They Would Be Shocked

Seldom do I write notes to my congressperson, in this case Ginny Brown-Waite. Usually my Congress notes go to a prep school classmate who, somehow, got elected to Congress years ago and has made a career of it.

However, and, yes, dear reader, there is always a 'however,' the recent nonsense about illegal immigrants and their 'rights' prompted me to pen a little screed to Rep. Brown-Waite. It's a little tale about my great grandparents' immigration and I'd like to share it with you.

RE: Immigration debate

When my great grandparents, all four of them, came to this country from Wales they didn't try to sneak across the border. They were upright and straightforward and they did what the immigration laws required. It would have never crossed their minds to do less than what was required of them to comply with the laws that governed them as immigrants. They did everything this country required of them and became productive, law abiding citizens.

It is with this family background that I have to question the current immigration debate. I wonder if we're living in some strange parallel universe when folks who admit to blatently breaking our immigration laws stand before the TV cameras and demand their 'rights' as Americans. As I see it, if we are a nation of laws, then the debate can only begin when those laws are complied with. That means the illegal immigrants need to go back home, wherever that may be, and begin the process anew; just like my great grandparents did.

There may be some merit to the argument that the illegals are doing jobs no American will do. In the case of my family the job opportunities were in and around the anthracite coal mines of Northeastern Pennsylvania. Yes, these were the jobs the Welsh immigrants did, but they didn't use the argument that they were doing dangerous, hard, dirty work as justification for violating the law.

U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo seems to be speaking out on the immigration issue and he seems to be making sense -- obey the law, and if you're here illegally you need to go back where you came from.
I'm sure if my great grandparents were still here they would be shocked that any group, immigrant, ethnic or racial would dare make the argument of descrimination if they were first and foremost lawbreakers.

Sincerely,
Arjay Morgan