Illegal Immigration from a Realistic Standpoint

According to the New York Times, the U.S. population has reached 300 million. Of that number, ten million are illegal immigrants, according to estimates by academic and government agencies, although Bear-Stearns investment firm analysts claim that the U.S. illegal immigrant population "may be as high as 20 million people." This means as much as 6% of our population may be illegal. Please note, I found this information after 2 minutes of internet searching.

To make living in the U.S. illegally not only a crime, but a felony is a very interesting proposition, considering it would mean putting 6% of our population into prison. How exactly would we arrange this? How much would this ludicrous idea cost? Well, I suppose we could just go into more debt to pay for this! How many prisons would need to be built to accommodate this? How many people would need to be employed at guarding and providing human services in these prisons? Of course, these people would need to be removed from the working private sector to do this. What effect would that have on our economy? Making these people into felons simply does not make any practical sense. The idea is not feasible. I wonder if George Bush spent more than 5 minutes thinking about this idea before he put it into motion. If he had, he would have asked these same questions to which there aren't any good answers.

Let's look at this from a brass tacks, every day stand point. I live in Arizona, a state with a high illegal immigrant population. Chances are if you have vacationed in this state you have come into contact with an illegal at some point during your trip, unbeknownst to you. I once worked in a reputable physicians office with a woman who was legal, but her entire family was illegal. Every member from her grandmother to her sister to her nieces and nephews were illegal. However, all of my associate's family members held jobs, paid taxes, attended PTO meetings and went to church on Sundays . The children attended public school and played softball afterwards. These people were not street people, gun runners, gang members or some such television stereotyped criminals. They were normal people with normal lives, who would have been very difficult to pick out. My first point is, finding illegals is very difficult because many of them are just like every other American, making this criminalization plan nearly impossible to execute. My second point is, once we find these people are we really going to throw grandma and some middle school children into prison because that is what making illegal immigration into a crime would do.

Lastly, let's not forget that all of us, except the Native American peoples, immigrated here to escape persecution and poverty and to make a better life. Notwithstanding the Japanese-Americans, who were incarcerated during W.W.II and have rebounded, for which they should be applauded and apologized to, something that has yet to happen. Consider this, how would your video game playing, mall shopping, car driving, home owning life be different right now if your ancestors had been thrown into a prison camp upon arriving here?