[AtLast]

Originally Posted by SuperFemme

I am quoting your post from way back there to maybe have a conversation with you about Undocumented Workers being selfish and self serving.

About the idea that they should stay put and pull themselves up by the boot straps in their own countries.

So I say to you: My grandpa came here to work a ranch in order to send money home to feed his family. The level of poverty in his country is something I doubt you have seen. No plumbing, electricity, jobs, or food. Living scared of the government.

One human being wanting to keep their family alive is not selfish. It's certainly not self serving. Coming here and doing jobs that truly, nobody else wants to do and living in conditions that you or I would never live in all to support their families at home.

They risk their life and limb to come here, usually assisted by Coyotes who are American and who have no problem taking large amounts of cash and leaving bodies in their wake.

Once here they work so hard. From sun up to sun down in triple digit weather with no breaks for less than minimum wage. Taxes taken out never to be filed for or returned.

They use American Services such as Western Union and American Express Moneygram and pay them money to send money home. They pay crazy prices for calling cards to maybe if they are lucky make a call. They buy food, and other things that require they pay sales tax. For the most part these are a good people who only want to keep their family alive.

Not every country is like America. You can't really pull yourself up by your bootstraps if you live in most South American Countries.

I won't even go into places like the Congo, Nigeria, Rhwanda....

So it is hard for me to make villains out of good people with no options who only want to feed their families. These are not greedy or selfish people. They are human beings. Who want the simplest things.

There is not even really a process in place to get here legally, other that the lottery system they have going on now. Meanwhile, families are dying and living in abject poverty. So their brain stem fires up and fight or flight mechanisms take over. Survival is one of the most basic human conditions.

Dollar bills are never more important than human lives, are they?

No, they are not! And I am totally OK with services from my taxes going to any and all immigrant populations- legal or illegal. My family history is in many aspects like your just a different era of time and different country of origin. Frankly, I have no idea how some of these people survive what they have lived. If my tax dollars can give someone some kind of chance to get education, job skills, health care, whatever needed to bring themselves out of poverty, political persecution and abuse beyond belief, good! I don't care if they are citizens or not.

It is about human beings, a world population and building a world that knows the meaning of grace as a human being. Yeah, looks like a bunch of knee-jerk liberal babble..... but, I don't care. If some people in my background didn't have the guts and determination to find a better place for their family to live and work, I would not be here as I am. So, I can give back something to their memory and deeds in hopes that other immigrant (no matter their legal status) groups prosper.

Amnesty is destiny! And the only sane thing to do as the FIRST step in immigration reform. I am sick and tired of hearing Reagan's amnesty didn't work. It sure as hell did in getting people here off of welfare, being educated and contributing to society! These are the parents of an educated and employed generation of Latinos here today! Seems to me these kids turned out to be good US citizens.

Make it easier to get visas and needed documents. For fuck sakes, the criminals are not the ones in lines trying to get proper documentation! They don't abide by laws anyway. They are not concerned about feeding their kids and spending time at back breaking jobs!! Do people honestly think that terrorists will be stopped getting into the US with a more secure border. Give me a break!