Upon much consideration, we at the Barnyard think we may have identified a problem with the way the Conservatives of the world pitch our position on the illegal/criminal alien debate. We focus much on the illegality of those sneaking across our border. We try to speak reason to the unreasonable about giving driver's licenses to people who are not supposed to be here in the first place. I think one thing we may be leaving out is a comment on the quality of the so-called immigrant.

Perhaps the reason for this is our judgment of the sneak-in is so automatic, so ingrained, so obvious, that we do not even realize it has been made. Immigrants, the ones who stay, will be joining our society. They will become one of us, eventually. Their children will most certainly, in every way, be American. Most every club or organization in this country has specific rules and qualifications for membership, the Nation as a whole should be no different. Do we really want someone who could not wait his turn in line joining us? Do we really want the father and mother of an anchor baby raising that child to one day vote for the leader of the free world?

Last night, as a birthday treat for some family members we went to one of those Japanese themed restaurants where they cook in front of you. As we chatted with the cook, his accent made it clear he was from elsewhere so I asked where and how long he had been in the States. Then I asked, “how do you like it here?” In broken English with wide eyes and a genuine smile he said he loved it here. Then he said that nothing warmed his heart so much as to hear his children speak English without an accent.

There are two kinds of immigrants to the United States. Some choose to come for economic reasons, some flee oppression, but all fall into two distinct categories. The first comes to join. They seek to better themselves and the U.S. at the same time. It might just be through serving Americanized Japanese cuisine at a restaurant but they do the best they can. These immigrants come to build up America, to help us create. They to love what we love and hate what we hate. They cheer with us; they mourn with us; they fight with us; they die with us.

The second kind of immigrant sees the U.S. as a huge teat at which to suckle. Some stay and suck their life long; some make their money and return. They clean out our hospital emergency rooms until the hospitals shut down. They steal our social security numbers and mooch off our welfare state. They draw and draw and draw and only deposit what is necessary to get by.

The former made this nation into the shinning example to the world that it is. The later will kill it. In some way we everyone descend from immigrants like those first ones. In every way, we must fight against the second kind.

I am here willing to say that America is the best nation on the planet and to those of you willing to keep it that way: Y'all come. But to those that are tearing down our borders just to tear down what is inside them, we need to start looking at this in a more historical way. That is before we become history ourselves.