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Everyone has got a thought regarding immigration. Secure the borders! Let everyone into the good ole' US melting pot! So on and so forth. The debate isn't going to end soon and I have no wish to discuss situations where if everything was perfect, this is how it would be.

The fact is that nothing is perfect. Without discussions of legal immigration - short of armed guards at every border with instructions to shoot as necessary, illegal immigrants will enter this country. This is a fact of life. Desires, politics, rational arguments aside - there is simply no way to stop illegal entry into the US with a 100% success rate.

So - with that premise in the background, let's discuss what should happen for illegal immigrants. The simple fact is that US citizens subsidize illegal immigrants. We pay for health care bills left unpaid, incarcerations in prisons, education for children and do so through our ever-increasing tax rate. So - the simple thought is that illegal immigrants pay taxes.... - right? Why can they not pay into a health care plan or educational plan? Why could they not add taxes to their wages to compensate for social services?

Yes - I realize these are relatively simple questions for a complex situation....
Yes - I realize that no easy answers exist or we would have implemented them already..
Yes - I may be completely naive when it comes to immigration issues....
Yes - In the immigration debate, I normally side with the open the borders and let 'em in side......

However, if we are to pay additional taxes to help take care of illegal immigrants, why could these same immigrants pay into a fund to help take care of themselves? In the land of the free and home of the brave, self-sufficiency and self-reliance has always been a standard of life. Let's simply propagate the ideals of the founding fathers to the newer members of our community.

Learn more about this author, Linda J Banks.
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