Soap Box

This story moved me a lot. I have a lot of dear friends who are or are married to people who are from other countries and although they have lived in America and worked here for most of their lives, are denied privileges and faced with deportation. I can't imagine how awful it would be if one of my close friends was forced to leave even though they had been good contributors to our country for their whole lives. 

Now let me say that yeah, I'm totally Republican when it comes to economics. I believe that you should be able to reap what you sow; that there should be programs in place to help those who are less fortunate but that there need to be qualifying factors so that not just anyone can take advantage of government programs; I believe that the government is there to help its people, not to control them. Being coddled is a form of control; I believe that if you want something you have to work for it, it shouldn't just be handed to you. 

With that said, I do think that in order to take advantage of the privileges of this country you need to be a contributor. But how are people like Felip Matos supposed to contribute if there are no opportunities for him to do so? And isn't it hypocritical of us to say that a person hasn't or can't contribute to our country when  that person has grown up here, gone to school here, even worked here?

We take advantage of illegal immigrants for cheap work and then tell them to get out.

Bleh.

There needs to be immigration reform. There needs to be more attention paid to this issue. I love the "Dream Act" because it focus's on minors who have grown up here but their parents may have been "illegal". If you grew up in America and were sent to another country, can you imagine how hard that would be? 

Well, I'm sure I am missing huge factors in this whole thing. I am also not the most politically savvy person. All I know is that it is too hard to become "legal" in this country and that we are actually hurting ourselves by denying or excessively prolonging a person "legalization".

That's all.