Illegal Immigration question?

• I have mostly been a "enforce the immigration laws that we currently have in the books and the immigration problem can be fixed" (a.k.a deportation for illegal aliens) kind of person......but last week my Law and Ethics professor told us (the class) something that really made me question the way i view illegal immigration. My professor told the class that through out American history there have always been a group of people who have been discriminated against by the powers-that-be (those in government) for being of a certain color or country. Even when America was just a colony, the American colonists as a whole discriminated against Native Americans and later used the U.S. Army to drive them from their lands once America became an independent nation. Now Native Americans are see as just "Americans" b/c we as a nation have recognized that we were wrong for forcing them out of their lands. After the Native Americans where discriminated against, the American public started discriminating against Germans and/ Irish Immigrants because they were seen as being "drunks" and were not as "attractive and educated" as immigrants from England or France. Now German and Irish immigrants are welcomed to this country with opened arms. Later on around WWII, the American public started discriminating against Japanese-Americans because of fears "that they worked for the enemy". Whole Japanese-Americans families were rounded up and placed in camps where the living conditions were sub-standard. The part that really got to me was when he said that African-Americans were discriminated against by the American public (i myself have relatives who are African-American). This part really got to me because my uncle (who is black also) used to always tell me when i was younger how he couldn't go shopping in certains shops or eat in certain restaurants because of the color of his skin when he was a teenager. Now that i know what my Law professor told me regarding certains races being discriminated against because of the color of their skin through out American history, I sort of feel like im doing the same thing to an illegal aliens if i dont change my thinking that those racist did to my uncle when he was a teenager....deny them an opportunity. My question is" Do you think that one day we will look back and as a nation regret being so unfair to people to who wanted to move to this country from another country, or do you think that the sentiment that Americans as a whole have towards illegal aliens will stick and we will keep promoting the deportation of people trying to start a new life in America??

• Answer:

  Yes, Americans will one day look back and feel guilty about the terrible treatment of illegal aliens in this country. It is troubling to me to hear all the hate and read all of those rants by people who are supposed to be the best, most privileged people on the planet. It is a shame to feel so superior and entitled just because you had the luck to be born in a certain country and not in another. Do you have any idea of what it feels like to grow up in poverty, knowing that no matter how hard you try and how hard you work you'll never even be able to own a stupid car?!? Have you ever looked at your children and imagined what you would be capable of doing if they had been born in poverty somewhere without good schools, clean drinking water, nutritious food and safety? Try to put yourself in those people's shoes. Travel to a poor Mexican city and live there for a month, then report back to me. And no, it is NOT possible to get citizenship in America legally. The system is so broken that a poor person has no chance of even getting a visa. But the American consulate will take their money and get them to be humiliated during an interview, though, that's for sure. It is just impossible to immigrate legally unless you are from a "nice" country, have a great education, lots of money, speak English fluently, etc. Believe me, it is impossible. I am here on a student visa, and I cannot become legal after I am done with my degree, no matter how hard I try. I will graduate with a 4.0 GPA, I speak fluent English, I am extremely competent, but I cannot become legal unless a company decides to employ me and apply for my work visa, which will absolutely not happen in this economic climate. Why are the laws so strict that even someone like me cannot get legal here? What do you think a poor, uneducated foreigner can get out of this system? So I guess the main point is that Americans only want to accept certain immigrants, which obviously means they are discriminating against a wide swatch of foreigners. And yes, that is discrimination, prejudice and pure stupidity. I don't advocate opening the borders and letting the world pour in. But the present system is a shame. You tell immigrants you don't want us here, but yet it is relatively easy to come illegally and practically impossible to do so legally. For a country that is so advanced, full of great universities, companies, and innovators, that is pretty dumb, don't you think?