Should Illegal Immigrants be Allowed?

As the nation sputters forward into a new problem of illegal immigrants, neo-conservatism and budget crisis we must wonder what to make of it all. The signals are confusing.

On the one hand we have illegal immigrants who have had to hide from the law, work in poverty like conditions and do not have the same access to education that we have. We believe they are hardworking people truly trying to make the best life they can. They have the American work ethnic that has been lost on so many native born Americans.

However, there is a negative side to illegal immigrants that isn’t always mentioned. Illegal immigrants have made a choice to come and live under the conditions they now find themselves. No one forced them to move from their native lands and hide away in the U.S.

Recently, immigrants took to the streets and protested potential laws that would make it a felony to be an illegal immigrant in the U.S. They sang the national anthem in Spanish and waved Mexican flags. Is this appropriate to insult the country you want to join?

A total of 11 million illegal immigrants hit the street having major protests in excess of 400,000 in Los Angeles and Chicago. Similar gatherings were found in Houston and San Jose. They chanted, “We are not criminals” and “We want to stay!”

As Muslims we have two responsibilities when it comes to immigration policy. We must support our host nation in policies that are deemed to protect our collective whole and we must thwart those efforts that are destructive to people. What does this mean?

Illegal immigrants are simply illegal. They have broken the law; have traveled hundreds of miles to sneak into the country and work for cash under the table. They use our schools, our medical benefits and take away jobs from our countrymen. Hypothetically, if we opened up our borders and let everyone immigrate to the U.S. without hindrance than our country would cease to be one of the wealthiest in the world. That means your wages would decline because there will always be someone else to do the work for cheap. In essence, employers would use their workers until they were worn out and then get another truck load full. Workers would loose their bargaining power. Would it be such a great place to live then?

We must understand that the laws are enacted to protect our American standard of living, maintain fair employment and keep the nation competitive. Once this batch of illegal immigrants becomes citizens there will be another group forming behind them. Where will the cycle end?

Does that mean we should abuse them? No! It does mean that they should be removed and sent back to the countries in which they came. It does mean that we have consistently and routinely treated illegal immigrants much better than any other nation. In what other great nation can illegal immigrants gather in such a public display of protest and not be put under mass arrest?

This may not be the answer that we are looking for nor may it be what many of the Islamic and Muslim papers are reporting yet they may be more concerned with U.S. bashing than protecting. No matter which way you slice the onion we need borders no matter how much it makes us cry.

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Murad Ali is a two time published author on business, economics and reform. He also edits the Muslim Times at www.muradenterprises.org