No free rides

BY HUSSEIN JAWARD, Guest Writer

If you support amnesty for illegal aliens, think of this scenario. Could you imagine a world where HFCC students decide to hop the property line between them and us, take classes without our permission, and then expect us to allow them to stay in our University? That is one scary world. No disrespect to HFCC or its students is intended.

The liberal media constantly tries to constantly paint the picture of a tiny minority family hiding in a bedroom closet, as savages from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement viciously search their homes to deport them. The ICE is not a group of savages.

It is a law enforcement agency that must be allowed to do its job. That begins with deporting all illegals, regardless of how long they have been here.

The bottom line is: they are lawbreakers.

Granting them amnesty not only rewards their disrespect for our nation and its laws, but also sends a message to others that are attempting to illegally enter the country. The message is that America is a push over; that they just have to get away with the breaking the law for a few years, and then they will be pardoned shortly after. We must communicate that illegals in our nation will not be tolerated.

The question always posed by those who support amnesty for illegals is “what about those who came illegally and had their children in the United States?” To them, I say: “Congratulations. You hopped the border, disrespected the laws of the nation that you claim to love so much, had a child in our borders, and manipulated the system.” Unfortunately, we cannot deport those who had children here.

Most of their children are too young to support themselves, and we certainly can’t deport those born in the United States with their parents. I would support prison time for those who hopped the border and had children here, if it didn’t cost the state so much money and turned out hardened criminals.

For the illegals that hopped the border and had children, I would support mandatory community service hours to compensate for any taxes they may have evaded. There are a lot of potholes in the road that need fixing. Just don’t start with Ford Road in Dearborn. That’s the route I use to get to this University.

Moreover, what message does amnesty send to those who have applied for citizenship multiple times, and have been DENIED? I can picture the immigration caseworker saying: “In America, we reward those who break our laws, but we will not admit you into our nation, even though you respected our laws and tried to join it fairly.”

My position is not anti-immigrant. America is the nation where immigrants from ALL walks of life come for freedom, to grow, to become educated, and to prosper.

The national origin of each illegal alien couldn’t matter less to me. He or she could be from anywhere between here and Siberia. If they’re here illegally, they have to go.

In the most frustrating episode of the illegal alien saga, then-President Vincente Fox of Mexico, speaking about the potential of the U.S. building a wall to prevent illegal immigration, said “We know that walls don’t work … the Berlin Wall did not keep out freedom and democracy.”

Perhaps modern history is no longer taught in Mexico’s public school system, but in case Fox forgot, the Berlin Wall was designed to keep people in East Germany. A wall that the United States would construct would be designed to keep people out. And furthermore, (insert sarcastic tone of voice here) it’s very charming that Fox would compare the United States, the freest nation on Earth and the first modern democracy, to the former brutal Soviet satellite state of East Germany — as if Mexico has built a career of promoting freedom and democracy abroad.

So far, all of these arguments have been purely philosophical. The issue also boils down to hard numbers. In a 2002 study, Center for Immigration Studies, a non-partisan research organization, estimated that households headed by illegal cost the federal government $721 in prison/INS services, while “all other households” cost only $91.

Households headed by illegal aliens cost the federal government $591 in treatment for the medically uninsured, while “all other households” cost $123. Meanwhile, they only paid $1,371 in income taxes, while “all other households” paid $7,103.

Numbers don’t lie, Democrats (in this case) do.

Democrats in Washington have argued time and again that deporting illegals would harm our economy more than hurt it. However, in concluding the report, author Stephen A. Camaota notes that “[i]f illegals were given green cards and began to pay taxes and use services like legal immigrants with the same education levels, the net annual fiscal deficit at the federal level would likely increase from $2,736 to $7,668 per household under the most likely scenario.”

Meanwhile, liberals in Washington, including the President, presumably don’t really care about illegals. This is an election year. While the stimulus package has saved our country from economic collapse, it, unfortunately, did not work as quickly as it was promised to. The Democrats need a wedge issue to keep the White House, and regain control of the House, just as the Republicans used marriage equality as a wedge issue in the 1990s. And the solid gold bullion that Democrats seek in amnesty? It’s a brand new constituency of pseudo-Americans.

And when I am asked what I would say to the illegal being deported, I would say “Next time, apply for citizenship at a U.S. Embassy. But until then, goodbye, adios, auf wiedersehen, au revoir, sayonara, and ma’asalama! Americans come first in America.”

The views presented, unless otherwise noted, are of the individual authors and do not necessarily represent those of The Michigan Journal Editorial Board, the University of Michigan-Dearborn faculty or administration.