Immigrants are invited, not breaking in

A recent letter to the editor concerning illegal immigration asked the question, "If someone broke into your house, would you invite them to stay?" I had a hard time arguing with the writer's reasoning; however, I'm afraid he/she missed three crucial points.

One, we don't own this hypothetical house; we're merely renters. Two, the owners implicitly invited these supposed "burglars" to break-in. Three, these "burglars" have been paying rent the whole time. What kind of burglar helps pay the rent?

Not a single person would have ever entered our country illegally had they not known that an unbelievably high number of employers were more than happy to employ them knowing full-well that they were here illegally. These employers were happy to use their labor, happy to pay them less than American citizens, happy to hire and keep employees that they knew could never complain about their hours, their pay or their treatment. Consequently, undocumented immigrants did not "break in." They were invited into the house by its very owners.

Furthermore, unlike most burglars, these "perpetrators" stay and help pay the rent. Every undocumented immigrant working a regular job pays taxes out of their paycheck just like everybody else. Unlike everybody else, however, they will never see the benefits of these taxes. They can't ever touch welfare and will never touch social security, yet they're helping to pay for everybody else's.

Whether or not they should be allowed full citizenship is up for debate, but undocumented immigrants have been paying their fair share of taxes, working their butts off, raising American citizens, fighting in our armed forces, and being as good of neighbors and Americans as any American could dream of having. Will I invite them to stay? You're darn right. Will you?

Michael Jaroski

Lombard