An illegal alien from Mexico delivered a Spanish-language rebuke to President Donald Trump’s address on Tuesday night, demanding amnesty and lecturing Americans about the values that guided “our” country.
Astrid Silva, who has chosen to live illegally in the United States after being brought into the country as a child, wanted the U.S. president to grant amnesty to tens of millions of illegal aliens looking for work outside their home country.
“Instead of separating families, President Trump should pass comprehensive immigration reform that honors our country’s tradition of welcoming immigrants,” said the foreign citizen, who describes herself as a “dreamer.”
In his Feb. 28 speech to a Joint Session of Congress, Trump instead promised to reform the U.S. immigration system to help Americans by raising their wages, which are now cut by the immigration-enabled annual transfer of roughly $500 billion from employees to employers and shareholders:
I am going to bring back millions of jobs. Protecting our workers also means reforming our system of legal immigration. The current, outdated system depresses wages for our poorest workers, and puts great pressure on taxpayers.
Nations around the world, like Canada, Australia, and many others, have a merit-based immigration system. It is a basic principle that those seeking to enter a country ought to be able to support themselves financially. Yet, in America, we do not enforce this rule, straining the very public resources that our poorest citizens rely upon. According to the National Academy of Sciences, our current immigration system costs America’s taxpayers many billions of dollars a year.
Switching away from this current system of lower-skilled immigration, and instead adopting a merit-based system, will have many benefits: It will save countless dollars, raise workers’ wages, and help struggling families—including immigrant families—enter the middle class.
This call for compassion and reform towards Americans was met with derision by the illegal-alien Silva. “The United States is not a country guided by hatred, fear, and division, as Trump makes it seem. Our [sic] country is guided by respect, hard work, sacrifice, opportunity, and hope,” Silva said in Spanish, according to The Hill.
Any opposition to mass immigration is merely rooted in fear and dislike of others and not out of love for one’s country and citizens, Silva insisted. Trump “wanted his supporters to believe that all immigrants are criminals and refugees are terrorists.”
“I’m here representing Democrats, Latinos, and the 11 million [illegal aliens] who are an integral part of this country and who embody the values and the promise of America. The same ones that President Trump is threatening with his mass deportation plan,” she said.
Silva’s views are similar to those held by immigrant Jorge Ramos, who declared on Friday that the United States rightfully belonged to Latino migrants. “This is also our country. Let me repeat this: Our country, not theirs. It is our country. And we are not going to leave,” Ramos said in Spanish.
Silva’s and Ramos’ views are common in Mexico. A 2013 poll found that 66 percent of Mexicans believe the U.S. government has no right to limit immigration. A majority, or 52 percent, said Mexicans have a right to be in the United States. Another 88 percent of respondents said it is fine to enter the U.S. illegally if one needs money. Over half of Mexicans, or 56 percent, said they had friends or family who tried to immigrate to the U.S. illegally, meaning it’s popular in Mexico to casually cross into the U.S. if one needs some extra cash.
Likewise, Silva assumed Spanish-speaking Mexicans living in the United States deserve the same legal status and benefits as Americans. “Instead of separating families, President Trump should pass comprehensive immigration reform that honors our country’s tradition of welcoming immigrants,” she said. “Democrats understand that we need to protect immigrant families, that we need better our infrastructure, that we need better jobs with higher salaries, and that the cost of college tuition is too high.”