They need to go home

My husband is a second generation American. His grandparents came to the United States LEGALLY in the early part of the 20th century. My friend Sandie was born in Italy. Her family immigrated LEGALLY when she was a child. Waves of people from other countries have LEGALLY swelled our population over time from every culture on the planet. They all had several things in common:

• They came into this country LEGALLY. Things in South America cannot be worse than they were in Poland during the Second World War, or Europe around the WWI, or China NOW, and yet people filled out the proper forms, went through channels, waited if waiting was a requirement, and came into this country with honor and honesty, not by stealth and criminality.


• They had no sense of entitlement. Prior immigrants didn’t come to this country expecting all the rights of citizenship without first becoming citizens. I cannot tell you how offended I have been by the Latino protests over immigration. What next? Felons on parade? The temerity, to come here illegally and protest our justified concern over their illegal actions, never ceases to amaze me.


• They had to learn THE language… which until recent times was without question ENGLISH. Dave’s folks had to learn it. So did Sandie. So did millions of other people. When the Irish came over by the millions- legally- stores did not advertise their wares in Gaelic for their convenience. When the Indians or Pakistanis immigrated, Lowe’s did not put up signs in Farsi or Hindi. Outside of ethnic neighborhoods, the language of the land was ENGLISH. It pisses me off every time I walk into a Lowe’s to see all the signs are bilingual. What are we, Canada? Belgium? Those countries deal with expensive, bureaucratic nightmares because of bilingualism. Do we really want to go there?


• They became Americans. Everyone has ties to their homeland. Hell, my mom’s family came from England in the late 1600’s, and my dad’s came during the Great Potato Famine, and we still have respect and pride in our ancestry. But we are AMERICANS. Not Irish Americans, not English Americans… Americans. We salute one flag. We recite one pledge. Each wave of immigrants prior to the Latinos strove to become American. This wave is another kettle of fish.

In my humble opinion, people who enter this country illegally are criminals. We have immigration laws. They should either be enforced or repealed. Mexico, in particular, will never be compelled to solve it’s own social and economic problems as long as its citizens can cross our borders and benefit from the society generations of legal immigrants have created here. Illegal immigrants are not vested in America. If they can’t or won’t become naturalized Americans, they need to go home and help solve their country’s problems. And we need to help make that happen.