Some times I get into debates over immigration and deportation of those immigrants, and usually it goes a little something like this.

you HAVE to have known that would happen if you were found out as an illegal immigrant, and you still did it knowing that risk. Sure, the law shouldn’t be separating families, but you put yourself in that situation, and I don’t see how actively putting yourself in that situation would make it any less against the law or make you any less guilty, or exempt you from the immigration process, which the rest of us had to painstakingly go through.

Basically, you’re putting yourself in a situation where something bad would happen if you’re caught because it’s illegal, yet you do it anyways, and then complain when it happens.

I’m sorry, but that does not make sense to me, and it annoys me.

What if, like in the case of Mexico, you come from a country that’s riddled with violence, partially due to failed U.S. foreign and domestic policies? What if you escaped becoming one of the nearly 60,000 people killed in Mexico since just 2006? The United States is partially responsible for and complicit with the violence currently ravaging Mexico. That’s a fact.

Some people don’t have a choice but to come here. It’s not about taking advantage of some system. Picking up and moving one’s life to a foreign country where one may or may not speak the native language is one hell of a feat. Furthermore, our laws and institutions are structured such that noncitizens are treated rather poorly, aren’t afforded the necessities of life, and are placed in an incredibly difficult living situation. Immigrating to the United States is not something that is done on a whim but rather, it’s often something that’s done as a last resort because one has no other options left.

Tearing apart a family merely over something as benign as the citizenship status of one or more of the members is inhumane, does not reflect the U.S.’s so-called stance on “family values,” and creates a much more difficult situation for the government to deal with. Sometimes, what’s legal is not always right and tearing families apart only seeks to create further devastation when other means would more than suffice. This is about being a human-being and having some compassion for those who we share this Earth with.

The WAR ON IMMIGRATION, THE WAR ON POVERTY, THE WAR ON TERROR, THE WAR ON ILLITERACY, THE WAR IN IRAQ, THE WAR ON DRUGS, are all wars on people. Even illiteracy, because if you don’t like the government solution to the problem, then you can go to jail for not buying into that program. People are the losers, your fellow human beings. Violence doesn’t solve complex social problems