Illegal immigration and Disease

[Silais]

https://www.abc15.com/news/national/immigrants-bringing-diseases-across-border

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/08/01/unaccompanied-illegal-immigrant-kids-exposed-federal-agents-to-lice-scabies/

https://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2014/07/09/border-protester-on-illegal-immigrants-these-children-bring-in-diseases-that-we-eradicated-decades-ago/

Just a few articles outlining this problem.

What do you think of the recent outbreak of communicable diseases being brought into the United States via illegal immigrants? Do you believe we can stop it? From the looks of things, the sheer number of infected individuals has made it incredibly difficult to curb illness in border officials and regular American citizens.

 

[Tek]

https://www.abc15.com/news/national/immigrants-bringing-diseases-across-border

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/08/01/unaccompanied-illegal-immigrant-kids-exposed-federal-agents-to-lice-scabies/

https://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2014/07/09/border-protester-on-illegal-immigrants-these-children-bring-in-diseases-that-we-eradicated-decades-ago/

Just a few articles outlining this problem.

What do you think of the recent outbreak of communicable diseases being brought into the United States via illegal immigrants? Do you believe we can stop it? From the looks of things, the sheer number of infected individuals has made it incredibly difficult to curb illness in border officials and regular American citizens.

First of all, I haven't read any of these articles.

But just looking at the sources: fox, cbs, abc... I recommend you start listening to something other than the entertainment shows that pass for news these days. These people may very well be bringing diseases with them. But that's far from the whole story, or even the most important part of the story.

If you learn the environment from which these people are coming, the horrors they endure on the way to the Golden Promise they believe the US to be, you will see what I mean. ♥♥♥♥ is absolutely insane in Central America today.

Now maybe you personally aren't against migrants moving in, maybe you are. But what I see coming from these institutions is an obvious political move to make these suffering human beings into the enemy. Such things make me literally sick.

I will retire for a bit to calm down and discuss this in a level-headed manner.

 

[NyxShooter]

I do have to agree with Tek that these sources aren't the most credible... Sorry to say so, however most of these are heavily American biased. I cannot help but imagine Bill O' Reily stating this topic, as it sounds... hard to believe. Immigrants have literally been coming to the United States since it was first founded and prior. America is a MELTING POT everyone is an immigrant, but who's to say illegal or not? I mean when the white men first came and started peaceful trade, no one gave a rats as* on whether these guys were illegal or not. These immigrants did bring viruses albeit.

Back to my point, America is literally a country based upon different immigrants. The only Native American, are the ones which are kept in reserves. Most Americans you see on the streets come from a European background, albeit a few centuries ago, but it's still there. This isn't the first time diseases have been brought to the America's and believe me it certainly wont be the last.

 

[Livewire]

The only instances of disease I'm really worried about in this country are the preventable ones brought on by the idiots of the anti-vaccination movement, and that's much more of a problem than outbreaks along the border due to poor living conditions. It's a problem I'm sure, but it wouldn't be one if the House figured out a plan of action about immigration and the border.

 

[OmegaRuby and AlphaSapphire]

The only instances of disease I'm really worried about in this country are the preventable ones brought on by the idiots of the anti-vaccination movement, and that's much more of a problem than outbreaks along the border due to poor living conditions. It's a problem I'm sure, but it wouldn't be one if the House figured out a plan of action about immigration and the border.

The Senate hasn't done a great job either. I feel the best chance to have gotten anything done was around the end of Bush's second term and the beginning of Obama's first term. From here on I don't see immigration reform being passed. At least not until 2016, if ever...

As for disease, it would be easier to treat those with disease coming in if they could come in at a checkpoint. Think of how Ebola is currently being screened at airports. Something like that could be done at such check points. If it's a disease that medicine here in the states can treat easily it'll not only help us but them as well.

 

[Livewire]

The Senate hasn't done a great job either. I feel the best chance to have gotten anything done was around the end of Bush's second term and the beginning of Obama's first term. From here on I don't see immigration reform being passed. At least not until 2016, if ever...

As for disease, it would be easier to treat those with disease coming in if they could come in at a checkpoint. Think of how Ebola is currently being screened at airports. Something like that could be done at such check points. If it's a disease that medicine here in the states can treat easily it'll not only help us but them as well.

Uhh well that's because the immigration bill was in the House, so the Senate is irrelevant until they pass a version of it, because the GOP couldn't get the bill through even with a majority.

 

[OmegaRuby and AlphaSapphire]

Uhh well that's because the immigration bill was in the House, so the Senate is irrelevant until they pass a version of it, because the GOP couldn't get the bill through even with a majority.

