Woah - I Just Had a Revelation About Immigration!

So, I was cleaning my bathroom a few moments ago, in la-la land, as usual; when, out of the blue - I had a shocking realization...

Let me walk you through my brain...

I was cleaning my toilet and I was thinking about how I had never realized (when I'd lived home) that toilets didn't just stay so porcelain clean on their own. I thought about my mom and how clean she kept things, then I thought about college and how dirty everyone kept things... etc.

Then I remembered the lady who cleans our house every 2 weeks and thought to myself, "wow, we've known Marcia forever." Marcia is our "cleaning-lady" - although I can't just refer to her as a cleaning lady because she is a woman and a mother and just as human as you or I are... and because we are both human and can relate through language, I know Marcia as, "Marcia".

For some reason my mind wandered more and I thought, "What if I found out that Marcia was an illegal immigrant?" I know that she is not illegal, but I thought to myself, "What if we found out one day and she had to leave the country?"

Now, my mind is strange; this thought did not come from anxiety, this thought was simply me watching my imagination while doing a mundane chore.

Anyway, the emotion that followed was extreme sadness. I felt empathy, so I felt the sadness that Marcia would have felt when this happened and having to leave the family that she has here. I did not feel betrayed or lied to by this imaginary daydream gone sad I had a few minutes ago - but I do understand that some people might have felt betrayed or lied to. I understand that employers would generally feel betrayed had they not known, but, as I said above, this was different. (Please keep in mind she is legal so the following are still my brain responding to an imaginary 'what if')

'This was different', I thought, 'Marcia is just like we are, she's not just some 'immigrant' she works so hard and she is so nice and she is honest.' - (which, by the way is more than I can say for Beatrice, her predecessor, whom we all fell in love with as children, the "cleaning lady" who brought gifts [WHAT?!] like donuts, and even a [whorish..] dress for my little sister - Well, Beatrice turned out to be ripping $20s off my mom's pocketbook... sidenote)

Anyway, this was when it had hit me: By not opening up our arms to our immigrants we are missing out on the best population this country could ask to add right now: a new generation of people who are 'eager to earn an honest buck' We NEED a working class here right now. We need a redistribution of wealth and this is the only way it could happen win/win.

But what I realized immediately after that thought was that it was my own father's and grandfather's generations were a part of a previous shift just like this. They came to America from Italy - just like many Italian and Irish before them. In the village their family came from this kind of move was not common. I look to that slow progress and to my dad's current state of wealth and I am (and have always been) so grateful for it and so inspired by it. We need that kind of inspiration in America and we need this force economically. I am suddenly not sure why we are spending money to build this fence right now if we are not simultaneously investing in the leakage of labor force that we are trying to shut off. We should be doing this 'investing' by enacting easier ways for immigrants to come here legally and/or stay here to earn an honest buck and pay taxes on it like we do.

I think it is important to remember that if we are to do something to so symbolically slam a door, we should be keeping the gated entries open and have policies that can let people through in a smooth and efficient way.

If we don't do anything to control the issue, we will have too many jobs in America that Uncle Sam doesn't take a cut from and we will continue to have to pay their way.

Of course, the tax break is something they never intended to receive, it is the opportunity they desperately need.

If we don't do anything to ameliorate the issue we are depriving many people of an opportunity they need.

What we have to recognize is that we can afford to give those opportunities.. we have hundreds of thousands of them! They are called minimum wage and low paying jobs. We need this current wave of immigrants like America has needed every other wave of immigrants.

If we don't find ways to diplomatically open our doors, we will have another financial situation on our hands to add to the list of boomers' social security and Bush's war on terror...