What do the people coming to America want?
Reader Dan sent me this on April 6. It underscores how absurd is the notion that amnesty is defined by the granting of citizenship. This is a lie that conceals the real amnesty.
Why this is an amnesty and why it’s a blessing to live in the United States of America.
Illegal immigrants from the 3rd world want legal residence, not citizenship!
The overwhelmingly prime desire of every poor 3rd world illegal alien is to have legal residency here. Not to become a citizen. So for George Bush and others to get on TV and say how this is not an amnesty because of no path to citizenship is a gross distortion & lie.
Simply to reside here illegally is a blessing! Americans have forgotten this. Every illegal alien knows this. Illegal aliens from the 3rd world are overjoyed to live here illegally. Illegal alien street vendors in Manhattan love living in the United States. Illegal alien soda can/bottle collectors (I’ve seen them) and street beggars (I’ve seen them) love the United States. But to live here legally would make life much easier and better for them
Picture yourself as a poor illegal alien from Guatemala who has somehow gained entry into America. You know you have won life’s lottery. You know how lucky and blessed you are to be here and not Guatemala. Are you thinking about how much you want to become a citizen? No way! You just want to live here without fear of deportation and send money home. You want to be able to get a legal driver’s license and not have employers threaten to rat you out to the immigration authorities You know you will earn more if you are legalized. You will probably also qualify for Medicaid. GWBush’s bill and all the Senate bills make this possible. And the number of illegal immigrants is 20 million, not 12.
This article is based on what I’ve read plus interaction with legal and illegal aliens. I knew a woman who came here legally from Portugal who was very happy to live here on a green card. She owned property here and worked here. She was very happy not to became a US citizen because all had all the benefits without shifting her emotional loyalty to the old county. Plus she would not be prejudicing her ability to one day return to the Azores of Portugal to retire in style with her money, social society and pension earned here. Many immigrants have this dream to one day retire and live like a king in the old county. I knew Greeks who would tell me this
Around 1996 Newt Gingrich Contract to America got welfare reform bills passed that made people like Portuguese Antonia (let’s call her that) ineligible for her welfare, her free medical and her SSI disability payments. Her work years were finished because had gotten injured and was on SSI disability despite owning a nice triple decker home that she rented out two units in. This is legal BTW. So guess what! She immediately filed to become a US citizen and become one within 2 years. The only reason she became a US citizen was because of (free) medical being taken care of for her (she was morbidly obese by now) and the SSI payments
So the main desire of every single one of the 20 million illegal aliens here is to have 100% legal permission to live here. These days this is called a green card. Millions of US residents have one. These Senate plans will at minimum provide legal residency cards for 20 million illegal aliens. The Democrat plan (John McCain-Ted Kennedy) bill will simply make it a lot easier for these card holders to become citizens because they can then vote Democrat, sponsor relatives for immigration and get the full package on welfare and Social Security. For all I know the former illegal alien can now legally bring his wife and children here from Mexico.
Posted by Lawrence Auster at May 19, 2006 08:00 AM | Send