Not sure if one can blame the GOP entirely, considering even when the Democrats had a majority in both chambers they couldn't get an immigration bill passed, not even during the Bush years which compared to now were less politically polarized.

 

[Livewire]

Not sure if one can blame the GOP entirely, considering even when the Democrats had a majority in both chambers they couldn't get an immigration bill passed, not even during the Bush years which compared to now were less politically polarized.

It's not that they couldn't, they just didn't. From '09 to '10 they focused on healthcare, jobs and whatnot, they never attempted to get immigration done during Obama's first term. Blame is soley on the House of Representatives and the Speaker's inability to control his own caucus.

 

[OmegaRuby and AlphaSapphire]

It's not that they couldn't, they just didn't. From '09 to '10 they focused on healthcare, jobs and whatnot, they never attempted to get immigration done during Obama's first term. Blame is soley on the House of Representatives and the Speaker's inability to control his own caucus.

I meant from 2006-2008 too. I recall they tried to pass something around 2006-2007, but nothing made it all the way, some were close though.
Though the speaker does share the blame for the current issues at passing a bill.


Though even if something does pass we don't know if it'll fix things in the long run. The last immigration reform was in 1986. At the time people thought it would help fix the broken system in the long run, but it didn't. In two decade or so we could be facing the same problems in the long run. I think that one has to take care of the push factors, pushing the emigrants (using the exiting term here) from their countries into the US to fix things in the long run.

 

[CoffeeDrink]

I believe in the more monetary issues. If they come over here and have their kids, those kids are now leeching on us like tapeworms. If your neighbor asked you to raise their kid until they were old enough (18), you'd undoubtedly say no. What I say: No, we will not take care of your medical issues, as we cannot afford to fix ourselves. No, we will not take care of your kids for you, as we can barely raise the ones we already have. Stay where you are, we don't need you to feed off of us like some parasite.

Saying that this is not the case is rather foolish and naive. Not all of the illegals jumping the border are running from a cartel or fleeing their country out of fear. They're coming here because they believe they are entitled to drain our pocket books. I'm not saying that these people are inherently devious, but they are carving out their living using our money. We all know how kids are made, if you can't afford them, you shouldn't have them. Use protection.

Berlin had a better wall. . .

 

[Silais]

I believe in the more monetary issues. If they come over here and have their kids, those kids are now leeching on us like tapeworms. If your neighbor asked you to raise their kid until they were old enough (18), you'd undoubtedly say no. What I say: No, we will not take care of your medical issues, as we cannot afford to fix ourselves. No, we will not take care of your kids for you, as we can barely raise the ones we already have. Stay where you are, we don't need you to feed off of us like some parasite.

Saying that this is not the case is rather foolish and naive. Not all of the illegals jumping the border are running from a cartel or fleeing their country out of fear. They're coming here because they believe they are entitled to drain our pocket books. I'm not saying that these people are inherently devious, but they are carving out their living using our money. We all know how kids are made, if you can't afford them, you shouldn't have them. Use protection.

Berlin had a better wall. . .

Maybe I'm a bad person, but I think this is the root of the problem when it comes to discussing illegal immigration in the United States. We have one of the most lax borders in the modern world. Despite all of the money and resources we dedicate towards preventing illegal immigration, we still allow more people to cross our borders than any other first world country. Our government does not take this issue serious enough, and, to be honest, I think it has to do with voting populations and the balance of power. Who is more likely to vote Democrat? Probably those who agree with their laxer beliefs. And I'm a Democrat myself; despite this, I can see the problems with illegal immigration, and I think it comes from experiencing it and watching it happen for over a decade.

While many of these people are fleeing violence, it would be moronic to assume all of them are looking to escape the same. Thousands upon thousands of these people already have families living here; it's a matter of keeping the family together. Some want to earn money to send back to their families in their own country. There are dozens of reasons why people immigrate illegally to this country, and the typical sob story of how their homeland is too "violent" for them does not hold up in all cases.

I see a huge problem with the sense of entitlement a lot of these people display when coming to and living in the United States. They've trampled over those who are going through the citizenship process legally, yet many of them feel as if by simply crossing the border they deserve to be a citizen and receive all of the same benefits natural-born Americans enjoy. Breaking the law, in my opinion, does not constitute a reward. As I said before, some illegal immigrants come here to escape violence and make their lives better; but can we really, logically, assume that all of them are?

