It Boggles The Mind

Chaim has an excellent post on the rallies/boycotts (hat tip to Ezzie). Key analogy:

Imagine this:

A person breaks into your home through a unlocked window in the basement. He comes into your home without our permission. He takes food from your fridge and sleeps in your home. You don't actively try to make him leave, instead he agrees to do work around the house to contribute. Yet he refuses to learn how to communicate in your language and then takes priceless family heirlooms and redecorates them without asking. Then he demands you accept it and make him a permanent member of your family. While you are deciding what to do, in order to show you how important you should think he is to your homes survival he not only stops working but encourages all other members of your family to stop working. He tries to cause you financial harm and shut down your home.

I don't get it. I really don't. People come into this country illegally. They continue to break the law by not applying for a visa. They make no effort to naturalize themselves (which I admit is not easy).

Now I'm not saying they should be shot or sent to prison. I'm not even calling for them to sent back. All I have a problem with is their demand that they have a right to be here, that we shouldn't dare make illegal immigration a top priority, that we shouldn't grant them amnesty, etc.

People argue that illegal immigrants help the economy, which is debatable: They may pay taxes but they take away jobs, they are a major element of the manufacturing industry, but they drain our medical resources, etc. But that's not the only point. Illegal immigration hurts legal immigrants and people trying to come here.

Many people in the US are xenophobic. It's a bad thing, but that's reality. When illegal immigration becomes so noticeable that it generates a national debate, it makes people move to the right and support less immigration. For example, the standard for asylum has become more difficult over the past few years, partly because of terrorism, but also because people think we have too many immigrants in this country already. Now I don't buy that argument, but that's how people react.

Moreover, some of those illegal immigrant jobs that "Americans won't do" would be done by legal immigrants. But they can't get H1B temporary worker visas because those fields were overrun by illegals. So they're stuck in whatever country they live in.

So basically we're supposed to support people who came here illegally, even when their presence hurts people who did everything right? Is that fair? And they have the gall to complain when we want to enforce the law? Unbelievable.