I think I am missing something here...

I am copying and pasting my response from another thread, because I am genuinely curious. Why are people so upset that many want immigrants to come here legally?

I obviously wasn't there, I can only go by what I have been told by my grandparents, great grandparents, etc. They actually were stopped. My great grandfather had to come here alone, his wife, 8 yr old son, and 5 yr old daughter had to stay in Italy. He was given a time frame to learn English, get a job, a place of residence that was suitable for a family, and become a US citizen. Then, and only then, was he allowed to bring over his family. It took him almost 2 years. If he didn't do all of that in the time frame, he would have been deported.
Also, there was a quota. Once the US reached the quota for the year, you had to wait until the borders were reopened. My great grandfather would tell horror stories of Ellis Island. They were treated like utter crap. But he didn't care. He was just so proud to be in America, he was so excited to become a citizen and then be able to get his family here.
I am all for immigration- our country was founded on it, and I believe, depends on it to survive. I don't understand though, why it is so horrible and cruel to want people to do it legally. We can't just allow a limitless number of people to come here and then stay without ever becoming documented. What is SO bad about giving them a time frame?

Re: I think I am missing something here...

I think I am missing something here...

I don't agree with the travel ban or the wall with Mexico. I just don't understand why it is wrong to want people to be documented. That's all. I am genuinely curious- I am always open to the other side and like learning things and getting new perspectives.

I think I am missing something here...

I don't think your response is wrong or bad in any way, I think there's a little faultiness in the argument that I'm hoping I can parse out.

One is that people are pro-open border without consequence. No one I know is like, hey lets just open the borders to anyone and everyone and screw whatever happens.

I also don't think people are wrong for wanting documented immigrants. I think the language and rhetoric can be really ugly and fraught with an underlying disdain for immigrants.

Another is that people who are pro-immigration don't want there to be any organized path to citizenship and just let it be a free for all. Again, pretty much everyone I know wants immigrants to have a solid, feasible path to citizenship. I don't know how to go about doing that or what time frames are appropriate, but I think it is likely very different from immigration in the 1800s-1900s. I think our government needs to address citizenship and naturalization before deportation.

And not to be rude in any way, but again I think relying on familial experiences from a hundred plus years ago isn't truly relevant anymore. And what worked for one family was not necessarily the case for every other family. Families were also separated and subjected to different rules and policies based on skin color, religion, etc.

I think people like to fit immigration reform into a simple box. Come here legally and you'll be fine - but does anyone even understand how complex the path to citizenship is? Like, those words are meaningless and sound like it's the simplest thing in the world to do. Just go to town hall and apply to be citizen or something.

I think the humanity aspect comes into play when you're looking at a government that is playing the divide and conquer card. Trump sold his supporters on getting rid of the people stealing their jobs, building the wall, and restoring AMERICA (again, we all know what he means by that by now). I have empathy and compassion and concern for families may have come here illegally but forged a family, a life and a contribution and impact for their communities. Maybe there are a million reasons why they should have or couldn't have become legal citizens, but I'm not going to play judge and jury and be okay with families like that being ripped apart. I would much prefer my government look at those families and say, this is what we do to make you legal if you want to stay. I think these ICE raids are cruel and inhumane in that they are treating people like cattle. I don't care if they are legal or not - they are human. They are not garbage. Our government is fostering a hatred for undocumented immigrants that speaks to the core of some people. They don't care about these people. They don't care that they're human and tearing their families apart.

I think it's just simplistic and naive to assume every undocumented immigrant has an easy path to citizenship and that our government is super helpful in doing so. We exploit cheap labor for our own benefit and then want to throw the people out of country. We can't have it every which way. We have to accept the give and take that immigration poses to us and understand that it's a very nuanced issue.

Message edited 2/14/2017 6:37:35 PM.

Re: I think I am missing something here...

I don't support the illegal aspects of immigration and wont argue much on it

However i dont trust the trump regime to handle it

Re: I think I am missing something here...

I think I am missing something here...

I agree that people should come here legally and I don't think we should have completely open borders. But I don't think we should be in the business of breaking up families. People that have been here for 20 years, raised families, work, pay taxes, etc. should not be sent back. I believe they should be given a path to citizenship. The exception being violent criminals and drug dealers obviously.

Re: I think I am missing something here...