Immigration Reality vs. Politics: Putting a face on illegal immigration

Putting a face on illegal immigration - NashuaTelegraph.com: "I doubt any amount of data about how immigrants contribute, say, to the economy will win over skeptics. Facts about why we should create a new immigration system have been out there since before Obama’s predecessor, George W. Bush, tried to overhaul the system.

So, instead, we need to deal with the raw emotions that color this debate and keep us from getting off dead-center. The emotions are on all sides, often for understandable reasons.
And beyond simple immigration, they mostly have to do with illegal immigrants.

Some Americans paint them as bad actors because they came here illegally or overstayed their visas. Some further believe that bad acting extends to committing crimes and taking advantage of taxpayers.

But those stuck on the bad-actor argument need to come up with an answer about what we do with people like Ana Hernandez Luna, who’s not anything like that devious character.

Hernandez Luna is a Democratic state representative from Houston. Last week, after Texas legislators passed the sanctuary city bill, she called for a moment of personal privilege on the House floor. She used the time to tell her colleagues that she had been an illegal immigrant."