I recently submitted an article to Newsweek. It perfectly described how I felt about the current immigration debate.

Here goes

Get in line

The sky in Lagos (Nigeria) is beautiful at midnight. I remember the cool breeze as I looked up from the backseat of my mother’s car as we waited across the street from the American Embassy.

The year was 1990, I had just finished high school and I was looking forward to coming to the United States to study and hopefully have a better life. Even then, there was so much demand that you had to sleep across the road from the embassy in order to have a reasonable chance of getting in line for an 8am appointment.

It’s 2007 now and I am finally an American citizen. I look back at those days and remember what it took to get here. The rude embassy officials, the hardcore US marines shouting at the “unruly natives” to get in line, the long lines, the pre 911 interview process etc

It was worth it. I have an Information Systems degree from a great school, I am married, live in California, have a great information systems job and have a great life. I appreciate the life and opportunities I and my family now have and also appreciate what it took to get here.

So imagine my chagrin as I read about the proposed immigration bill that this congress was attempting to ram through. This “non amnesty” amnesty bill would have legalized millions of Mexicans and illegal aliens who did nothing more than overstay their visas or sneak across the border and live here.

This is a tough issue for me. I totally understand the lure of America. I understand the desire to want a better life for you and your family. I also totally understand that the majority of illegal immigrants who come here will get up and go to work every day and be as law abiding and productive as they can be.

America was built on immigration. We are a nation of immigrants. This country however has an immigration policy that is devoid of common sense. We have porous borders with both Mexico and Canada and for the most part, our leaders’ feel that this is ok. We feel that it’s fine to put up walls in Israel and neighborhoods in Baghdad but not to protect our own borders.

It will take a thousand terrorists from Al Qaeda sneaking across the Mexican border and filming the crossing to get common sense back in. We can build a fence across the border. It is easy. We can use UAV’s (Unarmed Aerial Vehicles) to patrol the border and more efficiently use our customs officers for apprehension. It’s easy. We can deport as many illegal aliens as we need to. It’s easy.

I feel insulted every time a politician says we can’t deport 12 million people because it’s not “practical”. In the United Kingdom, if you are illegal and are caught, you get sent back to your home on the first available flight, do not pass go, do not collect $200. They seem to be doing OK there and they have one of the strongest economies in Europe.

What is not “practical” is politicians standing up to big business lobbyists and the growing Latino population. I once had a Latino woman tell me I was racist because I felt illegal aliens should be deported if apprehended.

Me, a black immigrant and new citizen, racist!

It is a difficult issue but it boils down to this. I have been here on an F-1 (Student) visa, H-1B (worker) visa, I-551 (Green Card) visa and am a citizen now. I and millions of others waited in line. We put up with a lot of crap from employers while we were on worker visas and we know exactly what it feels like to be exploited but that’s life. I had a goal and an objective and wanted to do it LEGALLY.

If our lawmakers decide to open up the US to all illegal aliens and give amnesty to everyone then it is a slap in the face to me and millions of people who went through the ethical, legal process. It tells us that we are fools for not heading to Canada and driving down or going to Mexico and just driving up.

It cheapens and devalues the very citizenship I worked so hard to get. It’s not a race issue; it’s a common sense, law enforcement and national security issue.

Politically speaking, I am a Democrat and I love the Democratic Party but this is the one issue I guarantee will send me to the Republican Party.

I am not a racist, in fact I want talented, hard working people from all around the world to come and live in the United States of America.

I just want them to start at an Embassy.

Onuora Amobi is the CEO of Nnigma inc. and webmaster of www.windows-vista-update.com

He lives in California.