We should always be compassionate to the individual but it is destructive to our society to ignore or condone illegal behavior. I have voted against in-state tuition for illegal immigrants (that our military doesn't even receive), and I voted against drivers' licenses for those who break the law. I would vote for tough penalties if an employer knowingly hires an illegal immigrant. The E-verify system is easily used as an on-line, simple and inexpensive method for checking an individual's status.
Allowing the rule of law to be violated is morally corrupting to the individual and also to society. The direct effect of this corruption is the forming of a second-class citizenship within our country. That has become a huge threat to everyone's human dignity -- as it affects not only the illegal immigrant but the behavior of the citizen too.
It is a threat to everyone’s human dignity when we ignore the problem of illegal immigration in the labor market as we should not allow other human beings to be exploited and used as a working underclass. We are creating a subclass of people in our country and violating our own country’s founding principles.
A second-class structure is directly contrary to the principles we cherish in our Declaration of Independence, because it is at the foundation of our liberty where we recognize that all men are created equal, and we must all equally obey the law and the law must be equally enforced.
In addition, I would vote for any measure encouraging all immigrants to fully embrace America's culture, language and heritage.
