Weighing In On DACA and Immigration

From the time I was a small kid, my mother drilled into me the importance of how to conduct yourself as a guest in someone else's house.  One thing was cardinal - you did not help yourself to your host's stuff, and you didn't demand that your host be your servant.  For many years, I even had a conviction to not even go into someone else's refrigerator, even if they gave permission, because it would be a form of disrespect.  It may seem like at outset that this was making your host wait on you hand and foot, but that is not how I saw it - I saw it as respecting their property enough as not to enter it, even with permission.  Over the years, I have softened up on that somewhat, as now it is not an issue to get something from someone else's refrigerator if they say it's OK.   But, it took many years to get past that stigma.  Despite the extremes I was taught to go to with this - and, my mother was a little extreme there! - at the same time it also embued into me a sense of respect for others and their property; you just don't help yourself to anyone's stuff arbitrarily, nor do you claim you have a right to do so.  You are a guest in their home, so it is your responsibility to respect them properly.  I still live by that today.   I tell that story to preface my position regarding a recent controversy that has embroiled our society, that being the issue of illegal immigration. 

To be honest, I have tried to stay clear of this issue, as it is a "hot button" thing and other than the news stories I am hearing, I have not been as informed on it as perhaps I should, but that has changed recently.  I have been watching various news reports and reading articles on this whole DACA, "Dreamers," and related issues, and the recent murder of Molly Tibbetts at the hands of an illegal immigrant has brought the issue close to home for many Americans.  Therefore, today, I want to just give my perspective on things and see where it goes.  I may tick off some people, as well as resonating with others, and that is to be expected.  However, it is an extremely important issue that cannot be just ignored.

Much like my upbringing where I was taught to respect other's homes when I am a guest, it must be understood that an illegal alien is just that - a guest, and in many cases, an uninvited guest in the very fact they are illegal.  There are a couple of up-front clarifications I want to establish first before I continue, so we will go ahead and do that.

First, most people who have issues with illegal immigration are not against immigrants at all.  As a matter of fact, if someone takes the effort to be naturalized officially as a citizen of our nation, they should be welcomed.   Many naturalized citizens are very important parts of our communities, and they often could teach those of us who are born and raised here an important lesson in regard to patriotism - they are very grateful to be in this country, they love and respect it, and interesting enough often they are the strongest opponents of illegal immigration because they know first-hand what it takes to be an American.  I have known many such people, and one in particular, a British ex-pat we used to go to church with by the name of Jean, said that she is no longer British but is American.   Some other friends of mine, a couple of beautiful Assyrian-American sisters named Christmas and Rebecca Simon, display a dedicated patriotism for our country that should shame many people who even fail to salute our flag during the Pledge of Allegiance.  People like Jean and the Simon Sisters are what this great nation is about - they represent a pride in their country of choice that many of us who are "natives" often take for granted, and we should maybe look at their example to remember how blessed we truly are to be here.  America started out as a nation of immigrants - even the American Indians came here from somewhere else actually - and hard-working immigrant ancestors are what built this nation and gave it the greatness she has.  However, many of those earlier (and current) immigrants have a couple of things that distinguish them.  First, they were not slaves to entitlement - many of them came here with just the shirts on their backs, yet they worked their butts off to get what they have and provide a good life for their families.  Second, they also complied to the legal process in obtaining their citizenship - they respected the laws, and followed them to become productive citizens of this nation.  And, for that, we should be proud of them.  Many of the people reading this have parents and grandparents who had that experience, and you are who you are because of those dedicated and hard-working people and should thank God for them every day.  Therefore, I too express appreciation for those people who came to our shores, respected the legal process, and put in the effort to being productive American citizens.  Those were some good people, and God bless them for it.

