ThirstyFish

Immigration legalization is once again a hotly debated topic. Depending on who you ask, it could be the best thing for America, or the worst thing for American citizens. Undocumented immigrant population in the U.S. is approximately 11 million. When President Obama came to office in 2009, he pledged that he would enact amnesty legislation for illegal aliens in his first year of office. Not only did that not happen, he deported almost 2 million people in his first 5 years in office.

Think about it for a second. There are about 4.5 million American citizens who are the children of undocumented immigrants. If you deport the parents, what happens to the children? Many end up in state care, completely cut off from their parents. How is that humane?

Some argue that we should not let undocumented immigrants into the United States at all. Do you eat fruits and vegetables? If you stop immigration, fruits and vegetables are just some of the things you would have to live without. The ethical argument goes further than that. In countries where undocumented immigrants are from, multinational corporations in collusion with influential governments exploit natural resources, and support regimes which suppress the poor. The poor do not have any means to raise a family. So, if you want to seal the borders, they should also be sealed for the importation of goods harvested or extracted through exploitation and even outright slave labor. And, that same culture of exploitation has come home to haunt even Americans of many generations.

Immigration is not just a problem of laws or policies. It is only a part of the greater problem of exploitation on a global scale! How can we justly hold anyone responsible for attempting to move from an area of greater exploitation to a lesser one - especially when we're the ones responsible for some of that exploitation. Wouldn't you do the same if you were exploited?