Blue team: Immigrants not from outer space

By Cassidy Whitaker, Blue Team

The prospect of the path to citizenship for immigrants became a bit brighter this past week.

With large support of the Senate, legislation was created that would give citizenship to the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants and prevent devastating deportation that breaks up these millions of families. The next battle: the House’s vote on this issue.  

The bill passed with a vote of 68-32, demonstrating the strong support and hope Americans have for a bright, diverse future in our country. The House needs to recognize that our times are changing right before our eyes, and this country is ready to enforce these changes.

Legalizing the millions of immigrants that are virtually in the shadows will put these millions of people on our companies’ payrolls, therefore ensuring that they pay taxes. With the ample amount of tax dollars our government will be receiving, a stronger, more stable economy will develop.

If 11 billion people that were basically in the shadows until now become accounted for in our country, becoming active, tax paying, law-abiding citizens, the hope is that the creation of jobs will flourish. These people that were once illegal, but are now active and accounted for, will be inspired to create business and contribute to the betterment and growth of our economy.

The counter-argument to this issue is that our current border security is weak and needs to be strengthened. Our borders do need to be strengthened, not to prevent people from coming into our country, but to create a coherent, organized system for people from other countries to be able to easily gain citizenship in this great nation.

The bottom line is that we are talking about people. Actual, living, breathing, soul-bearing people. We are not dealing with animals or extra-terrestrials, just people.

“Too often we speak of 'The Illegals' as if they were not actually human, or comprised of actual human beings, but rather a nameless, faceless group of people who are anonymous to us.” This quote is from a man named Jim from Arizona, who commented on an article from the New York Times about the Senate’s pass for immigration reform.

This quote speaks louder than any vote from the House or the Senate about what is truly at stake.