Another point I want to make is this - just because someone is Hispanic doesn't automatically make them an "illegal."   History testifies that much of what we call the American Southwest once belonged to Spain and later Mexico, and there are many people of Mexican descent in those regions whose ancestors may have settled there close to 300 or more years ago.  When those areas became part of the US, those people received automatic citizenship, and their descendants still are prominent in the region today.   Likewise, there is Puerto Rico - Puerto Rico is a part of the United States, and its residents are American citizens who happen to be predominantly Hispanic.  Their cultural heritage has contributed to the rich panorama of the American experience, and by all means they should celebrate it.  And, while it is important for them as American citizens to be conversant in English, at the same time I personally don't have a problem with them retaining a knowledge of the Spanish language either, as it is an integral part of who they are.  Therefore, it is important to understand that not all Spanish-speaking communities in the US are immigrants either - some are as native as I am.  However, for the illegals that cross the border, it creates problems particularly in the Southwest for long-established Mexican-American families who have lived there for generations and are citizens - the illegal immigrants drain the resources of the Mexican-American communities in those regions as well, and that is not right.  An American citizen of Mexican heritage should be given priority over those who cross the border illegally, and thus illegal immigration hurts Mexican-Americans too.

Now that we have established that, let's talk about DACA and "Dreamers."  DACA is defined as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, and essentially is an immigration policy that was implemented in large part by the Obama administration in 2012 that makes provision for those who were brought here illegally as children to be deferred (or even exempted) from deportation.  There are many problems with this which have caused opposition to it, and chief among those is who qualifies for this "deferred action?"   There are many undocumented adults who may or may not have come here as children who think they are entitled to DACA provisions, and they are even pushing to vote and do other things that are historic rights understood historically to be exclusive to citizens.  This broad and ambiguous implementation of DACA is what is causing many of the issues, and thus why it is opposed by many.  The term "Dreamer" has been applied to those who fall under these DACA ambiguities, and what has been happening is that criminal elements (MS-13 gang members, drug runners, Islamic terrorists, etc.) are taking advantages of the ambiguities of definition in order to carry out criminal activity, and there are some among those elements that say that because they are not given the right to vote, they are not subject to the laws, and thus can do what they want.  It is similar to "diplomatic immunity" abuse that some who are part of foreign embassy delegations use to get away with criminal behavior, and the problem is that often American citizens bear the brunt of this, as was the case with Mollie Tibbetts and others.  One of these "Dreamers" who claims to be an attorney but doesn't have citizenship even said that they were justified in this behavior - and, that attorney has an issue of his own.  If an attorney is practicing law in the US, but is an illegal himself, it begs the question - if you took time to get your law school degree, then why didn't you invest in getting legal citizenship then?   The attorney knows the law, but not only disobeys it himself but even empowers criminals who are illegals to perpetrate violence on American citizens, which to me would make this ambulance-chaser an accomplice in murders and other crimes his illegal alien buddies commit.  And, that leads to another important point.

Both of my parents served in Vietnam and are veterans of the Army, and in doing so they should have things better than what they do.  Many of our veterans - some of whom are disabled, still dealing with the traumas of war even 40 years after the fact, etc. - are living on the street and cannot get affordable housing or work.  Yet, what is weird is that they have to show an ID when they buy a bottle of Pabst Blue Ribbon in the local convenience store to "prove" that is who they are.   These are not just normal citizens, but veterans who fought for our country.   Yet, an illegal immigrant who shouldn't be here in the first place can come into a local welfare office, and they are handed thousands of dollars in benefits that you as a tax-paying citizen are financing while many of our veterans are living in cardboard boxes under bridges.  In my native West Virginia, as well as other states in the Appalachian region, children are going without decent meals while illegals are getting things handed to them on silver platters - if we can't take care of our own, we have a problem, seriously.  It would be like having a parent who locks their own biological child in a basement while lavishing gifts on a rich neighbor kid who doesn't need them, and indeed that is what many of our politicians have become, the equivalent of deadbeat parents who take our money, demand more, but fail to implement things that could benefit the common good of their citizens they claim to represent.  It is a scandal at best, but a lot of worse things could be named to describe it.  This, too, is why many informed Americans oppose DACA. 

My opinion of DACA is that it should be repealed.   While we should always welcome those who seek legal channels to obtain citizenship, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that, at the same time we should not be empowering illegal aliens to be illegal.   Illegal aliens should be encouraged to make it right by going through the proper channels to become citizens, and not exploit a system that they are not entitled to benefit from in the first place.  Until we get our priorities straight on this, we are headed for big trouble, especially as terrorists and violent gangs take advantage of the stupidity of elected officials in this nation to run amok and terrorize our citizens.  It needs to stop, and as immediately as possible.   That is my word on the subject for today.