The United States of America is a nation built by immigrants.
Native Americans were here first, of course, but the actual foundation of our country was built by those who emigrated from the motherland in an effort to build a better life.
This is not a disputable fact, one which President Donald Trump himself would find difficulty arguing against.
Thus, it gives me great consternation that all across America on Thursday, businesses and schools closed down as immigrants — and many of their supporters — chose to stay home in a national “day without immigrants” protest.
What? Why? What exactly are we protesting here?
“From doctors to dishwashers, immigrants are integral to daily life in the U.S.,” said one person via Twitter, as reported by USA Today.
Many other protesters are speaking out against President Trump and in favor of their “immigrant brothers and sisters.”
And I’m left scratching my head asking, “Do you even realize what you’re protesting against?”
The issue is not with immigration. It’s with illegal immigration.
If immigrants crossed the border illegally and are undocumented residents, they should not be rewarded for that behavior and should not be allowed to stay.
Get back across the border to your homeland and restart the process legally.
Why is that a hard concept to understand? We play by the rules in this country, and if you break them, you’re punished — whether you are a legal, documented citizen or not.
As for the travel “ban” against aliens from select countries … ban was probably the wrong word to use because that implies some kind of indefinite, extended law.
The executive order that Trump signed, which was shot down by the courts, called for a limited “moratorium” on accepting citizens and refugees from select terrorist-infused nations.
A 90-day “ban” for citizens of those terrorist-infused nations and a 120-day “ban” for refugees.
Refugees from Syria were to be indefinitely “banned” until a time when that hotbed of terrorism and instability became stabilized.
Suddenly, Americans feel the need to stand up for the rights of these refugees over a temporary ruling to help secure our borders and keep our citizens safe.
That’s a concept that will never make sense.
If you don’t protect your house and those dwelling within its walls, you cease to have a safe place to call home in the first place.
The first duty of a United States President is to keep our country safe, and when our President feels we need tighter borders so we can gain a better understanding of who is entering our country — whether it be a sincere immigrant looking for a better life or an ISIS terrorist posing as a refugee in order to gain access to our country — it is silly to worry about the rights of foreigners before we worry about the safety of Americans.
I feel like the common expression “safety first” is lost upon all these protesters who want to open our borders to anyone and everyone. Perhaps it was never taught to them growing up…?
But I digress. Back to the main point of this post…
Immigration is something our country prides itself on and President Trump never said he wants to close our borders and never let anybody in.
No, he said he wanted to secure our borders, deport the illegals who broke our rules and make them play by the same set of rules as those entering legally.
If you can’t agree with that simple principle of abiding by a set of rules, then you have little concept of morality — right vs. wrong, legal vs. illegal, lawful vs. unlawful, and common sense vs. naïveté.