Hitting all of the hot button issues today!

I have had this blog sitting in draft form for quite some time. I decided today was the day to hit all of the hot button issues, so here goes...

Democrat v. Republican; young v. old; black v. white; poor v. rich; educated v. uneducated...it seems like our society always tries to polarize issues and people to simplify very complicated issues. A lot of the time there is not a right or wrong answer to a question and to formulate a proper answer the issue has to be looked at much deeper.

The specific issue I would like to discuss is illegal immigration. I know this is a very polarizing issue, but I want to be really clear before starting this post, I do not want this post to become a chance to bash certain political views or ethnic groups. I would simply like to encourage you to think outside of the box when thinking about this issue and many others. Regardless of your opinion of illegal immigration, there are several facts I would like to point out:

1. According to the Department of Homeland Security we currently employ 20,000 border patrol agents, which is double that of 2004. There are a total of 1,954 miles and the U.S. has "effective control" of approximately 700 miles with an ability to prevent or stop illegal entry along ONLY 129 miles of that border.

2. According to a 2010 study completed by the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), the U.S. government spends $113 billion annually harboring illegal immigrants.

3. To build a wall and/or fence along the border has been conservatively estimated at $2.2 billion dollars.

So, here's the deal...why do we fight so hard to prevent people from coming to our country? Guess what?! We are all immigrants! Unless you are 100% Native American, your ancestors came from another country. You can claim that your ancestors came here "legally" and they jumped through the hoops they were supposed to, but the truth is, our ancestors KILLED Native Americans to claim THEIR land. There is no way around that. It is 100% fact. So, that argument doesn't work for me.

Remove yourself from who should and shouldn't be in the United States, and think about a solution. I gave you some statistics on the cost of illegal immigrants on our country. Here is my suggestion, why doesn't our country use half of the money they currently spend FIGHTING illegal immigration and improve the infrastructure of Mexico so they won't feel the need to leave and come to our country? It is a win/win situation.

Not to mention, what happened to NAFTA?! It was called the North American Free Trade Agreement for a reason. Why don't we send our outsourced jobs to Mexico instead of India? If they had greater opportunity in their own country, they wouldn't want to come to the United States.

Think about it, if Mexican citizens had access to proper infrastructure and good paying jobs, they would not risk life and limb to migrate to a country that is not their own, is away from their families and treats them inferiorly. Therefore, I think we need to cut our immigration prevention budget in half and use it to help our neighbors. If there is a concern about giving such a large amount of money to another country set up a repayment plan. Our country has done the same thing in a lot of countries, Iraq and Afghanistan being the two glaring examples.

I mean, seriously!! We are all hear because our ancestors brought us here, we were born here, our parents brought us here, we brought ourselves here. Whatever your story is, you are here. So, we need to make it work.