No winners in immigration debate
Published 12:00 am Tuesday, May 2, 2006
Our nation is alive with the sound of protesters&8217; shouts and politicians&8217; shaky knees.
The debate over illegal immigration has come front and center over the past few months after being pulled out of politicians&8217; dusty &8220;things to do&8221; box.
The debate has come up after legislators proposed a heavy crackdown on illegal immigration and how we deal with those aliens who are already in the United States.
Hispanic and Latino protesters across the nation, including those in the Birmingham area, chose this past Monday as a day to show how much they mean to our nation by walking out of schools and off the job.
According to media reports, over one million protesters took to the streets on Monday to hopefully have their voices heard.
So how does this situation get fixed?
We could require all illegal aliens to travel back to Mexico and try crossing the border legally.
But that would obviously deplete a large work force and cause serious strain on law enforcement trying to uphold such a law.
We could allow all illegal immigrants currently in the U.S. to remain here legally.
But how do we stop the thousands of new immigrants trying to cross our borders every day from saying, &8220;What about us?&8221;
So here we sit, trying to figure out the best way to keep America&8217;s borders free and open while doing it legally at the same time.
The answer to this issue continues to evade the best political minds this country has to offer.
Having lived in Mexico City, Mexico for nearly 12 years of my life, I have a small understanding of why the people of that nation continue to risk their lives to come to America
It&8217;s for the same reasons that immigrants have traveled to the U.S. for hundreds of years.
We risk sacrificing everything that our nation stands for if we ask these immigrants to leave or simply, &8220;stop coming&8221;.
But we risk losing control of our borders and national security if we do nothing at all.
Let&8217;s pray that neither of these extremes becomes our government&8217;s solution