Way To Go, Georgia!

Way to go, Georgia! (The US State, not that place in Russia.) According to the Huffington Post, you guys have a new immigration law! Nice job! From what I can tell, HB 87 (other wise known as either "common sense" or "it's about damn time")"...many businesses will have to check an employee’s ability to work, and it is a felony to falsify documents to try to get around the system." All right then. Well, considering that they're not supposed to be in this country in the first place and their having a job is technically taking that job away from someone who is a legal citizen, that seems reasonable. To me. Do you think it sounds reasonable to everyone who is currently breaking the law by being in this country illegally? Of course not. Let's hear some of the ludicrous arguments that some people are putting forth as some sort of twisted gospel.

There's a one 13-year old Jessica Bamaca. Apparently, Jessica was born here and because we have some outdated law (that was originally intended to apply to slaves) on the matter, she gets to be a citizen even though her "mother and sister are from Guatamala". Hmm. No word on where the father is. Oh, let me guess. Not in the picture? The article doesn't say (because the media sucks), but I'm going to go with that. Jessica is afraid her mom and sister will be deported. She said, "I would be here by myself." Now, listen. I don't know about you, but if I have a 13-year old kid and I get deported back to Guatemala, guess what? My kid's coming with me! Who are these people that act like they'd leave their kid(s) behind if they got booted back to where they came from? I don't get that.

You know what else I don't get? People like the executive director of the Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights, a one Adelina Nicholls. She says, "We need immigration reform, and no HB87 is going to stop us. We have earned the right to be here." Umm...wait. Are you here illegally? If so, then no. You haven't "earned" the right to be here. Had you gone through the process legally and done all of that and actually BECAME a citizen, then yes. Then you would have "earned" the right to be here. But just showing up one day? Yeah, that doesn't count. (Wow. With such flawed logic like that, I'm really glad that Ms. Nicholls was able to find work. There's not a lot of employment opportunity out there for the delusional.)

Speaking of delusional, let's hear from a one Azadeh Shahshahani (pronounce that however you'd like) of the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia. She said, "I think it's going to have an impact...Unfortunately, the damage has already been done as far as people of color having second thoughts about moving to Georgia." Finally. Someone who speaks fifty percent of the truth. I think it's going to have an impact as well, so she got that right. As far as "people of color having second thoughts about moving to Georgia"? I don't think that's true. Illegal people of color might think twice about it. In fact, I hope that they do. But I don't think that people of color in general are going to be contemplating this. This isn't a racist thing, Ms. Unpronounceable! Stop using terms like "people of color" as if this has something to do with race. It. Does. Not.

No other country in the world lets people just walk right on in and freaking live there and reap all of the benefits of being in that country. And the other countries don't need individual laws to enforce that mindset, either. No, they're smart enough to understand what not having a comprehensive and enforced immigration policy will do to a nation in the long run. AND that matters to them. Do I need to remind you of that Gallup Poll from a couple of weeks ago that found out that NINETY THREE percent of people polled thought that something needed to be done about illegal immigration?! You can't get ninety three percent of people to agree on anything. But folks sure came together against illegal immigration, didn't they? They sure did. Way to go, Georgia! Keep it up!

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