I'm personally friends with illegals, their children, and a lot of asylum migrants. Why should I want them deported?
Background: I'm a Fetterman/Sanders leftist. I didn't vote for Trump but he won and I fully embrace this reality. Reddit virtue signaling pisses me off. I consider myself a populist. I'm also as white as can be from all over Europe except Spain ironically. But I taught myself Spanish to a high level because of my job. It's all Latinos. As part of learning the language I've tried to learn the culture which has led me to make a lot of friends in the culture. And learn their stories.
I know a family with 2 illegal parents and a couple teenagers born here. The teens are as American as I am and their Spanish has a gringo accent. The mother busts her ass at multiple jobs to put them through school because the father is disabled due to a stroke. They get no help from the government but they do pay taxes.
I know someone whose whole family got citizenship but she can't because she's over 21 and her ex husband wouldn't fill out the papers. She busts her ass at multiple restaurants when she should be a medical professional.
A lot of the people at my job are there because of the Biden border patrol app. A few are shit heads but the vast majority are stand-up people who probably work harder than me most days. My favorite game lately is to bring their English out. Most know more than they let on but lack the confidence to speak. It's kinda fucked up to imagine all this work I'm putting into helping them integrate will be for naught. These people are all here because the economy sucks at home and they want a better life. It's a giant flashback to reading about my own ancestors who came through Ellis Island.
I have no problem deporting all the "did actual crimes" criminals. Here's a secret: most Latinos want that too. That's why a lot voted for Trump. They know all about the bullshit in their home countries and don't want it here. Who gets fucked the most by Tren de Agua? The Latino communities that they operate of.
I'd rather the border be open with background checks like we used to do at Ellis Island but closing it is while we sort things out makes sense. We can argue back and forth on this and it's okay.
But I have a big big personal problem with wanting these people already here who are integrating being removed. And the thought that their American to the bone children could be removed too fills me with rage.
What would you say to someone like me?
Edit: "because they broke the law" is Argumentum ad legem.
Concerns about future amnesty encouraging illegal immigration do make me feel something. Not enough to budge but enough that amnesty needs to be well thought out, a process, and the border reinforced in the future