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Immigration REALLY stirs people right now. People are outraged, offended, and living in fear of what the dangerous immigration population will do to our country. They feel the immigrants are taking a piece of a pie that is already too small. Yet the U.S. sits at the very top of the list when it comes to worldwide obesity, which seems to contradict that perspective.

If we are in such “dire straights,” why, in the middle of a “financial and employment crisis,” were there lines around the block to purchase the latest $400 video game system in 2009, at the height of our last “recession”? These are not actions of people who have nothing to give, not enough opportunity, and a fear of immigration. Buying video games, to me, seems like something we do when we have EXTRA money.

There seems to be a lot of he-said-she-said in the immigration conversation. Having been through the system first hand, I am here to offer some REAL TRUTH about it.

Immigration FACT: Immigrants CANNOT use our public safety system. If you are an illegal immigrant WITH a TIN # (a number to pay taxes with…a TAXPAYER) and someone steals from you, doesn’t pay you for several weeks of work, or even threatens the lives of you and your family…You are completely unprotected. There is no calling the police for ANY crime without fear of being the one imprisoned.

Immigration MYTH: Once you marry a U.S. citizen you are in like Flynn…Wrong! I was married to my husband for five years with two children before he was granted permission to stay. Permission was granted ONLY after returning to his home country for almost a year while I supported our family on my own in the U.S., AND after paying over $8,000 in legal fees and even more in travel expenses to and from their embassy. Talk about an expensive date!

Immigration MYTH: There is a “free line” for immigrants where they get everything from free health care to food to beer and cigarettes on Friday. I could not find such a line, though I searched for six years. I have friends who never found the line either. IF you KNOW where the line is…please respond to this post so the families that are struggling to live and work under the radar may utilize it.

Immigration FACT: Countries where immigrants are coming from are FULLY aware of how bad their people want to escape. And they use that fear, that basic human desire for a safe and happy lifestyle to make more money than you can imagine. If you are not already rich, chances are, you’re not leaving…not legally anyway.

Immigration FACT: Immigration, like any other human experience is easy to detach yourself from when you are not actually living it. When you don’t see a child ask their mom “When’s daddy coming home,” it’s easy to say “Well, rules are rules.” But history is full of examples of Bad Rules that had to be adjusted as we grew and evolved as a culture.

Some side effects of the immigration process…

I’m not afraid to move, lose a job, or go without cable.

Moving, rebuilding, revising plans, recovering…stabilizing ourselves regardless of the circumstance and other obstacles is not a travesty, it’s part of life and completely accomplishable. Like ANY other oppressed population, the oppression ultimately makes them stronger and somewhat invincible.

Just like no one understands you fully without entering your life and your mind…You don’t understand the world fully unless you have been around it. The United States, believe it or not, presents quite a rosy picture of life…Dunkin Donuts, food stamps, police that enforce your safety, voting, job security, unemployment benefits. The picture is so rosy that we have time and energy to gripe about every other little inconvenience life has to offer. I hate traffic, I hate work, I hate loud gum chewers, lines in the grocery store…commercials…and on and on.

While visiting my husband’s home country for less than 2 weeks, his father was robbed at gunpoint in broad daylight at a car shop in front of plenty of people. Did they call the cops? No, because it very well could have BEEN the cops and they knew it. Another family member was dragged out of a house away from his wife and infant son to be murdered and mutilated for what seems like being in the wrong place at the wrong time. While I wasn’t actually there, another relative was shot off his motorcycle and will not walk again. A cousin before that was shot to death. There have been numerous kidnappings of family and friends, and even more threats.

Would you raise your kids there? Does not every human on the planet deserve to live without fear and suffering? Maybe you’re not ENTITLED to American life…maybe you’re just LUCKY to be here, and you don’t even know it or even appreciate it all that much. To me the question should not be so much how to keep them out…but how to create a world that people don’t need to ESCAPE from in the first place.

[Photo credit to Boss Tweed]

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