Immigration Emancipation by Justin

An old friend of mine on facebook recently asked what was the big deal with the infamous Utah illegal immigrant list. I really didn't want to reply to a few closed-minded, prejudiced responses, but the disgust rankled and fermented, leaving plenty of rhetorical energy for me to write the following impromptu essay in response. I'm narcissistic enough to put it up here in fear that she might delete it, and that even more people can see how good my writing is.


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"Officially" the United States does not have a language, in the same way it doesn't have a religion, or a state newspaper, or whatever else they have in China. These would take acts of Congress, and Congress has never done them. If you moved to Switzerland, would you try to learn German, or French, or how about Italian? You are assuming that they must learn your language in order to live in this country. Why is that? Because you were born here and lived your whole life here? They have to learn your language for your convenience? Sounds a little one-sided to me. Because English has been the traditional language of the US for as long as it's existed? No one says that there has to be an official language. They only do that in France. Language is and always will be a compromise between the two people speaking. Besides, with the number of nonnative English speakers in the world rapidly increasing, especially in China, not even "English" in the next 100 years will be what you think it is, so the whole issue is really just a formalism.

Every economist in the world disagrees with you about the free flux of labor, but nevermind about that. Of all the nations of the world that have so much excessively sickening opulence that could better be divided among the beggars who putteh up their petitions to you in vain, why would you believe that the US is least among them insomuch to be insufficient towards the purpose? I've always believed that helping the needy and clothing the naked was more important than having all my ducks in a row, but maybe I'm just weird. "Brown people go there, black people go over there, Asian people go there, and us Americans, well we're special because God has blessed us with so much. We get to live in the Land of the Free, and we don't let anyone less deserving come and spoil our freedom."

It amazes me how much people are willing to allow immigration status to define their world view. Many, many illegal immigrants come here to escape from sinister governmental corruption you will never understand if you've lived in the US your whole life. What do they know of the United States' immigration policies? If your whole life has been lived in a country where the laws are as corrupt as the enterprising politicians, why would you automatically be able to change your paradigm to conform to the immigration strictures of the US? Many immigrants do try to come "legally", but the process is difficult, unfair, and very outdated. These are people who are trying to escape from hunger, poverty, oppression, and war. What you don't realize is that they've already made many personal and cultural sacrifices to be here. They've left their homes and everything they know to come to the US--to make a new life. They could have gone to Europe, or Australia, or wherever. It's a little unwitting of you to hold them up to your checklist, find some items lacking and then tell them: "come back when you know English."

I don't understand why we don't welcome these people with open arms. "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses." Your own Constitution guarantees inalienable human rights not to citizens, but to humans, no matter where they came from. This is why the United States is so wonderful: for the first time in the history of the world a country believes that all men are created equal. Illegal immigrants cannot, whatever you may think, be forfeited the Bill of Rights.

The point is that you automatically associate "illegal immigrant" with "criminal". National statistics show in fact the opposite. Illegal immigrants are far underrepresented in jails across the country. Maybe they don't want to get caught and deported, or maybe they are just trying to live the American dream by starting a new life and working hard.

When Joseph Smith ran for president on an abolitionist platform he said that many white people were afraid of emancipating the oppressed black people because the liberated black would outwork the white people, and thus as a whole make great economic progress beyond what the white people were comfortable with. There are many current and future immigrants who, when liberated from their current oppressive circumstances, will come here and outwork you and significantly alter your economy, your culture, and yes, even your language. It is only because lazy, frightened Americans don't want their country overrun with hoards of new people that this hasn't happened yet. "We were here first, therefore we deserve a good life. If you want to come here, get in the back of the line, and when we feel like it you can come in, but only if you learn our language first." King Benjamin, somewhere in Mosiah 2 has a strong rebuke for you.

I don't know why you believe in this, for this is not my philosophy and not my religion.