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Originally Posted by somerfrost
I think one point that DTS made is that one man's illegal alien is another's pilgrim. There is a quote from Spike in BTVS that I paraphrase here: "You had better weapons, you slaughtered them and took their land, that's what nations do". The point being that when viewed in historical context, our "right" to this land came at the end of a bloody sword and to demonize people who come now in ways we see as "illegal" is, philosophically hypocritical. That's not to say we should open the doors to everybody..we need order and that IS the role of government. Still, the majority of these folks are honest and hardworking folks simply looking for a better life...not unlike our ancestors. We need answers, but pointing at the poor is always an effective strategy for the wealthy and powerful. Both ends of the political spectrum are involved in this mess...the "liberals" who are concerned about the welfare of these poor folks (and their votes) and the wealthy who have economic concerns (read: employ them). We sure don't need walls, we need a fair way of dealing with folks who are here and a coordinated effort with the Mexican government.
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But to compare the problems with illegal immigration now and the way that things were 400 years ago is ludicrous. The world does not work the way that it used to, when European conquest and exploration was the norm. I'm not saying that there may not be a hint of hypocrisy for a nation of immigrants to have a problem with out of control immigration, but the historical context of the time does not pair up with the way the world functions now and to use 16th century historical conquest and exploration to justify lax immigration policies and paint Americans against illegal immigration as hypocrites is just a convenient talking point without any real teeth.
Dare I not toe the party line on this one, but there's a serious problem going on, and to just legalize a bunch of lawbreakers en masse is a ridiculous solution. They're breaking the law now, so what's to say they're going to follow our new law saying they can all be citizens? I'm sure there are plenty of benefits to
not being a citizen and getting paid under the table for these people.