I'm an immigrant, you're an immigrant, we're all immigrants

So ... I read an article today about illegal immigration and new laws being proposed and all that.

When I was younger, around 18 or so, a guy I knew said anyone who hadn't been legally in the country more than four generations should be deported, along with their entire family. (Incidentally, his mother stepped in and said that would include him!) We had a lot fewer illegals then. I didn't agree with him either, because that meant that my entire family should be deported. At least, the family on my dad's side. On my mother's side ... well ... My grandmother became a DAR and traced our family history back to the Mayflower. So what would happen to me if that was the law?

Now, there are estimated to be 12 million illegal immigrants on U.S. soil.

One of them is my father-in-law.

Well ... not exactly. He has a work visa, which expires every 6 months to a year, and he has to get it renewed that often, but often it takes 3 to 4 months for it to be approved, and during that time, he's not exactly legal. When they first immigrated to the U.S. 25+/- years ago, however, Dad and Mom were both illegals and worked full time for poor wages to support their family of five. After they moved here, they had two daughters, who are United States citizens. In the 8 to 10 years between their immigration and their obtaining alien resident status for their three sons and Mom, they frequently ran from immigration and moved between three states where there are a lot of other illegals from various lands.

My in-laws are not from Mexico, so the shiny new fence going along the U.S. would not have kept them out. They are from the Islands. They came here on a boat, determined to bring their children to a better life after one of their sons, who was extremely sick, died as an infant in his grandmother's arms, awaiting a boat to take them to a larger island where there was a hospital.

The immigration policies and laws have become a lot more gray than black or white since I met and fell in love with this kind, sweet, loving, sexy Islander husband of mine. Had they ever been caught by immigration, we wouldn't be married. But then, had my own great-grandmother, who immigrated here from Lebanon as a child, ever been deported, my own grandparents and parents wouldn't be married.

That being said, illegal immigration is becoming a huge problem in a land where housing prices and the cost of living are going up seemingly exponentially, while, simultaneously, the demand for cheaper labor is sending our factories and private healthcare records and financial information overseas to lands where our laws are not enforceable. The costs of illegal immigration and offshoring are more than just in lost jobs for American workers. Illegal immigrants can obtain healthcare at emergency facilities and there are laws in place to provide them with this care, but the facilities cannot force them to pay for their care. So who gets to pay for it? The average American tax payer. Illegals are frequently on WIC and food stamps and other federally mandated programs which are in place for American citizens. When I was a single mother of an infant baby, I did take her to one of the so-called "free" clinics in a city nearby. The illegals who were surrounding me did not pay a dime. I still had to pay a pro-rated amount. And trying to get on Medicaid and welfare at a time when I could not work was next to impossible at times, while the illegals walking in surrounding me were given money that very day.

Fortunately, I got myself a good paying job and am no longer in that situation, and haven't been for years. But I just recently learned of a woman with cancer from Michigan visiting a friend in California. While there, she got very sick and tried to obtain emergency healthcare and medication from a local clinic. She was turned away. One of the nurses privately told her that if she was an illegal, she would have been given the care and medication she needed. I type medical reports for a living and recently typed one on an illegal immigrant who has renal failure and requires dialysis three times a week. However, the local dialysis clinics there will not schedule him for dialysis since he can't pay, so he ends up in the ER three days a week for dialysis to keep himself alive ... but ... still doesn't pay. The doctor documented all of this in his record. So who pays for it?

What is the message being sent to American citizens? Our jobs are disappearing. The economy is not pretty. The cost of living is rising and our taxes are going to take care of people residing here who are not citizens, or even legally in the country. Insurance companies rake us over coals for premiums and then decline to pay when we have claims, or while we're paying exhorbitant premiums, still have huge out of pocket maximums and/or deductibles, while illegal immigrants get healthcare and don't pay for it.

Democrats think they have the solution for our country's problems: Pull out of Iraq and then we won't be viewed as bullies anymore. Okay, but if the rest of the world truly hates America and American citizens, why on earth are there so many people from other countries coming illegally into the U.S. or taking jobs from U.S. companies in other countries? Why are other countries still asking for our help?

See, my thinking is this. Everyone wants us to be the big brother and fix everything until we really get involved and then we didn't do it their way, so we're of the devil.

Pulling out of Iraq might help some of our problems, but only if the focus is then turned toward improving our own domestic problems. We can't ignore the rest of the world -- our economy is not just localized to our nation anymore. But perhaps instead of trying to be the "super power police" we should take care of the problems at home -- immigration, the rising rate of divorce, illiteracy, the declining importance of family, abortion, gay marriage, child abuse, the rising cost of living with wages not being increased to meet the demands a real family faces in this world, out of control gun laws, etc. etc. etc.

Our system is broken, but how can it be fixed? Band-Aids don't stop hemorrhages. Pulling out of Iraq or building a bigger fence (Berlin, anyone?) or banning guns will not fix our country.

We need people who can think for themselves to come together and create solutions outside of party lines or dogma. We need to get rid of this idiotic two-party system. We need the people to vote for good candidates, but anymore, it's the lesser of two evils. We need good candidates to run for office. We need the people to realize not everyone is going to agree on everything 100% of the time and come to terms with one another's opinions and create laws that are actually fair, right, good, and enforceable. We need American companies to bring American jobs home to our people. We need immigrants; our country always has. But we need a better system of them coming in the country. We need our men and women to come home from Iraq, and we need to provide adequate healthcare for them when they get here, including mental healthcare to those who so desperately need it.

In short, we need the good citizens of the United States of America involved in solving these problems by getting involved in politics, and we need the professional politicians to find better ways to handle things than by pitting one party against one person or the other party. Our country and our political system should be focused on the good of the country, and tearing each other apart is not going to solve a darn thing. Never has.