I will advocate for , counsel with, or hide a resident "illegal" family..

[MazeRat7]

If Needed.

You see I live in South Central Texas, and have been mano a mano with many of these "illegal" immigrants for most of my (almost) 5 decades on this planet. These folks are family oriented, hard working, kind, and socially caring folk. More than I can say for the vast majority or "reds" that live in my state. Many have been working here for years trying to "become" legal, but thwarted by the bureaucratic nature of our "system".

I cant do shit about Darfur, or Iraq, or China, or etc, etc, etc... But I can do something about those human souls that have roots here as deep as mine. Do they need my help ? I don't know ? But if ask at this time in our national history....I will offer it. To me this is just another verse in the civil rights song others sang when I was but a boy. This time I plan to sing loudly because I understand and have a voice.

MZr7

[babylonsister]

1. I don't think it will ever come to that, but I would also. This is an

issue that's being used as a distraction, imo, not to discount anyone marching for anything. Three protests this weekend, Darfur, anti-war, and immigration. Check out which one was covered the least, if at all. There's a reason...

[MazeRat7]

4. Hell yes its a distraction.... BUT

if push comes to shove... my lines are drawn.

MZr7

[sheelz]

2. Will you take a legal family too?

I could offer up....

[mike_c]

3. good on ya, brother!

Solidarity!

[valerief]

5. Hey, it's the ruling class vs. the working class, management vs.

labor, Big Brother vs. proles. Borders mean nothing to U.S. corporations, who pollute Mexico without abandon. We all want to survive with some dignity.

Anyone who makes a whoopdee-doo over illegal immigration and *doesn't* talk about unions and fair wages and off-shoring but *does* talk about security and principles and rights and *our* tax dollars isn't looking too hard at where most of our tax dollars are being pissed away.

[hanginthere]

6. we should all get invovled

Just curious, the illegal immigrants DO have a lot of needs.
What organizations in your area are trying to solve those needs?
Just how do you go about getting involved with these organizations

[Deja Q]

7. We all have needs.

Yet plenty of our own are left to suffer, rot, and die.

[EFerrari]

8. So, how do you decide who is your "own"?

Or, is this just another stab at mindless nationalism?

[Cleita]

11. Trust me, they don't have all the needs you think they do.

They usually try to band together as a community to solve their own needs as much as they can. However, when their children or elderly are involved they may seek help outside of the community.

[MercutioATC]

12. I'd chip in for a bus ticket...

Seriously, it's a sweet thought but why would you expect people to advocate illegal immigration?

Why not spend your efforts on legal U.S. residents who desperately need help?

[Cleita]

9. Nice sentiments that I agree with.

It's not because I am Latina. I didn't have to jump through the hoops the Mexican immigrants have to jump through because my father was American. However, I went to school with their children in Southern California and I worked alongside them and the braceros in the summer for extra money when I was a teenager.

People of all races and ethnicities have a right to work to make a living to feed themselves and their children. This is the law of nature, of the jungle if you want to put it that way. It's really very Darwinistic. When a society fails its members, as much of Latin America has in the past, it's the normal and nomadic nature of humanity to try to go where the jobs are.

I can't fault anyone for breaking unjust laws. I really can't.

[Mikimouse]

10. If you run out of room, send some my way...

I have plenty of space and also have a history whose folks.

[Jigarotta]

13. Makes me feel good hearing from people like you.

We are all the same, us.
For every kind thought or deed you have for strangers in need, your own children may be helped by strangers in that way one day. It's not selfish banking, it's reciprocal, it's human, it's beautiful.

[ForrestGump]

14. I probably would, too, if I had the means and if I knew the people

But I'm all over the map on this kind of thing: in favor of enforcing the illegality of illegal entry and work while totally understanding the motivation of those who do it...and, yes, I'd do it myself if I had to (I have, in fact...not illegal entry, but illegal work).

Something's got to change, for sure. For me it's the human side of it that's most persuasive but a more pragmatic person with greater command of the issues involved might point out that when a huge chunk of one of the world's largest economies is to a significant degree dependent upon illegal labor, some rules have got to change.

Maybe US borders, in general, should open. It can (or could, back when I was personally closer to the issue) be relatively easy to enter the US as an agricultural worker from Mexico, legally, but there was almost no way in hell that a person from another country who was perfectly matched for a different kind of job -- SCUBA instructor, in this case -- could get through the hoops necessary to secure the position that both he and the potential employer wanted him to fill. Not very egalitarian at all.

Then again, I'm not an economist or a social scientist and I have no idea what kind of effects might ripple outward from adoption of more permeable borders. I do know that it'd be exploited to the max, in terms of terrorist threat, by xenophobes here.

[hanginthere]

15. I think big corporations

interested in globalization would really to see the borders more permeable.

As it is, the ability of governments to regulate their activities must be irksome to them.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

16. I wouldn't want to know a person

who wouldn't.