"Illegal Immigrants"

First of all, these two words ought never to appear together - the create noise, because an immigrant is someone who comes here legally, goes through all the paperwork and testing.  Anything else is not an immigrant, it is an invader.  I don't know why this is so hard to understand.


Most of us have ancestors who came from elsewhere and did what was required to stay here legally. After doing that, they became a part of the nation - they did not insist upon recreating that from which they came - if what they left was what they wanted, why did they leave?

Believe it or not, we here in the USA have a culture of our own - and folks that come here should come prepared to become a part of the culture - bringing things from their own culture to add in, but not expecting to lift their culture whole and bring it along. 

Start with learning the language - American English is what is used here, and it is not reasonable to expect others to accommodate to new arrivals.  We can try, to be nice - but to expect forms and such to be made available in any language besides English is to expect them to be made available in all 170 or so languages that folks from else where may have arrived speaking - and that is just not a reasonable expectation.

I hear about folks who oppose Arizona's attempt to enforce what is already federal law - how evil and inhumane it is.  Has anyone bothered to see how Mexico treats illegals?  Has anyone read the requirements to enter Mexico with an expectation of staying?  We are in the process of relearning lessons Germany learned in the 60's with its Gastarbeiter program, which lessons include just how much of a drain it can be for folks to send money out of the country.

Anyhow, whatthehell's the point of being a citizen when anyone can walk across a border and get all the benefits of citizenship at the expense of those who belong here?  I have no plan to adapt to folks who don't belong here.  I'd like to help them if they actually want to be here - but if the reason to come here is to send money out of the country and to try to make it into a mirror of what they left, then include me out.  I've loved other places, and am here because those other places could not hold me.

And now I hear some states want aliens to be able to vote!  What's up with that?  I couldn't vote when I lived in Germany, I wouldn't be able to vote in Mexico, I doubt they'd even let me into Saudi Arabia - I don't think we owe anyone who won't even observe convention anything.

Call me islamophobic if it pleases you.