Say Anything Blog

Now, before anybody flames this post, I’d like to point out that I’m totally in agreement with Rob; it makes no sense to reward unlawful behavior. Hey, I’d love to do 95mph on the Interstate, but that’d get me thrown in jail, not congratulated, because it’s illegal. Go figure. Having said that -

Does anyone know how one goes about emigrating to the US legally? For purposes of employment, permanent residence, and eventual citizenship? I have a friend who’s Italian and she’d love to move here, but we don’t seem to be making it very easy on legitimate folk who want to make a better life for themselves and contribute to our country (you know, the way our parents/grandparents, etc...back through history did?) You’d think that we would want to encourage hardworking people to come to the US - legally - when they prosper, so do we all. It seems that even if that’s what we want, it’s not like a hundred years ago; you can’t get on a boat, go through Ellis Island and find a place on the Lower East Side of New York.

How do people nowadays emigrate to the US legally? Anyone?

Seems crazy, we make it harder than we need to to do things the right way.  We then reward those that don’t follow the rules. 

On a related note, I think the very last people we want as residents are those that have shown contempt for our laws.

I’d just as soon see us stay at the status quo with the immigration situation

Making it easier to legally immigrate should be part of any solution to the illegal immigration problem.

A “tall fence with a wide gate,” (to quote Thomas Friedman) is what I favor.

The war against illegal plunder has been fought since the beginning of the world. But how is… legal plunder to be identified? Quite simply. See if the law takes from some persons what belongs to them, and gives it to other persons to whom it does not belong. See if the law benefits one citizen at the expense of another by doing what the citizen himself cannot do without committing a crime. Then abolish this law without delay … If such a law is not abolished immediately it will spread, multiply and develop into a system.

Frédéric Bastiat, The Law

Rob’s recently listened-to songs:

It will be made easier, just not right now.
We need workers.

Only easy ways in at this time is to be a Cuban refugee ( necessitates getting off the island) or have a million dollars to buy or start a business that employs 10 Americans.

Rob: After the border is locked down and order is restored, why not let the market decide how wide the gate is to be?  That might change as conditions change, as well.  I can see a time when we have enough workers, and the gate might be closed again until there is a need on this side.  It should be up to us, not them.

Woof: I would agree with you if you said we need good workers, not necessarily ones who don’t know how our system works, and who don’t aspire to become upwardly mobile and increasingly productive.