In general I agree with those who have been passionately fighting to stem/stop the flow of illegal immigration into this country. But (ok, I know. Laura Ingraham would call me a butt monkey) I have a strong reluctance to join in with them in the fight. I don’t think it’s racist to want our country to defend the borders, but I do think that amongst some of those who get passionate about this issue, are those that are motivated by prejudice or isolationism. I really don’t want to get too close to them for that reason.
Now I’m Catholic, and there is a liberal political bent in my Church, so there is that influence on me. But I have no problem saying we should express outrage when the Mexican government condemns us when we sentence a Mexican national to death when the criminal has committed a vicious murder. Mexico should instead send us thanks for helping them out and taking care of one of their problems. Where I take issue with my fellow conservatives who focus on this issue, I think is the tone. Yes, I want to protect my family and fellow countrymen, and if the crime situation in Mexico keeps disintegrating, then just like Israel, we have to build a wall to keep the criminals out. But to fully embrace the idea that all we should care about is us, protecting “good ol ‘Americans” and deciding to heck with the Mexicans (“let ‘em kill each other off”) is wrong. I’m patriotic, I’m not a one world government person, but we should care for, pray for, and seek to help all people of the world. Yes, I know, Obama’s idea is to pour billions of dollars into worthless programs (or harmful ones like population control), and not standing up to our enemies like Chaves and Castro. But I don’t support isolationism. It sort of reminds me of those back during the cold war who just thought we should drop the “big one” on them because the people over there were never going to get rid of communism.
As for illegals who have come over, just for work and haven’t broken the law otherwise, basically I admire them. They want to support their families. For many years, it was an overall win win situation. We needed more workers, they had a high unemployment rate. So we became lax defending our borders, and a stampede started. It overwhelmed our resources, so it is perfectly reasonable to want to get strict, and enforce the laws. Plus we have to prevent terrorists from getting over. I just want to make sure and not demonize those who are just here for work.