(Like a FAQ, only not quite)
No one is illegal. The people you call illegal are human beings, whose only crime was being born on the wrong side of a border: A border that was created as a result of an unjust war. When they become desperate, and unable to support their families, they will do what any of you would do, which is look for opportunity elsewhere. Ask yourself, if you were living in a nation where there was very little opportunity, and you knew that by going to the country right next door you might make your life and the lives of your children better, wouldn’t you do it? Wouldn’t any good parent do that? To say no is to say that people should suffer because of circumstances that are beyond their control. Is that really what you want your country to be about? - Tim Wise
Here are a few resources to get you started:
The ridiculously lengthy process to getting citizenship
Once one is able to get to the citizenship test (which is filled with things that I sincerely doubt the majority of US citizens even know), there are many problems with the test itself.
And acquiring citizenship isn’t easy. It’s expensive. In fact, one can apply for citizenship, pay the fees, and then be denied citizenship. For many people, finding the money to pay those fees isn’t worth the chance that they will be denied citizenship.
Re. undocumented immigrants and welfare:
One of the most common misconceptions about undocumented persons is that they abuse welfare. What no one seems to understand is that, in order to be eligible for welfare, one must be a US citizen and must provide a US social security number… and, in many cases, the citizenship status of everyone living in that person’s household is taken into account. The occasional undocumented person is able to receive welfare in order to support their children (the children are eligible for health assistance programs, etc.), but even this is problematic, as one has to be either working, actively looking for work, or have a child under 12 months in order to qualify for welfare (so the children qualify for some benefits, but undocumented persons do not because they cannot get legal work in the US without a visa). In fact, a 2007 analysis of welfare data (conducted by the Urban Institute) showed that less than 1% of households headed by undocumented immigrants received welfare cash assistance, while 5% of households headed by US citizens received cash assistance. While these numbers might seem fairly close, realize that there are approximately 11million undocumented immigrants, and only about 8.5million of those are Hispanic/Latin American… and there are 308million US citizens. Average family size for US citizens is just over 3. That’s approximately 5.1million US families on welfare cash assistance, and (assuming Hispanic/Latin American undocumented families are similarly sized) approximately 28thousand undocumented Hispanic/Latin American households receive welfare cash benefits (and approximately 36.5thousand undocumented families total).
Undocumented immigrants and voting:
The National Voter Registration Act states simply that voting is a right granted to citizens of the United States (and that the law cannot discriminate based on sex/gender/race/etc.). To quote the “General Instructions” portion of the government-run voting registration webpage, “All States require that you be a United States citizen by birth or naturalization to register to vote in federal and State elections.”
Undocumented immigrants and jobs:
recap: undocumented immigrants tend to get US jobs because they are paid under-the-table for less than minimum wage. I’m sure these people don’t care about human rights issues whatsoever, but that means that undocumented immigrants working in the United States make nowhere near enough to feed a family. If these people were given citizenship/working visas, they would be able to apply for the same jobs that US citizens apply for, and the competition would be based entirely off of merit, rather than who can be paid less.
And the border wall is an environmental nightmare, and stops people and animals who tend to migrate.
A reminder of the human aspect of undocumented immigration and the reasons people come to the US
*NEW* Undocumented persons and taxes
While only 5 percent of undocumented workers file federal income tax returns according to the Mexican Migration Project (MMP), a much larger percentage have taxes withheld from their paychecks. Of the roughly 2,100 undocumented workers surveyed by the MMP, as much as two-thirds report having had federal income taxes withheld from 1997-2002. Other, more conservative studies estimate that about half of undocumented workers have income taxes withheld from their paychecks. It is unclear whether the employers deliver the withheld taxes to the government or are simply pocketing the money. Since very few undocumented workers file income tax returns to obtain a refund, effectively these workers are paying taxes at a higher marginal rate than US citizens.
*NEW* Undocumented students and financial aid
Undocumented students are not eligible for financial aid. You know the FAFSA? Undocumented students can’t fill that out. Undocumented students also cannot receive grants for low income families, cannot receive government subsidized loans, and cannot get federal work study.
In a few states, undocumented students are eligible for in state tuition based on how long they attended high school in that state. This has absolutely no impact on anyone else’s ability to receive in state tuition and/or scholarships.
Denying scholarships to students of any background is simply not a pragmatic thing to do. Higher levels of education in a society increase tax revenues and, as a general rule, decrease government spending on health care, welfare, and law enforcement. Finding ways to educate everyone means that your tax dollars can find their way back into the education system instead of finding their way to the people that you demanded that we refuse to educate.
If you got shit scholarships, it’s because the people who designed the fafsa did so in a way that fucks most of us over. Blaming other people for the government’s idea that your family can pay twice what they actually can pay… or blaming other people because your grades/scores/extracurriculars/life story/whatever didn’t get you scholarships is naive and it is pathetic.
And, you know, private donors can give scholarships to whoever they damn well please. If you’re pissy because some awesome scholarship is reserved for someone as specific as, say… an undocumented, disabled, queer person - or even just someone as specific as an undocumented student who is struggling to make a better future for themselves and their family (but can’t because xenophobes) then you just seriously need to sit the fuck down and get over yourself.
Nearly everyone is struggling right now, and blaming people who have nothing to do with the current state of the economy (which is, you know, why you got shit scholarships at that in state public school) demonstrates an incredible ignorance for the way the world works and really makes me wonder if you’re even ready for higher education. Critical thinking should be key to a post high school education, and you clearly have not reached that point thus far.