I'm a bit tired of the "everyone in America is an immigrant" argument, and especially tired of it being used as an excuse for why it should be okay for undocumented people to cross the borders of an established nation. If truth be told, nearly ALL human beings are immigrants; if you believe in evolution, the first humans originated from somewhere within the African continent, or what the continent used to be thousands of years ago. So every Asian, European, Australian, American, etc. can be considered an immigrant due to someone in their family tree. Is that a viable excuse for me transgressing the borders of your country? Should it be considered okay for me to break and trample upon the laws you and your people set for yourselves? Does that make it acceptable for me to waste your money and resources, when you barely have enough to support your own people?

We are all human beings, but at what point do we say "enough is enough"? At what point do we realize that we can barely take care of the medical needs of our own citizens? At what point do we realize that we barely pay our people enough to get by? At what point do we realize we cannot babysit other nations' people? We need to focus on ourselves. It may seem "cruel", but we can't all be bleeding hearts. At some point, we have to put our OWN people first.

 

[Oryx]

We are all human beings, but at what point do we say "enough is enough"? At what point do we realize that we can barely take care of the medical needs of our own citizens? At what point do we realize that we barely pay our people enough to get by? At what point do we realize we cannot babysit other nations' people? We need to focus on ourselves. It may seem "cruel", but we can't all be bleeding hearts. At some point, we have to put our OWN people first.

It's not that we can't take care of our own medical needs, it's that we won't. We are literally the richest country in the world. But our wealth is tied up in massive companies and 100 people with 1bil+ dollars each, while the rest of us struggle to get by and while people die because they can't afford medical treatment. It's inherent in the way we set up our country that we will never be able to take care of our citizens, because those with a lot of money are not required to give any significant help to the people without medical assistance because FREEDOM and MURRICA. This problem is on the scale of the hundred millions; adding a few thousand immigrants won't change anything.

 

[Silais]

It's not that we can't take care of our own medical needs, it's that we won't. We are literally the richest country in the world. But our wealth is tied up in massive companies and 100 people with 1bil+ dollars each, while the rest of us struggle to get by and while people die because they can't afford medical treatment. It's inherent in the way we set up our country that we will never be able to take care of our citizens, because those with a lot of money are not required to give any significant help to the people without medical assistance because FREEDOM and MURRICA. This problem is on the scale of the hundred millions; adding a few thousand immigrants won't change anything.

Saying a few thousand immigrants won't change the state of our healthcare system is like saying a few thousand dead civilians in a war doesn't make any difference. Every person who strains the system is making it more and more difficult for everyone else. Sure, it may be a minute difference at first, but it adds up over time. The more we ignore the problem, the larger it becomes.

I agree that our democracy, our government, and our wealth are all tied up in politics and the games the rich play atop their mountains of wealth. That is an issue we need to work on. It would be much easier if we as a nation focused on the people instead of the wealthy elite. Still, it's not unreasonable for the American people to want to care for their own ahead of those who are here illegally.

 

[Oryx]

Saying a few thousand immigrants won't change the state of our healthcare system is like saying a few thousand dead civilians in a war doesn't make any difference. Every person who strains the system is making it more and more difficult for everyone else. Sure, it may be a minute difference at first, but it adds up over time. The more we ignore the problem, the larger it becomes.

I agree that our democracy, our government, and our wealth are all tied up in politics and the games the rich play atop their mountains of wealth. That is an issue we need to work on. It would be much easier if we as a nation focused on the people instead of the wealthy elite. Still, it's not unreasonable for the American people to want to care for their own ahead of those who are here illegally.

The difference between those two statements is one is saying "a few thousand dead people don't matter, so let's not worry about them dying" and the other is saying "a few thousand more people doesn't matter, so let's be sympathetic and help them live". There is really no comparison at all; one is saying we shouldn't care about people losing their lives, the other is saying we should help people stay alive by allowing them inside our borders. Literally the opposite.

Why do you consider Americans more worthy of help than immigrants? That's some weird twisted patriotism - if they're American they deserve help, but if they're not they deserve to die in their home countries? MURRICA I guess.

It's not like America is overpopulated. The only reason these immigrants use the system without giving back is because we won't let them give back because we won't let them legally immigrate.

 

[Silais]

The difference between those two statements is one is saying "a few thousand dead people don't matter, so let's not worry about them dying" and the other is saying "a few thousand more people doesn't matter, so let's be sympathetic and help them live". There is really no comparison at all; one is saying we shouldn't care about people losing their lives, the other is saying we should help people stay alive by allowing them inside our borders. Literally the opposite.

