Recently a group of individuals, including Mark Zuckerberg, appealed to Congress over immigration reform. Zuckerberg's issue? He and other internet and computer oriented companies need an influx of foreign born, tech savvy individuals to work in the United States. First, are home-grown techies pure chump change? Second, does he not understand there is a legal immigration system in place already?
Let's say a real estate agency has ten one-million-dollar homes for sale. Saying you want second story men forgiven for their crimes so they can steal enough to buy those homes is indefensible, is it not? Well, saying forgive undocumented workers for illegally immigrating to the United States when we have a legal immigration system in place is much the same principle -- or lack of principle.
Zuckerberg has some other alternatives available to him. For instance, he can put some (or possibly some more) of his big bucks into scholarships for training home-grown citizens who show a gift for computer science. We have many Americans who cannot afford college these days. Some of them have interests and skills that our technical/computer/internet companies could mine instead of lobbying for illegals to be allowed to become documented.
If America truly has no capable candidates for the jobs, Zuckerberg can do an international search for suitable individuals and encourage them to follow a legal immigration path to citizenship.
It is not necessary to continually forgive individuals for breaking our laws -- not even because a handful of them might have skills which the United States is not developing to the fullest. We already have too many workers to fill most available jobs.
Perhaps Zuckerberg's worry is for those President Obama has already addressed in his concern for children brought here at a young age. If so, rather than complaining that they are undocumented, they can follow the steps outlined by the President's executive order and become lawful citizens through that path.
It is simply time to stop forgiving illegal entry into this country. We can welcome those who enter legally instead.
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