Were you born on this side of the line?

I have some thoughts on my freshmen stories that I'll share tomorrow, but first I wanted to get something off my chest.

I never post on politics. I don't want endless wars about political issues here. But I just read something that really chaps my hide and I want to say this one thing this one time and move on.

I just read a metaphor that compared illegal immigrants to some guy who breaks into your house and cleans your carpets and then demands to stay.

Faulty metaphor.

I don't own America and I'm not the only one living here and new people come in legally every day.

It's more like some guy breaks into a hotel then pays the nightly rent and keeps the place clean but doesn't pay for the porno movies.

Most of my students are Americans. They were born here, they grew up here and they speak English just fine. They work hard, they have dreams of going to college and getting good jobs and living like the kids in Beverly Hills just like any other American kid. And most of their parents sneaked across the border illegally. Most of them pay taxes.

I've read the stories they tell about their parents. The amount of sacrifice they were willing to go through to give their kids a better life is insane. The place they come from is a mess. And if you were in their shoes you would have made the exact same decision they did. Watch Maria Full of Grace. Would you go back?

Some of my kids have parents from different countries. Some of them have never been to Mexico. Where are we planning on sending them if we decide to deport their parents? They are not Mexican. They're American. They love this country just like any other American kid. Sometimes more because they know about the alternatives.

They're not all perfect. The gang problem has grown, but the best way to fix that is not to write them off; it's to educate them. And the best way to prevent them from coming here is to give them something to live for on the other side of the line. You know, infrastructure? The kind we're supposed to be building in Iraq where they don't want us? Imagine how much we could impact our own illegal immigrant problem if we put half as much energy and funding into Mexican business and agriculture as we have into the Middle East.

We're all the children of immigrants. My grandmother came over here from England long ago. She had a piece of paper saying it's okay for her to be here; does that make her more deserving? Or is it because she's white? Or that English is her native language? Or that she had money?

This was supposed to be a country of hope. "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to be free," remember? Or did that only apply to your ancestors?