Why do you consider Americans more worthy of help than immigrants? That's some weird twisted patriotism - if they're American they deserve help, but if they're not they deserve to die in their home countries? MURRICA I guess.

It's not like America is overpopulated. The only reason these immigrants use the system without giving back is because we won't let them give back because we won't let them legally immigrate.

Let me explain it this way; if you had to choose between helping a member of your family or an outsider, who would you be more likely to help? We as American citizens have a duty to protect and help one another; in a way, we are one large family. How would you feel if an outsider, from a foreign place, with foreign beliefs and laws, tried to push their way into your family circle, use your resources, and demand equal treatment simply because they managed to force their way into your personal sphere?

I did not say our immigration and citizenship process is not ridiculously difficult or laborious. What I am saying is that the sense of entitlement, the sense of "I deserve to be an American citizen" without attempting to go through any sort of legalization process because it's "too difficult" is not acceptable to me, especially when there are thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, of foreigners who are willing to go through that process. It is no longer acceptable to plant your roots in someone else's garden without any sort of compensation, agreement or compromise.

The United States is not a giant babysitter. Why should we fix the problems of another country for them? Perhaps I'm old fashioned, but I am one of those people who believes being the "world's personal police force" is detrimental to the United States. When we preach the message that "everyone can count on US to save them" we attract people we cannot take care of to our borders. Like I said, we cannot be bleeding hearts. We can cast our sympathies on these people, but taking them in when our system is broken as it is will help neither Americans nor immigrants.

 

[Oryx]

Let me explain it this way; if you had to choose between helping a member of your family or an outsider, who would you be more likely to help? We as American citizens have a duty to protect and help one another; in a way, we are one large family. How would you feel if an outsider, from a foreign place, with foreign beliefs and laws, tried to push their way into your family circle, use your resources, and demand equal treatment simply because they managed to force their way into your personal sphere?

Americans are not my family. You are not my family. Jared Smith and his wife and 4 kids over in San Francisco are not my family. I help my family because my family has proven to care about me and will appreciate the help and I want them in my life. I do not care any more about American strangers than I do about Mexican strangers. The fact that you do just really hammers home the twisted patriotism. Even more so as you repeatedly use "FOREIGN FOREIGN FOREIGN" to try to scare people. What is foreign? Not what I'm used to? I'm not used to the culture in rural America, the deep south, California, not to mention all the little pockets of ethnic culture in the United States, so they must be foreign too. Show me someone with "foreign beliefs" and I'll show you an American with those same beliefs. So what is a foreign belief?

I did not say our immigration and citizenship process is not ridiculously difficult or laborious. What I am saying is that the sense of entitlement, the sense of "I deserve to be an American citizen" without attempting to go through any sort of legalization process because it's "too difficult" is not acceptable to me, especially when there are thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, of foreigners who are willing to go through that process. It is no longer acceptable to plant your roots in someone else's garden without any sort of compensation, agreement or compromise.

The United States is not a giant babysitter. Why should we fix the problems of another country for them? Perhaps I'm old fashioned, but I am one of those people who believes being the "world's personal police force" is detrimental to the United States. When we preach the message that "everyone can count on US to save them" we attract people we cannot take care of to our borders. Like I said, we cannot be bleeding hearts. We can cast our sympathies on these people, but taking them in when our system is broken as it is will help neither Americans nor immigrants.

Why are you equating police force with refuge? Believing America shouldn't be the world's police force means you think we shouldn't use our armies to force certain values on other countries. It has literally zero to do with helping those that are hurt and come to the US to escape that pain.

The real entitlement here is you looking at people trying to get help and saying "you don't deserve to be an American citizen like me. Why don't you go start the decade-long immigration process back in your home country, hope you don't get killed by a stray bomb while you wait!"

e: Actually maybe your form of patriotism isn't twisted, maybe patriotism is inherently twisted. Probably more likely.

 

[Tek]

e: Actually maybe your form of patriotism isn't twisted, maybe patriotism is inherently twisted. Probably more likely.

Ethnocentrism is not twisted. It's a necessary step on the way to worldcentric. Definitions of terms are as follows.


Ethnocentric: putting the well-being of people within your in-group above "outsiders". In-groups can be anything from your blood-relations, to people from your hometown, to people from your region or country.


Worldcentric: an absence of in-groups. All people, whether you have met them or even share anything in common with them aside from the human stuggle, are equally worthy of care.


