Why am I more legal than Mario?

[TomInTib]

We have a man who works for us and his name is Mario.

Mario is one of the sweetest people I have ever known. He works as hard as anyone I know - con mucho gusto. And he is a very noble man.

And twice a week Mario pulls 24hour days in order to help his wife with her gig with a local Spanish-language newspaper (in addition to her daily job which consists of cleaning buildings - at night). The only time they have together is when they are working together.

They have been here for 2 1/2 years and maintain a nice little apartment and have purchased a used Honda and a used Jeep.

And their 4 kids are in Mexico.

My family settled in Mario's country (in what is now Texas) in 1630 and were granted large tracts of land by Mario's country's King in the 1700's.

And now I live in another part of Mario's country (California).

Who is the illegal one, here?

[valerief]

1. Whoever has the most guns wins. n/t

[jody]

2. Mario's country's King took the land from Native Americans. n/a

[TomInTib]

3. So do we all go home?

I do not even know where 'home' is.

[Bucky]

4. Home is where you live.

I just don't buy into that race-based thinking about group rights. Our country was founded on the principal of the rights of the individual being more important that the rights of the community. Mario was born where his parents had him and to that country he is a natural citizen. If he wants to move to this country, I applaud that. He sounds like an asset. There's a system for him to get in here. The fact that he had ancestors who lived in Mexico doesn't give him any birthright to live in Texas. He has a right to immigrate here and I support that right. But saying "we stole it" doesn't really advance any useful arguments and tends to promote racial divisions. If you were born in Texas, you have a right to be there. Because Texas is in a Union with California, you have a right to be there too. No country is any different.

[jody]

5. I wish we could learn to live together but that requires tolerance, a non

human trait. :hi: