Thank an illegal immigrant

NPR recently broadcast a commentary by author Richard Rodriguez who made the straw man argument that many Americans believe that illegal immigrants should be thankful for what our country has done for them.  I say "straw man" because I don't believe that very many Americans have made that argument at all; most would probably simply say that the problem of illegal immigration raises a fundamental question about our ability to continue functioning as a nation that is guided by the rule of law.  That, and the fact that many illegal immigrants seem either indifferent or downright hostile to the interests of our nation, makes a lot of people justifiably uncomfortable.

In any event, Rodriguez's straw man gave him an easy seque into the gist of his piece, which was that Americans should pause to reflect on what they should thank illegal immigrants for doing, such as flipping burgers, mowing lawns, changing diapers, etc.  His point, obviously, is that illegal immigrants have done a lot for the quality of our lives, and that we should be grateful to them.

Having considered his point, and the impact that illegal immigrants have had upon the quality of my life over the years, I decided to make my own (non-exhaustive) list of things for which, I must admit, I should be thankful to illegal immigrants:

• to the illegal immigrants who kept my wife (the 1st) and me awake until all hours of the night in our first apartment in L.A., playing loud mariachi music in your front yard and smashing beer bottles in the street, I thank you;
• to the illegal immigrants whose rudeness and disregard for anti-littering laws have made it impossible to take my family to Miami Beach for several years, now, I thank you;
• to the illegal immigrant who leeched off of our friend and neighbor for years, not doing a lick of work around the house, until the neighbor finally became so fed up that she moved out of state, I thank you;
• to the illegal immigrants who  flout our laws by purchasing black market green cards and other fraudulent identification papers, I thank you;
• to the illegal immigrants that have brought vicious, criminal gangs to our country, I thank you;
• to the illegal immigrants whose children have made several of our public schools so dangerous and disorderly that many parents will pay any price to avoid sending their children there, I thank you;
• to the illegal immigrants who dump trash all over our neighborhood park every weekend, I thank you; and,
• to the illegal immigrants who side-swiped my car (back when I was very poor), then fled the scene because (a) they were afraid of the cops; and (b) because they very likely didn't have insurance, I thank you.

My gratitude knows no bounds.

Comments

[Peggy U]

When I was in high school, I worked next to illegals in the potato sheds, sorting seed potatoes. They didn't have any problem with sexually harrassing teenage girls, I can tell you! But back then, you just ignored it and did your work!

When you pay illegal immigrants to do this non-skilled labor, you remove a source of work for our young people. More than that, you remove a character building lesson that shows them why a good work ethic and an education are necessary. Americans aren't willing to do this kind of work? Baloney! I know plenty of high school and college kids who are looking for jobs - in addition to housewives who want a little money on the side. Americans aren't all as spoiled as the media would present us...

[Bob7k]

i am getting sick of these people, not mexicans, i understand how hard it is to get into this country, but there is a reason, to filter out all the "bad" ones, im glad people would break laws to come here, just dont break ours, ive been put into independant studies, or home schooling because there were so many riots between the mexicans and other minorities, the ones that come here legally are the respectable ones, most of em are, like my friend juan, hes dependable and he isnt up on mexican pride or anything like that, but the other thing i was saying is, overpopulation, i cant do anything here without mega crowds, and i HATE crowds