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Immigration isn't only an issue,
it's human beings
By Bethany
Crane
September 29, 2008 | You're crouched in the dark watching
cars pass you by on the road to your right, and ahead
you see a fence, barbed and foreboding. Your children
are with you and as you fervently tell them to be quiet
you wait for a gap in the passing cars to try and make
your run for the barrier. You gave up having a guide,
and decided to go on your own and take your family with
you. Behind you lies a half life, a dead end in the
future, and possible misery in between.
This scenario I think everyone would jump to as being
one about the illegal immigrants in the United States.
But they are not the only group in history to have escaped
their country's oppression. Not necessarily the dictatorial
kind, but one of inopportunity, and unrealistic living
conditions. If you were put into the position of someone
who lived in a country where your rights were limited,
you were trying to raise children and only wanted the
best for them, you would do pretty much anything to
accomplish those ends.
For all that we complain about this issue we forget
what has been written on the base of the statue of liberty:
Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
We would like to deny this statement, especially when
applying to people struggling for something better.
But we cannot deny that the very basis of why people
came here was to try and achieve a better way of life.
Shall we deny those who try and do the same today? My
mother is a Canadian, and always will be a Canadian,
so she has to renew her green card every five or so
years. The last time she went to renew the card she
went with my father. Now mind you my mother's English
is better than most American's. The woman sitting at
the front desk looked up at my parents and acted like
she didn't understand my mother's English, but she understood
my father's. She made the paper work process absolutely
horrendous, especially dealing with the marriage license.
When dealing with immigration officers you can't raise
any objections either, because they can easily revoke
your residence visa.
Knowing that is the tenor of the immigration office,
can you imagine being someone with limited English trying
to get legally into this country? Trying to dot every
"I" and cross every "T" to make sure everything was
legitimate? How many times are you willing to subject
yourself to that before you realize that no one is really
wanting to help you?
Let us not forget the human element of this issue.
It's easy to refer to the issues it impacts, which in
reality most of them aren't really there. We forget
that we could be in the same position, and the tables
would turn entirely, and some things happen to be more
important to your life and those of your children than
a piece of paper from an uncaring country.
NW
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