The De-Evolution of Immigration

I have just cut through the barbed wire fence, pushing the ends apart for my friends behind me and whispering a warning to be quick and be quiet. The inky darkness keeps the eyes in the farmhouse from seeing us. We creep up to the barn, hunched low to keep our profiles hidden. Slowly opening the barn door, we finally straighten up, looking around us and taking in the sights. A large cow, udders filled with rich milk, stands in the corner chewing her cud and eyeing us lazily. Rows of chickens, fresh eggs tucked underneath them, cluck softly, barely a murmur in the barn. A freshly slaughtered pig hangs against the wall, meat glistening and filled with the promise of bacon and chops. We are in awe of this bounty that the farmer and his family have worked so hard for and left for us. We now set out to find a corner of the farm that we can set up a tent on. The farmer's labors will sustain us, and perhaps he will see fit to take care of us, clothe us and create jobs for us. If he is angered by our presence, we will simply demand what we are entitled to. If we hurt ourselves, the farmer's wife will heal us. We deserve it. We have come onto his land for the opportunity and he needs to cater to us. It doesn't matter to us that we are here without his permission, or that he has worked hard to get this farm and all its riches. It doesn't concern us that there are people who have solicited the farmer for jobs or to buy his eggs long before us, often standing in line for months or years, and not snuck in under cover of night. My hands are outstretched in this land of golden promise, waiting impatiently to acquire all that I need. I deserve it.

This great land, the United States of America, was built by immigration. Huddled masses, hungry and penniless, came on dilapidated boats across violent oceans for the opportunity of a new life as an American. They came with a goal and an inner reserve of strength that would get them through the tough times. Their pride, sometimes their only possession, kept them struggling and fighting, never capitulating to an indifferent population in their new home land. They came and asked for only the chance to make it on their own. Illness was a constant foe, and medical care expensive. Jobs were hard to come by, but where there was a desire to succeed, there was employment. There was government, but not to prop up and give out, but to run a country that was expanding wildly. The vast source of this expansion was legal immigration, the long lines of wide eyed newcomers at Ellis Island, where hard to pronounce names were often changed by harried immigration inspectors and families got the first chance to touch the soil of their new home. And for this they were grateful and demanded nothing but a chance to make it on their own.

The treatment that most immigrants received in the earlier part of the last century ranged from indifferent to vicious. They were often looked down upon and were frequently relegated to menial jobs or poorly paid civil servant positions. Large numbers of immigrants were used to put in rails for the great Westward Rail expansion, making poverty wages and sorely lacking health care. Others, from vastly different parts of the globe, came with skills like tailoring, cooking and butchering. Markets, restaurants and clothing stores opened on hard fought savings, a life's earnings gambled on the backs of sweat, long hours and a desire to succeed. Others were brutalized by Americans only a generation or so away from being new Americans themselves, ignorant and fearful of what they saw as lost opportunities to these new arrivals. But all were here for the opportunity no matter the cost. And they were grateful.

The differences in immigration today versus in the last centuries are myriad. Today, there seems to be a sense of entitlement that comes from many here illegally. Health care is seen as a right to many here illegally, promoted as free even by some of their native governments. Clinics and hospital addresses are handed out by Mexican consulates here in the US to those here illegally, to be exploited as a free, government sponsored health care policy. Hospitals are bankrupted by illegal immigrants who know that hospitals will not turn away their pregnancies, their illnesses and their cuts and bruises. Police in many areas are restrained from asking legal status of those arrested, and those who have been arrested are usually set free quickly by a system burdened by its own criminals and unable to process criminals who are not here legally. The brutal execution of the 3 college kids in Newark, NJ was perpetrated by immigrants, some of whom were here illegally and had extensive arrest records including child sexual assault, but were free to roam. Car accidents involving illegal immigrants are almost always a loss to the legal citizen, as the lack of insurance will make getting the vehicle and the hospital bills a large out of pocket headache. There is usually no recourse other than a fake address and no identification, neither which will cover the expenses. Government programs, set up for a population who is here legally and paying taxes, are exploited and crippled. The farm and its barn are slowly failing and emptying.

We as a nation have come an incredibly far distance. We have seen explosive growth, both great and poor economies, and inventions that have made our lives easier. There are government programs set up to make our lives as Americans as rich as possible. Educational aid, food stamps, health care and Veterans affairs. All of these programs were enacted and continually modified to help Americans. And each is paid for by American taxes. And those Americans, at some point in their family history, were borne of immigrants, possibly one of those huddled in a ship, or standing in line for days at a consulate to get the needed paperwork to come America the legal way. America can only be that farmer in the first paragraph for all people for only so long. She is not an unlimited resource, open to anyone who crosses a border at whim or will. Her hospitals should not be closed by those who willingly violate her rules and laws and milk her dry. Her citizens should not be taxed with a burden by those who demand what should be earned. Her rights and freedoms, fought and paid for in blood, are for her people. When did a sense of self sufficiency and self reliance regress into a sense of entitlement, a shortcut to the American dream? The demands by illegal immigrants would never be suffered in most other countries. Accommodations such as dual language signs or education in a foreign language are shunned. Assimilation is a must for simple survival. Native languages must be learned. "Ask not what your country can do for you" has become "Tell the country what it can and should do for you". Illegal immigrants may work jobs that they claim Americans wouldn't want, but what chance is given to work them by those who have waited in line to go the legal route? Those people are future Americans. Where is their opportunity?

The time has come for America to take care of her own citizens. We have, for far too long, been the generous people who give and never ask in return. We look the other way as floods of illegal immigrants pour over our borders. We shrug as those here illegally take full advantage of medical treatment that her citizens pay dearly for. We mutter to ourselves that learning another language is great as schools, overburdened by illegal aliens, are forced to budget money out for bi-lingual teachers. Our children are forced to concede valuable educational time so that others, who refuse to adopt the English language, are catered to. These injustices would never have been tolerated before. Our great grandparents, and those before them, came here not looking for a handout and to be given preferential treatment, but to assimilate and become the hard working Americans that have made us the greatest nation in the world. Maybe it's time to bring that attitude back.