This being the time of the semester that it is, I expected to write for closure. However, today's major protest, planned by mostly undocumented immigrants and their supporters, proved to be a temptation hard to resist.
It is hard not to be at least initially sympathetic to illegal immigrants. They have to endure tremendous hardships to get to America, generally can't speak English, and end up working very hard jobs for not too much money. Also, the dream that drives them is uniquely American: better lives for those that come after them.
However, the protests and marches the illegal immigration crowd are doing, more harm than good.
Size notwithstanding, the previous major protest in late March rubbed a lot of Americans the wrong way, the Mexican flags being an irritant. Today's protest may exacerbate an already emotionally charged issue rather than provide any constructive solutions.
None of this is to suggest that it is wrong to protest. By expressing their emotions in the open rather than confining themselves to their own communities, these mainly Hispanic illegal immigrants are taking a step in the right direction.
But that step forward is matched by two steps back.
First, any number of protests cannot take away from the fact that a lot of these people came to the U.S. illegally. The protests successfully convey a feeling -- often justified -- of agitation and persecution. What they don't betray is a sense that having come here illegally, illegal immigrants cannot make demands of their adopted homeland without blending into the prevailing culture.
There is enormous outrage in America over how much illegal immigrants cost the country by way of services. When illegal immigrants protest injustice meted to them, Americans are becoming increasingly unsympathetic. Clearly, both sides enter the argument from divergent viewpoints.
This may be a dangerous trend. A lot of this has to do with the attitude espoused by pro-undocumented activists.
"Millions of human beings today and for many years are being taxed, and they have absolutely no representation. In fact, they are being bashed every day and humiliated," said Juan Jose Gutierrez, national coordinator of Latino Movement USA and one of the lead organizers of today's planned boycott.
While Gutierrez may have a point, his argument is bankrupt in tact. The process of people coming to America from other countries and assimilating is long-drawn and complicated. American immigration triumphs when immigrants can assimilate into the American experience while augmenting it with their own values.
What is also unfair is the effort to paint the illegal immigration issue as a civil rights issue. Not only is the comparison offensive, it is inaccurate. During the civil rights movement, certain Americans were treated unequally in terms of rights afforded to them by the Constitution. With illegal immigration, America violates nobody's civil rights by enforcing its borders.
While the desire to confidently make their voice heard is admirable to say the least, illegal immigrants should not hurt their own cause by turning Americans against them. Just as Rome was not built in a day, it takes more than a day to feel at home in Rome.
Nishant is a computer science graduate student. Reach him at nishant.bhajaria@asu.edu.
