Okay, so here’s my take on immigration and I’m probably never going to be elected to office now.
Imagine for a moment that your mother-in-law is in an abusive relationship. Let’s say for a moment that she wants really badly to come live with you, but instead of calling you up and asking or showing up on your doorstep she finds a bathroom window open one day and just climbs in. You have no idea. Instead, she just sets up in your attic. She starts systematically replacing things in your house with things that she liked about her house, the one she fled from, and you just kind of let it happen because she is doing some chores around the house that you really didn’t want to do, like cleaning the toilets. Pretty soon, when you figure all this out, you have to confront her because your bills are increasing due to water usage, electricity, food, etc. She doesn’t really want to “contribute” to the financial part though because she is doing the odd chore, so she doesn’t feel the need to help you there. What money she does make when she leaves your attic gets sent back to her abusive husband to pay the mortgage on the house she’s never going back to because she doesn’t want to lose that. Soon she tells all her friends how great things are at your place and they start hanging out, eating your food and crashing in the attic and pretty soon the basement too. Now you have a real problem. Your grocery bill is off the charts, your electric bill is insane and nobody respects your things. Now you find out that some of her friends are even breaking the law and hiding out in your house. What do you do? Is it cruel to ask them to leave? Is it wrong to demand they find another place to reside?
You would never have refused your mother-in-law help (or her friends) if she would have just come to you via the front door, explained her situation and the two of you set ground rules on how things were going to work. You would have established what was expected of each of you and you would probably have set her up in a nice spare bedroom and everything. Now you have to figure out what to do with her and all her buddies. You still want what is best for her, but you have to take care of your own family as well. To do less would be irresponsible.
That’s all America is asking. Come in through the door, not the window. Let us know you’re here. Pay your way like the rest of us and contribute to the household. Why are we assholes for trying to enforce this? I’m just sayin’.
jo would know 