Oversimplification

Brian Fraley has this to say about the protests aimed at the anti-immigration bills this weekend in Milwaukee:

Those in this country illegally have committed a crime and are therefore criminals. It really is that simple.

No, it's really not that simple.

We all encourage folks from other countries to cross into our country no matter how they get here by shopping around for the best deals we can get on items like produce. Every time you buy a head of lettuce for about 70 cents, you are supporting it. Every time you go to a restaurant because they have a really good deal on dinner, you are supporting it.

Grocery stores can offer lettuce that cheap because they buy it from producers that pay immigrants ridiculously low wages. Restaurants keeps their meals cheap by having immigrants wash dishes and clean the buildings.

Just let me know when you want to start paying $6 for a head of lettuce.

Those advocating for some sort of program where we allow those from other countries to come here and do the jobs Americans don't want to do and then go home when we are finished using them would be wise to look in a history book. Our country tried this once. It was called the Bracero Program. It was ended when many in our country realized how wrong it was to treat people like they are item we can import when we feel the need and they send back when we don't want them. The U.S. Labor Department official in charge of the program when it was finally ended called it what it really was, an update on "legalized slavery."

Many of the folks advocating new anti-immigrant laws pull out the national security issue to hide behind. We can secure our borders without punishing people that are merely coming here to work in restaurants and on farms to send money back to their families. U.S. businesses depend on that labor, which is the real reason we don't have more fences on our borders in the first place. Most people want the immigrants here, some just want to beat up on them when it is politically beneficial to them.

I have never understood people in this country seeking to punish immigrants that come here and work hard without causing any problems. Or complain that they don't speak fluent English immediately. Neither did the Polish, the Germans, or many other immigrants when they got off the boat.

How can anyone here judge an immigrant? Everyone born in the U.S. is just lucky that someone else did the hard work of getting here for them.