How About a “Bring Your Immigrant to Work” Day instead?

I tried to convince X that he didn’t REALLY need to go to work on Monday and that he should just take the day off to play with Arun and me. He wasn’t buying it.

I haven’t said anything at all regarding this “immigrant” thing because I didn’t really think I had much to add to the conversation. Also, X has his green card, so it doesn’t directly affect us anyway. I can report that before he got his green card, I was always a little leery and nervous for him. The INS folks aren’t known for being fuzzy and friendly - it’s a reputation rightly deserved. The time that I, an American citizen, spent in there was not fun - I was nervous the whole time that they were gonna boot MY ass outta the country. Anyway, I feel better now that he is “green”, but will feel helluva lot better when he becomes a citizen. So, while I still think I don’t have much to add, I will say this: I believe most Americans don’t have a freakin’ clue just how much illegal immigrants add to our country. I believe most Americans completely underestimate the economic ramifications that would result from shipping each and every single illegal immigrant back. I believeAmerica has a fragile little house of economic cards here, delicately built upon the back of many immigrants. Do I believe it is right that immigrants are here illegally? Not necessarily. But, this is not a black and white issue. I believe that most of the discourse regarding this issue does not take into account how freakin’ gray it really is. It is very naive to make the argument “ship ‘em back and they can come back in legally”.

Please take a moment and see how many times I just said “I believe” - I even bolded them for clarification, folks. These are MY uneducated opinions, not anyone else’s (namely X’s. He can get his own damned blog). However, 8 months ago? I would have been preaching the whole “ship ‘em back” theory. I have learned enough in the past 8 months to realize that ain’t gonna cut it. While I don't know the answer myself, I do challenge others to also learn more about this issue. Have you bought any tomatoes or oranges lately? Any chicken or beef or pork? Had your lawn mowed by a service? Had your house cleaned by a service? Well, then this probably affects you more than you realize.