Immigration is a Privilege

I've seen a lot of social media angst over 84 Lumber's ridiculous Super Bowl commercial (above), oh-so-obviously promoting illegal immigration. Granted, it's a superficially beautiful story about perseverance and the will to become an American. Something that tugs at the heartstrings of any true patriot.

But the specific scenario played out on screen simply isn't real. It's fiction. Few illegal immigrants make that trek to come be an American. They make it because they can make some serious money, most of which they send back home where it has far more purchasing power than here. It's basically a scam.


That is not to say all don't come here to be here and be one of us. But most don't. And it is entirely ignored in this political infomercial that some 80% of women and girls are raped along the way. Here we see them getting help from strangers and knowing smiles and everyone is good. The reality is that coyotes (human smugglers), cartels, and random strangers are more likely to fleece, rob, rape, and even kill a lone woman and her daughter than to give them any aid.

The angst concerning this commercial is called for, as are the sudden wave of boycotts by contractors and others who are more likely to buy lumber and construction products than your average social justice warrior. A real shot in the foot for 81 Lumber.

And the reasoning is valid. Illegal immigration is a threat to our national security. It is also a threat to our jobs and a drain on our system. It is overall bad, and it needs to be stopped.

However, I think many are missing a finer point here. A point which needs addressing, and which underscores the real reason why our country...any country...needs to have rules and standards for who can cross our borders. And especially, who can become citizens.

The point is, that living in the US is not a right, as the left, globalists, and even some neocons like to say. It is a privilege.

Yes it is a privilege. One those of us born here enjoy because our forefathers carved it out of a wilderness, fought and bled on battlefields, tried a political experiment many thought wouldn't work, and built and innovated and invented and forged the most successful nation on Earth.

This idea that the US is the place where all troubled souls can go to seek shelter dates back to the Pilgrims escaping religious persecution in Europe. The difference is, the Pilgrims didn't enter a relative paradise where they were guaranteed food and shelter and medicine. No, they found an untamed wilderness and a mix of friendly and hostile people that they didn't understand. Many died.

They earned at least some right to live in their new found home, because they did what was necessary to survive and make it into a home.

For all of the good and the bad involved in all of that history, those of us already here have inherited all of that, because those who came before us made the sacrifices to give us that inheritance.

So when people want to come take advantage of this, they need to earn it. They need to put a hammer to that forge too. They need to innovate something, create something, make our soil give us food and our toils enrich us, fight and bleed on our battlefields, save lives, make lives better, and make our great land even a tiny bit better than it was before they came.

They need to embrace who we are and become as fervent in their passion for what America is as we are.

And when they do. When they prove that they are truly one of us. When they add to who and what we are, instead of taking away from it, then no matter what color they are, or if they have an accent, or where they came from, then they are an American. Then their children gain that inheritance.

Because the sacrifices were made and the contributions added to this incredible experiment we call the United States of America.