I have zero problem with the remittances to Mexico. They don't mean anything as far as I'm concerned. The US doesn't "lose" this money, it gets recirculated in many ways, besides we print so much of it it hardly matters. If the cash transfers are a manifestation of tax evasion, there are already laws against that. I do not know and don't see how I could know the character of the remissions, and it is the least meaningful detail in this whole controversy IMO. What you call their humanity is seriously diminished in my eyes, because they are so aggressive, they start out being illegal, they are jumping ahead in line of those who come here on a controlled basis, they are NOT interested in assimilating. They are all take and no give. Again, it's behavioral, not racial. They are expressly creating a foothold for more and more of them to enter the US, and, emboldened by the near-total lack of border security, begin their alleged "beneficial stay" in the US with the idea that our laws don't matter. I can't support that.
I have a lot of experience with Filipinos, and they are among the kindest, gentlest, and diligent people I have ever met. I worked with a ton of them aboard ships. Many of them worked very hard, sent home money, and were able to live very well because of the disparity in wage between what they earned aboard ship and what wages are/were at home. Good for them. They took an opportunity and returned home to benefit from it. If the Mexican workers did that, I would have far fewer objections to their presence. Of course I'm generalizing, but the Filipinos don't exhibit any of the agressive "gimme" entitlement mentality that we see in these Mexican protest marches. I don't see them treated with contempt. Seriously, I don't.
And this "gimme" thing...this is not folks who just want to make an honest living. Those immigrants, you will not see in these marches. They are busy making that honest living. The marching and the Aztlan movement et al are an aggressive and extra-legal invasion. I can't support it, no matter how natural their desire to become earners here. It's frickin nasty. There's nothing noble about wanting to feed your face. Everyone wants to do it. It's just another way of them saying, "we're here, we're belong, you can't stop us, we don't care how much police and street-cleanup overtime you have to dish out". It's big-time in your face. They already have plenty of entitlement they are very arguably not entitled to, and it's never enough. This is the sign of an agressive invasion, not a blending of cultures, not a mutually beneficial proposition. Just "get outta my way, I'm getting mine, and my kids and my relatives are gonna here and take what's rightfully theirs. You can't stop us." Who needs this? It's just inviting in competition for resources at every level. And now, because of the pandering of our politicians to their overwhelming numbers, we have to consider at great length giving them drivers licenses, in-state tuition rates, and many other benefits that should NOT be denied to bona-fide citizens. If the resources were infinite, it would be less of a big deal. But they are not.
As I said, these protests are ominous. They are the one thing that I've seen that has the potential of changing my viewpoint.
See, my real issue is that I don't like seeing naked hostility on either side. I feel very uncomfortable when I hear people blasting illegals. But of course when I see illegals blasting us, that makes me feel just as uncomfortable.
The attitude I have right now, "A curse on all your houses! I'm going to the Philippines where people are just super-nice to me!" is probably not going to be helpful to either party :-).
They're not all take and no give - they are hard workers. Work gets done. That's the "give" part and surely that's a good thing. What is it you want them to give, exactly, other than their labor? What else do they have to give?
Now, I think your answer might be some degree of loyalty to the country in which they work. It seems reasonable to say that as a condition for staying here, people should at least not actively attack our country.
Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but even if we eliminated all illegals from the world tomorrow, we would still have plenty of Mexicans and others who were citizens but not truly assimilated. I'm sure many of those people marched in those protests. What could we do with them?
Is the problem perhaps not really a bureaucratic piece of paper, but rather the fact that our society no longer encourages assimilation?
I think that if you looked at this problem - which in my opinion is overwhelmingly created by ivory tower multicultural types - you'd come closer to solving the illegals dilemma.
Maybe the illegals are not valuing citizenship and assimilation because we say, from our own actions, that we don't either.
D