Fun With Play-Dough

Governor Richardson endorsed Obama overnight. He gave Obama’s speech on race as part of the reasons, and mentioned that as a Hispanic, he was particularly touched by it. He also added that the ‘demonization of immigrants’ has bothered him for a long time.

I’m paraphrasing.

Maybe this could further the discussion that we need to have in this country; and maybe we can finally discuss the dirty little secret surrounding the illegal immigration debate. Much of this debate sounds so reasonable; of course people shouldn’t break the law, you’re supposed to respect the borders and the laws of the land you move to; you should learn the language, you should respect the local customs.

Having said that, I moved here legally, went through hell and high water to obtain my green card; I have never broken the law, and speak decent English. Yet, why do I wince whenever the word ‘immigrant’ is used? I shouldn’t identify with somebody who crossed the border in the middle of the night and doesn’t speak English, should I?

But I do. I think this is because I know what it’s like to be a ‘stranger in a strange land’. I know what it is like to constantly be asked: “Why did you come here?” An innocent question that continues to put me on edge. I know what it’s like to board a plane when I travel home to see my family, and be picked out of the line by some anonymous border guard at the airport, again and again; to have to defend myself for moving here just because my passport has a different color. All my papers are in order, I am completely legal, and yet I sweat each time I have to visit the Immigration and Naturalization Service, a place most Americans born here have never seen the inside of.

I know, I sound whiny. The plain truth of it is, most days I really like it here; every once in a while, being an immigrant sucks. So yes, I sympathize with immigrants, legal or not. Because, with the exception of the real hard criminals, most are people like you and me.

And I think that the more we talk about them as faceless, anonymous nobodies, the more likely we are to forget that they are human, every last one of them. There, I said it: the current climate surrounding immigration is dehumanizing, and it’s getting worse by the minute.

Nation of immigrants, my ass.

By the way, did I hear that right? Scooter Libby disbarred? That’s all?