Invitation to the Illegal Alien Pity Party

Just read this in the Chicago Sun-Times:

Wailing police sirens frighten the Barrios children to tears. They know that any day now officers might storm the family's Berwyn bungalow and take "Papi" away -- forever.

And when that time comes, Papi will be sent back where he came from, Zacatecas, Mexico -- a faraway land the kids know only from stories their parents tell. Tales of true love and total poverty.

Now, before I open fire, let me just say that I DO feel sorry for these kids -- or, more specifically, for the position that their parents have put them in. That said...

When he turned 16, Barrios wanted a different kind of life for himself, and to earn enough money so things could be better for his mother and the younger ones.

He walked away from Zacatecas -- like his older brother before him -- over a mountain pass, up a riverbank and through an avocado field toward opportunity. America.

"That is my only crime," Barrios, 35, says in Spanish, wiping frustration from his brow.

But is it?

When he arrived in Chicago with his brother, Martin Barrios scored a job washing dishes, scrubbing floors and preparing food at Raymond's Tacos in Pilsen. Then he got better work at Sara Lee...

The last time I checked, working in this country illegally is, well, ILLEGAL. But here's the icing on the cake...

...starting as a cook, later working on a loading dock and now making $13.77 an hour as a quality control manager.

???

My dear husband has been out of work for coming up on a year, and I am supposed to feel sorry for someone who is working here ILLEGALLY for $13.77 an hour?

If you keep reading you'll also find out that Barrios not only owns the home where his family lives in Berwyn -- he "recently made a tidy profit selling a house he bought as an investment."

I'll say it again: ???

"I am an American, a Mexican American. I don't believe people like me are a burden on this country," Barrios said. "Those of us who come here to improve our condition come here seeking success, to better our lives just like [other Americans] or their families did."

Actually, you're not an American, and you didn't come here like "other Americans." My father, for example, immigrated here legally. He waited years to become a citizen, and served this country for 21 years in the USAF. He went to college at night. He raised a family. He didn't just LIVE the American dream -- he EARNED it.

"I start from the bottom. The work is hard. Other people born in this country don't want to do that work," Barrios said.

It doesn't matter how many times it's flung in our faces, or who does the flinging. That is a bullshit lie. May I share a partial list of some of the work I've done for a living?

cooked
waited tables
delivered room service
washed dishes
cleaned hotel rooms

Sound familiar? What do you know, it's work that "Americans won't do."

It's a bullshit lie, and the American people know better.

Today, his kids are terrified.

"That's the worst of it, they have to live with my fear. It's very sad and difficult," Barrios says.

I'm sure it is difficult. I know it would tear me up to know that I was responsible for putting any kids of mine in the position of having to fear that I'd be deported.

But the key is that you did it. You came. You stayed. You've worked illegally for years. You had kids and put down roots. Knowing full well that it was illegal, and could end at any time (if our government had a set), you did it anyway. YOU DID IT.

And you want the American people to not only forgive and forget, but also feel sorry for you?

Thanks, but no thanks. The Illegal Alien Pity Party sounds like anything but a good time to me.

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