For the last several months, illegal immigrants, who are part of the Immigrant Rights Freedom Ride Coalition, have been traveling throughout the nation in order to garner attention about their rights. They’re hoping their grass-roots campaign will be reminiscent of the civil rights protests in the 1960s. The comparison, however, is fuzzy since they’re demanding rights that are inclusive to legal residents.

The immigrants have several demands, including health care, college aid, legal status, the ability to bring their families to America and protecting their rights. 

We must do something about the situation since there are more than 7 million immigrants who don’t have the proper paperwork. We should provide them with more basic rights without giving them too much freedom.

If they’re involved in an accident, they should get emergency care; it’s cruel for a world leader to deny anyone health care even if they can’t pay for it. The government should also work harder to ensure better work environments and make sure that workers are not abused.

These rights may seem like a lot especially for people who are technically not even supposed to be in the country, but our country is based on the principle that every human being deserves basic rights, and it’s hypocritical for us to turn our back when some employers abuse their workers.

Companies take advantage of immigrants even though they’re crucial to our economy. Immigrants are subject to sub par working conditions, grueling hours, and paltry salaries. They’re willing, however, to endure such conditions because they realize the overwhelming opportunities that our country offers. Illegal immigrants will have more incentive than any other workers to work extremely hard because they’re so eager to take advantage of these opportunities that are available.

It’s admirable that workers are willing to go through hardships, but it doesn’t mean that we should give them all the rights awarded to U.S. citizens. Illegal immigrants are fooling themselves if they think the country is willing to share the same rights with them. The United States has worked hard in the last hundred years to provide rights for residents and it’s unreasonable for illegal aliens to think that they’ll be able to get these rights just because they’re protesting.

Politicians have realized that we must confront this issue with a different approach since we’ve allowed so many people into the country due to our relaxed border control. Ted Kennedy is supporting a bill that will offer temporary resident status to workers who can prove that they’ve worked in the country for 100 days in the last 18 months. John McCain is going even further by letting immigrants work toward citizenship status.

We will accomplish a lot more than just allowing them to have rights. By giving them temporary status or even allowing them to get on track on becoming citizens, we have a better chance of keeping track of people in the country. We can assure that they’ll be making their fair share of contributions to our society by paying taxes.

Our country was based on the foundation that people of various backgrounds will be able to live together. With such a diverse culture, we’ll be exposed to different trains of thought which will fuel innovation. For everyone’s sake, however, we must regulate the infusion of people every year.

The government could easily stop the buses which have protesters and deport them but they realize that it’s a not a viable option because it doesn’t solve the long-term problem. Because it’s not worth searching for everyone and kicking them out, we must offer the millions of illegal immigrants in our country an opportunity so that one day they’ll be able to make meaningful contributions to America.

Vijay Ramanavarapu is a junior in finance. He can be reached for comment at [email protected].