Yesterday I got into a conversation with someone over illegal immigration in the US and why I think it's a problem. Obviously, since I'm scratching my head and shrugging, we don't see eye-to-eye.
His is the typical point of view: They're just people coming here to make a fresh start, improve their lives, etc.
And that's wonderful. It is, really, except they're going about it the wrong way.
We want to know who these people are. Are they honest or are they an escapee from some jail someplace? Given recent events here in California, major crimes committed by illegals, I think it's pretty clear we need to know who's coming in and what they're doing here.
June - San Francisco - a young woman was shot to death by an illegal immigrant
July - Santa Monica - a 64-year old woman was brutally beaten, raped, tortured and murdered in her own home by two men, one of whom was in the country illegally.
July - San Luis Obispo - a two year old - a toddler - was brutally beaten by her mother's illegal alien boyfriend
Two Year Old Girl Fights for Her Life After Beating
This one is more than a little alarming:
In Some States, Illegals Account for More Than 30% of All Murders
More than 30% of murders in some states are committed by illegal aliens and we're supposed to turn our heads and look away? Really?
Yet he disagrees. Apparently, he thinks all of these people are coming here to do honest work.
If they happen to kill or maim someone I guess it's a case of: Too bad, so sad, cry a river, build me a bridge and get over it.
On my side, I thought my points were clear:
A) It's called "illegal" because they came across the border without permission. Like someone crossing over your window sill from the outside into your living room without permission.
If you know them and invited them, cool. Of course, why they are taking the route through it window raises an eyebrow. But if not, if you neither know them nor invited them, that's not so cool. Why are they there? What do they want?
Those are reasonable, responsible questions to ask before you invite someone into your home. You just want to know them a little bit.
B) There is discussion - as there has been for years - about instituting motor-voter driver's license registration here in California. Get a driver's license, get the right to vote - automatically, no questions asked. If that's instituted along with illegals being able to get driver's licenses, what's to prevent a goodly number of illegal immigrants voting and influencing the political outcome in this state?
Sure, there are supposed to be checks on the registrations, but who's going to look at all them? The DMV can't, because there are too many for them to review. That's why renewals that used to happen every four years now happen every ten.
Even if the DMV and politicians want to check all of those registrations, California has an estimated population of 40,000,000 people. If only one third of those are drivers who have renewals once every ten years, that's more than 1.3 million renewals per year and all of those would have to be reviewed to make sure they belong to US citizens. Uh, no. Given the way the DMV works in this state, that won't happen.
Oh, sure, they'll say they will and they'll talk about it. Maybe even do some so they can say they did, but there's no way they're going to be able to review 1,300,000 applications and renewals every single year.
But everyone in this state who deals with the DMV knows that there are fewer workers now than there were a couple of decades ago. Have you ever tried to just walk in to the California DMV and get something done? Even with an appointment you have to wait. Without an appointment you might wait for hours because the demand is so high. And, frankly, the quality of the employees isn't much better than in any other government office. They're bored. They don't care one speck. They're not even paying attention half the time - so how many of those applications will pass through without being properly vetted, and how many illegals will end up on the voter rolls come election time?
What other country in the world is as careless about its citizenship as the United States? Heck, in some if you're an illegal and you get caught, you are dead because they'll shoot or hang you for spying.
C) Then there's a little thing called identity theft. Google 'fake social security template' and you'll get a bunch of websites that offer bogus social security cards, IDs, driver's licenses and all manner of other fake documents. Now those documents have to have some basis in reality - a 'real' social security number or the government's e-verify system for workers will kick it back as fake. So it can't be fake. It must be real, until the person gets caught.
Even if they are not directly participating in the theft of your identity or your aunt Margaret's or son Max's identity, they are a party to it by using a number not their own.
Of course the government really doesn't want to talk about this because it's like free money to them.
If an illegal is here working under the umbrella of someone else's identity, their employer is taking the taxes as if they're legit. Those taxes end up in Washington but the guy or gal doing the work and having the taxes withheld isn't going to see any benefit except in present day. They can get some benefits - hospital care (which they'd get anyway), unemployment if they stay around for long enough to qualify and haven't been caught in the interim, etc.
So, we're having this conversation and I don't get it. He starts declaring that I'm not making sense. I can't decide if it's willful - if he's poking me so I'll get exasperated or if he's really that thick. Whatever. I backed out saying if he can't follow the dots I can't help him.
I guess it's just an uncomfortable subject because I made good points he couldn't refute, so he chose to ignore them, or pretend I was sounding dumb. Whatever.
He'll go his way, I'll go mine and the world will continue spinning on its axis. It's all good.
Have a lovely day.
Best~
Philippa
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