I cannot say more strongly that neither of these are evil. They have different depth, obviously. But both can be either healthy or unhealthy. And again, developmental research indicates that people must live through an ethnocentric stage (think high-school cliques) to reach a worldcentric stage (think the open-heartedness of the average college student).


Furthermore, all developmental stages have enduring and unique contributions to a person and to humanity. Which I can elaborate on, if necessary.

 

[Silais]

Americans are not my family. You are not my family. Jared Smith and his wife and 4 kids over in San Francisco are not my family. I help my family because my family has proven to care about me and will appreciate the help and I want them in my life. I do not care any more about American strangers than I do about Mexican strangers. The fact that you do just really hammers home the twisted patriotism. Even more so as you repeatedly use "FOREIGN FOREIGN FOREIGN" to try to scare people. What is foreign? Not what I'm used to? I'm not used to the culture in rural America, the deep south, California, not to mention all the little pockets of ethnic culture in the United States, so they must be foreign too. Show me someone with "foreign beliefs" and I'll show you an American with those same beliefs. So what is a foreign belief?

Why are you equating police force with refuge? Believing America shouldn't be the world's police force means you think we shouldn't use our armies to force certain values on other countries. It has literally zero to do with helping those that are hurt and come to the US to escape that pain.

The real entitlement here is you looking at people trying to get help and saying "you don't deserve to be an American citizen like me. Why don't you go start the decade-long immigration process back in your home country, hope you don't get killed by a stray bomb while you wait!"

e: Actually maybe your form of patriotism isn't twisted, maybe patriotism is inherently twisted. Probably more likely.

It's definitely news to me that being patriotic, caring about the state of your country, and wanting to help the people within it is now considered twisted.

If you go through the legal process and become an American citizen the correct way, I have no problem with what country you came from, what your religious beliefs are, what color your skin is. If you truly want to live here, prosper here, exist here and make a life for yourself here because you truly believe the United States is YOUR home, you ARE my family. But if you break our laws, cross the borders without caring about the consequences, bring with you an anti-American sentiment or a sense of entitlement, then no, I do not consider those people my family. I have never denied, nor will I ever deny, that these people are human beings. And I most certainly do not believe they deserve to die, starve, or suffer. Let's get that cleared up right now.

Those who truly want to live in America, those that are willing to sacrifice some of their culture to adopt our own complicated and diverse culture, deserve to be here.They may dress in their native garb, speak their native tongue within the home, follow their own set of religious beliefs. But they are Americans. You are right; America is a myriad of different cultures, ethnicities, languages, etc. That does not mean these people are foreign. Maybe that distinction is unique to my line of thinking, but when I think of a person from India who has lived here in the United States for two or more generations, I do not think of them or their family as foreign, even if they speak a different primary language. Nor do I think of a person from Mexico who just recently received legal citizenship as a foreigner. There is something inherently "American" about them per se; they have a certain mindset, a desire to change and become a true member of our society. That is different from the mindset of an illegal immigrant who may chance crossing the border to make a few dollars to return home with.

(Please note that I am not saying all illegal immigrants act this way; some of them come to escape violence. But as I've said before, to assume ALL or MOST of them are coming to the United States to escape violence is an obvious overstatement.)

Maybe I'm crazy, but my idea of "family" extends beyond my blood relatives. The people of my community here in South Dakota mean a lot to me, and participating in my community gives me a sense of well-being and happiness. If you do not care about your fellow citizens any more than foreigners, do you not donate blood, if you are eligible? Do you not donate to non-profits, volunteer in your local community? Maybe I'm misunderstanding you. To me, caring about the people within your country is important. If we all had a "who gives a crap?" attitude towards one another, I think the country would be in quite a sorry state.

Do you not believe the United States has a right to dictate how its borders operate? Do you believe that we should not be able to legislate the number of immigrants that come into this country as we choose? If it's a sense of entitlement to believe there should be some sort of process to become a citizen, then I suppose I am entitled. As I said said previously, I think our current process is egregious and ridiculous in length, and to be honest I do believe it should be easier and take less time; but just because it's rigorous does not mean we should get rid of it altogether. The "it's too hard so I'm just going to cheat" argument does not sound too appealing to me.

 

[Oryx]

It's definitely news to me that being patriotic, caring about the state of your country, and wanting to help the people within it is now considered twisted.

