Photo Friday

I like to look at the pictures featured at guardian.co.uk in their 24 hours in pictures series.

To me its like a small easy glimpse at the world I live in and it helps keep things in perspective for me. Today this picture hit close to home for me. These children represent why I feel the way I do about immigration law and how we should handle those who already live within our borders.

Like many Americans I do not want immigrants crossing over illegally and burdening our education system and health care system but the truth is that millions are already here. Millions have their children studying along side our own. Millions have utilized our emergency care departments. And millions have been able to support their families, avoid deportation and obey our laws. Additionally, they have not burdened our social services. These people have work hard and many times they are paid below minimum wage. Yet they are still striving to achieve the American dream.

There is absolutely no reason to make these people leave. Personally, I think if a person can verify that they have lived in our country for at least five years, supported themselves and not broken any laws above traffic violations they should be allowed to embark on a path to legal citizenship. Pehaps we can change our laws and how we handle immigrants in the future and deport people we know have unsavory characters and have broken our laws. I can go as far as saying that if a person has previously been deported they should not be accepted. But as for our law abiding, hardworking immigrants I beg you please dont deport this child's mother.

For more information visit migrationinformation.org