I only look illegal*

'Illegal' and 'illegals' are not nouns, and a human being cannot be an 'illegal' or an 'illegal person' thereby rendering the phrase 'illegal immigrant(s)' as illogical. Whether you like it or not, 'undocumented immigrants' is the only phrase that makes grammatical sense.

Trump (🍊😱) will start off by rounding up violent undocumented criminals. They would be the first to get deported. After that, I would expect the deportation rate of undocumented immigrants
would start to tail off.

Trump himself uses undocumented workers to save himself a couple of bucks. (His lines of clothing are made in CHI-na.) Can you say 'hypocrite'?

An undocumented immigrant cannot simultaneously be stealing someone else's job AND be too lazy to work a job. Search for 'Schrödinger's Immigrant.'

Working undocumented immigrants do pay taxes- payroll taxes and sales taxes for starters. They do not receive income tax refunds since they have no social security number in order to pay into a SS account.

They almost always take the jobs that no one else wants, mostly seasonal and manual labor, i.e. late night bussing jobs, field workers picking produce in the hot sun, etc.

Immigration by Europeans to this continent started in the early 17th century.  While there may not have been any 'immigration laws' on any North American books when they started arriving on these shores, they certainly were familiar with the concept of immigration. The ensuing slaughter of these native peoples certainly qualifies as illegal acts. While American history books whitewash these atrocities and call the conflicts 'wars,' they were so lopsided that the only words to truly describe them appropriately would be slaughter, massacre, murder, and genocide. Early pre-European estimates put their population at about 50 million. Today, post genocide, their numbers are below 3 million. Please tell me who you think the real savages were/are. To this day, the United States continues to steal their remaining lands despite signed treaties that designate those few remaining acres as Native.

Today, international crises are fueling mass emigration from war torn countries on various continents. The immigration process we have now is slow at best and not able to process these people at a timely rate. In the meantime, their children are being killed and their homes bombed. If you were in a similar situation, homeless, hungry, all possessions lost, and left scrambling for your own existence, what would you do?

Most undocumented immigrants only want a chance to rebuild their lives. Former middle class citizens with careers and houses are now living lawful and legal lives (with immigration status being their only offense) in urban slum apartment complexes and working the lowest of jobs in fear that they may be deported at any minute. The vast majority of them struggle with language and culture shock. Many attempt to learn English as fast as possible in order to survive here. Yet, when they continue to speak their native language in order to communicate better amongst themselves, some hick would invariably yell out, "Speak English!"

There are many exceptions to these scenarios, but none so egregious to send them back. Remember that the earliest immigrants were also fleeing persecution from their country of origin, and gave up much in order to start a new life here.

I grew up just outside of Providence and left 30+ years ago. My work back then brought me in close contact with many Portuguese, Azorean, and Cape Verdean immigrants. My own grandparents immigrated to the US in the late 19th century. My family did much to help these people get settled here by extending them credit for their purchases, doing their income taxes, and teaching ESL. Immigrants, documented or not, are not to be feared or vilified. They eat, sleep, and bathe. They sing and dance. They work or look for work. Just like the rest of us.

There is much racism, hatred, and bigotry across the whole of this country, but I have found a mostly peaceful area, not without its faults, to call home. After reading the vile, hateful comments in this thread, my move west has been completely justified. I sincerely hope that you learn to stop hating and start loving. Life really is much better if you can do that. You were born with no knowledge of hate. You learned hate from someone, and you can unlearn it, too. Good luck.


*"I only look illegal" was on a t-shirt worn by San Francisco Giants relief pitcher Sergio Romo during the 2012 World Series parade. Three Twins Ice Cream now has a flavor of ice cream called Sergio Romo's Mexican Chocolate (chocolate and cinnamon), with the subtitle "It only tastes illegal."