How to treat an illegal immigrant

I was talking to a colleague about Elie Wiesel and pulled up the Wikipedia entry on him. One sentence, deep in, stuck out:
In 1955, Wiesel moved to New York City, having become a US citizen: due to injuries suffered in a traffic accident, he was forced to stay in New York past his visa's expiration and was offered citizenship to resolve his status.
This could never happen now, could it? Can you imagine the US government offering citizenship to a foreigner who overstays his visa?

p.s. A blowhard presidential candidate is being raked over the coals for probably the two decent things he did as governor ... one of them being to allow children of illegal immigrants to pay in-state tuition at state universities. The Republican primary has been deeply revealing. The audience has cheered for hundreds being executed and for an uninsured person dying of toothache. They have a booed a gay soldier currently serving in Iraq.  I cringe to think that, as recently as the 2008 election, I voted for more Republicans than Democrats. Culturally and morally, I have nothing in common with these people. But I also am disappointed with Obama's ability to fight the good fight. Where does this leave me? I don't know.  Can I have a party that is centrist, like today's Democratic party, but is capable of fighting for what it believes in?

1 comment:

  1. just like the tea party is the hard right wing for the republican party I suggest we start a coffee party which will be a moderate democratic version .. the middleground that fights the good fight.

    I am sure south indians who now have american citizenship will soon start a filter version of the party..

    :)

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