Immigrants are people too.

Was watching ABC Primetime tonight, and they did an interesting piece on their "What Would You Do?" segment. In a deli in Linden, New Jersey, they put an actor behind the counter acting like a total tool when waiting on two other actors posing as Mexican day laborers. (For those who don't know, these are folks, some here legally, some not, who live in and around towns and gather at certain spots around town, waiting for contractors, construction firms, carpenters, painters, etc., to come round and offer them a day's worth of work. Many -- if not most -- have little, if any, ability to speak English, but they can work, so they do, and contractors use them freely, easily, and voluntarily.)

Anyway, with hidden cameras rolling, the actor behind the counter took the position that he would not serve the actor-day laborers who were trying to buy a sandwich and a cup of coffee, because they couldn't speak English. He called them illegals, told them to go to Taco Bell to get service, and said he wouldn't serve them. It got ugly (play-acting ugly, of course, but it looked real enough). The point of the story was to elicit reactions from others in the store.

88 people were subject to the "show." 44 took no position. 9 sided with the clerk, some vehemently, telling the workers to get out of the store or the cops would be called, another saying he'd like to hang out with the clerk. But the rest stood up -- vigorously -- in support of the workers. One lady was in tears over the treatment, canceled her food order, and left. Another guy -- an obvious regular -- called the manager over and told him to straighten out the obnoxious clerk. One lady I thought was gonna go over the counter after the clerk, calling him an asshole, and looked like she'd rip his throat out with her bare hands if she could get to him.

It was good to see. Yes, I know -- illegal immigrants take jobs. I know they don't "follow the rules" and they should. I know they don't speak the language, and they should try to assimilate more. But they're still people. Legal or illegal, that doesn't change the fact that they are entitled to the same humane, decent treatment you would show any other human being. And, they do take jobs -- but the jobs that a good number of Americans these days find "beneath them" (which I'm going to discuss in a minute, in another post.) It would be one thing if illegals were coming to this country and taking CEO positions, and IT jobs and such. But they're coming here and picking apples in orchards, and cleaning toilets in McDonalds, and hauling rocks from a construction site. Should they be legal? Of course. But should they not be here at all? See what happens to this country if that ever happens.