wading into the immigration debate

As the grandson of a Canadian wetback I have a unique perspective on the current debate over legalization of illegal immigrants. Here's my story--and it's a good one (dad, if you are reading this, use the comment feature below to correct any discrepancies in the story). A few generations back, my family on my dad's side came over from Scotland to Nova Scotia, Canada (new Scotland) and made a home. Later on, my grandfather on my dad's side decided to move to United States to find work. He had family near Boston, so Somerville, MA became his final destination. Rather than going through the normal immigration chains though, he decided to simply swim the river between Eastern Canada and United States. So, I am the grandchild of an illegal immigrant. My grandfather went on to marry, have kids, hold down a job (two at times) and was very much a productive member of American life. And yet, he was not a citizen. Then, the current political administration decided to grant automatic citizenship to anyone that could prove they had lived here for 25 years--no questions asked. My grandfather didn't have quite enough time, and there was a possibility that the government was going to begin getting tough on illegal immigrants like him. So he was in a difficult position. He had a part time job parking cars at a garage in Boston and one of the cars he parked each day belonged to former speaker of the house--Tip O'Neal. He decided to ask Tip what he should do. Tip said, "I'll take care of it". He wrote (or more likely, his secretary wrote) a long letter explaining how Tip and his wife have been friends for 30 years with my grandfather and his wife, how their kids played together all the time. On and on it went--total bulls%$#t. And you know what . . . it worked. Two weeks later, my grandfather received his citizenship papers and was made legal and official. My father decided to repay that hard fought battle by moving back to Canada in his twenties and lived there for 20+ years (legally, this time around). That's where I was born. In New Brunswick, Canada--a citizen of two countries. Canadian by birth, American because my parents are both Americans. The point in all this is that when you think of illegal immigrants, it is easy to think only of the guy who hands you a cheeseburger at McDonald's. It is easy to not really have a face attached to this nebulous category of literally millions of illegal immigrants keeping this country afloat each day. For me, I can't help but have a soft hearted approach to these folks because I know that I'm the recipient indirectly of the kindness of governmental decision made many decades ago.

And besides, if we legalize em' . . . we can tax em'!