meanings, a noun and a verb; most likely we are interested in the verb "to harm", which is defined as: "to do or cause harm to; injure; damage; hurt: to harm one's reputation."

What - really - does the word "country" mean? Is this something archaic now that we have "American assembled cars" manufactured with parts made in Mexico and/or China? Well, the dictionary says that "country" is "a state or nation", "the territory of a nation", "the people of a district, state, or nation".

And our final term? A "destination" is "the place to which a person or thing travels or is sent: Her destination was Rome" or "the purpose for which something is destined."

Now that we understand the terms, let's revisit the question: Does the forbidden by law or statute act of entering a state or a nation - of which one is not a native - render aid to or injure or damage the place to which he travelled?

I can't speak for other nations, for I have only lived in one, so I'll tackle this as if it's asking specifically "does it help or harm the United States of America." Other nations have geography or culture that bonds them together, whereas we conquered and defined our geography, it did not define our nation.

The glue that keeps our bonds strong is not Ural mountains on one border, the Mediterranean Sea on the other. No the cement which anchors us is the law. When we ignore - or worse - flaunt the law, we belittle every aspect of that which makes us great, and when the very first act that visitors to our country does is break the law which governs legal entry, that can only hurt our country. It is a rip in the fabric of our nation.

And when our national fabric tears, we can either ignore it, hoping it will get better, we can address the problem and fix the tears, or we can go ahead and rend it asunder.

Each illegal immigrant that crosses our borders under cover of the night, or hidden in cramped vans is like another tear at our flag. Individually these little tears mean nothing, but eventually our flag - and our nation - will fail.

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