If you go through the legal process and become an American citizen the correct way, I have no problem with what country you came from, what your religious beliefs are, what color your skin is. If you truly want to live here, prosper here, exist here and make a life for yourself here because you truly believe the United States is YOUR home, you ARE my family. But if you break our laws, cross the borders without caring about the consequences, bring with you an anti-American sentiment or a sense of entitlement, then no, I do not consider those people my family. I have never denied, nor will I ever deny, that these people are human beings. And I most certainly do not believe they deserve to die, starve, or suffer. Let's get that cleared up right now.

Those who truly want to live in America, those that are willing to sacrifice some of their culture to adopt our own complicated and diverse culture, deserve to be here.They may dress in their native garb, speak their native tongue within the home, follow their own set of religious beliefs. But they are Americans. You are right; America is a myriad of different cultures, ethnicities, languages, etc. That does not mean these people are foreign. Maybe that distinction is unique to my line of thinking, but when I think of a person from India who has lived here in the United States for two or more generations, I do not think of them or their family as foreign, even if they speak a different primary language. Nor do I think of a person from Mexico who just recently received legal citizenship as a foreigner. There is something inherently "American" about them per se; they have a certain mindset, a desire to change and become a true member of our society. That is different from the mindset of an illegal immigrant who may chance crossing the border to make a few dollars to return home with.

(Please note that I am not saying all illegal immigrants act this way; some of them come to escape violence. But as I've said before, to assume ALL or MOST of them are coming to the United States to escape violence is an obvious overstatement.)

Maybe I'm crazy, but my idea of "family" extends beyond my blood relatives. The people of my community here in South Dakota mean a lot to me, and participating in my community gives me a sense of well-being and happiness. If you do not care about your fellow citizens any more than foreigners, do you not donate blood, if you are eligible? Do you not donate to non-profits, volunteer in your local community? Maybe I'm misunderstanding you. To me, caring about the people within your country is important. If we all had a "who gives a crap?" attitude towards one another, I think the country would be in quite a sorry state.

Do you not believe the United States has a right to dictate how its borders operate? Do you believe that we should not be able to legislate the number of immigrants that come into this country as we choose? If it's a sense of entitlement to believe there should be some sort of process to become a citizen, then I suppose I am entitled. As I said said previously, I think our current process is egregious and ridiculous in length, and to be honest I do believe it should be easier and take less time; but just because it's rigorous does not mean we should get rid of it altogether. The "it's too hard so I'm just going to cheat" argument does not sound too appealing to me.

You assume the premise of "I try to care for people from other countries in equal amounts to Americans" leads to the conclusion "I don't help Americans in any way" or "I care about no one." I'm not sure why you assume that. I help where I can, in America and out of it. If I had the money and time off work to fly to other countries to volunteer there, I would. Unfortunately, I don't. The best I can do for people from afar is donate money when I can and argue for fellow Americans not to think of them as less than just because they're not American citizens.

Also, no one is talking about rights. I'm talking about ethics. Ethically, I think it's wrong to deny people entrance to a country with plenty of space for everyone who's ever tried to get here. If they come here and break the laws by not paying taxes or whatever, arrest them the same way you would anyone else.

You can't reconcile "I don't think these people deserve to suffer" and "I think we should deport them back to the suffering they're trying to escape by coming here." Those two are direct contradictions. That is an active choice to put them back in suffering, instead of extending a helping hand to a fellow human being. If you don't think they deserve to suffer, why do you think they should be sent to where they were already suffering when they tried to escape to a better life?

Wanting to help the people within your country is not twisted. Wanting to help the people within your country have a marginally less annoying life at the expense of massive suffering on the part of people outside your country is.

 

[Silais]

Americans are not my family. You are not my family. Jared Smith and his wife and 4 kids over in San Francisco are not my family. I help my family because my family has proven to care about me and will appreciate the help and I want them in my life. I do not care any more about American strangers than I do about Mexican strangers.

You assume the premise of "I try to care for people from other countries in equal amounts to Americans" leads to the conclusion "I don't help Americans in any way" or "I care about no one." I'm not sure why you assume that. I help where I can, in America and out of it. If I had the money and time off work to fly to other countries to volunteer there, I would. Unfortunately, I don't. The best I can do for people from afar is donate money when I can and argue for fellow Americans not to think of them as less than just because they're not American citizens.

I suppose I'm confused because of how you present your position. These two points seem to contradict one another. On one hand, you claim that only those who have helped you---your family---are the only people you truly care about, and that you couldn't care less about other strangers, American or foreign. Yet you also claim that you help Americans in any way you can?

And again, you're assuming a vast majority of these immigrants come here to escape some sort of suffering, and again I will reiterate that this is simply not an accurate line of thinking. Not everyone is a victim, nor should they been seen as one.