On most weekday mornings, I drop my wife off at the bus stop.  She often quips that I drop her off ‘on the side of the freeway’, which is completely accurate, but that’s where the bus stop happens to be.  Most mornings, I’ll head to work after she’s safely on the bus.  Other mornings, I return home to finish some tasks.  On these days, I take a subtly different route to work.

This second route has a two-lane on-ramp onto the freeway.  During heavy traffic, they designate one lane as carpool, and the other has a traffic light that regulates its flow.  Since I’m driving alone, I take that lane.  The traffic light has a sign that clearly states, “one vehicle per green light”.  My total travel time is modest; the added minutes don’t significantly impact my life.

However, boredom and maybe morbid curiosity inspired me to look more closely at the vehicles zooming by on that carpool lane through the side mirror.  Anecdotally, many (if not most) vehicles in that lane have only a driver.  In other words, they’re not carpooling.

The red-light duration varies subtly with freeway traffic volume.  As I sit in my car, watching these other vehicles pass with only one occupant, one thought crosses my mind: “Who the fuck do you think you are?”

Sensors regulate traffic

We have all driven during different times of the day.  Occasionally, we’ll pull up to a red light at an intersection, only to see it magically turn green as we approach.  There’s no actual magic; they installed sensors at many intersections that detect approaching cars.  They’re typically installed beneath the road itself and detect large metal (car-sized) objects above.  When it detects your car, it signals the traffic controller, and your light will turn green.

However, no technology is foolproof.  Motorcycles may not trigger all sensors.  We addressed the problem in two ways.  First, we improved the technology to detect motorcycles more accurately.  Second, we educated motorcycle drivers on how to trigger the sensor.  They painted an ‘X’ on the road over the sensor as you approach the intersection.  As motorcycles pull up and place their front wheel on that ‘X’, they trigger the sensor.

Naturally, like any other technology, this device may fail or malfunction.  When this happens, you may pull up to a traffic light, and it’ll never turn green.  I’m only explaining why this happens; I’m not advising you on how to respond.

Everyone has a breaking point

Suppose you pull up to an intersection with a red light, and the light does not turn green.  How long do you wait?  Everyone has a breaking point where they’ll break the law.  It may simply be a question of duration.  Other conditions may affect your decision, such as needing to meet someone or having an urge to pee.  For me, under normal circumstances, it’d likely be when I conclude there’s a malfunction.

Imagine you drive up to an intersection with a gray Honda Civic in front of you.  You arrive just in time to see it drive through the intersection while there’s a red light.  Watching this alarms you, but you approach the intersection and wait.  After waiting for seven minutes, you conclude there’s a malfunction.  You similarly cross through the red light; you quietly wonder how long that Honda Civic waited.

As I sit on the freeway on-ramp, I realize the red light duration is carefully calculated.  That traffic light exists to regulate traffic flow onto the freeway.  They’re punishing you, even if a little, for contributing to the congestion.  Each driver has options:

• Conduct this trip at a less congested time.
• Carpool with someone, then you may legitimately ride in the other lane.
• Choose a different route.
• Work remotely.
• Wait a few minutes as the light cycles.
• Ignore protocol and drive through on the carpool lane, even when you don’t qualify.

I’m sure that the algorithm that determines the duration takes all of these into account.  How long does this need to delay you before you’d drive in that other lane?

This is not about traffic lights

As you might imagine, this is not a discussion about traffic lights.  This is a discussion about immigration.  I’ll go on the record and state I dislike the term Open Borders.  The term ‘open’ linguistically implies ‘unrestricted’, and, as such, it is a misnomer.  Open border policy retains some restrictions, though fewer.  For instance, people hear ‘open borders’ and assume that we’d allow convicted criminals into the country; literally no one condones this.  The current administration has a policy of mass deportation, deporting every undocumented immigrant; in contrast, I support mass amnesty.

Suppose Liam arrived from Ireland on a travel visa in 2007.  He chose not to return when his visa expired.  Missing the typical food from his country, he opened an Irish pub in 2016; it is still open.  As an undocumented immigrant, under the current administration, he would be deported.  Liam hasn’t broken a single law; he is a productive and popular member of the community.  In contrast, mass amnesty allows Liam to stay precisely where he is and apply for residency or even citizenship.

Conservatives are allergic to the idea of mass amnesty.  They object to less restrictive immigration policy.  They enumerate reasons; let’s examine those one at a time.  Incidentally, if Liam’s story sounds sympathetic, you shouldn’t feel differently about it if we change ‘Liam’ to ‘Carlos’ and ‘Ireland’ to ‘Mexico’.  If you do feel differently, there’s a word for that, and it starts with ‘r’.

Let’s examine that list

Those who oppose immigration, or specifically vilify undocumented immigrants, have well-rehearsed reasons for their position, but most reasons are fueled by misinformation.  They’ll often use the disgusting term ‘illegals’ (as a noun) to describe undocumented immigrants.  Let’s examine (and debunk) that list and beliefs about undocumented immigrants:

• Democrats want them in the country so they may vote against Republican candidates.
• They get free healthcare.
• They do not pay taxes.
• They are criminals.
• They take jobs away from US citizens. 

Let’s go through these one at a time.

Myth #1: They’re brought in to vote against Republicans

Immigrants (whether undocumented or even permanent residents) cannot vote in federal elections; most can’t even vote in local elections.  There have been some instances (here in Washington state, even) where permanent residents received applications to register to vote.  However, they still need proof of citizenship to register.  Furthermore, even if you happen to get a ballot, there’s also the question of whether the state counted the ballot.

Conservatives like to scream voter fraud, but the instances of proven voter fraud are exceedingly rare.  For California, there have been 71 proven cases of voter fraud since 1982.  Naturally, some will claim that my source is biased, but the Heritage Foundation is a right-leaning source.  Whoops.

There’s no reason to believe that undocumented immigrants are casting votes in any elections such that it’d affect the results.  However, if they were (and that’s a big ‘if’), maybe the best way would be to capture their vote to establish policy that is not as openly hostile to immigrants.

Myth #2: They get free healthcare

I’m surprised that anyone believes this.  The US doesn’t even give its own citizens free healthcare.  No matter what anyone else implies, undocumented immigrants are ineligible for SNAP or Medicaid benefits.  You may claim that your undocumented immigrant neighbor receives some federal benefit.  Bullshit.  They do not.

Hospitals generally do not deny care to anyone who arrives with a life-threatening condition.  This is independent of their immigration status.  The alternative is to check papers before treating and allowing patients to die because their travel visa expired two days ago.

The potential corner case with this occurs when immigrants have a child here in the US; that child is a US citizen through birthright citizenship.  Any federal program that child qualifies for implicitly benefits their immigrant parents.  However, let’s not confuse that with their parents qualifying for benefits; they do not.

Myth #3: They do not pay taxes

Undocumented immigrants do not have an official Social Security number.  However, they may request an ITIN (Individual Taxpayer Identification Number) and pay taxes that way.  In fact, in 2023, undocumented immigrants paid close to $90 billion in taxes.  In stark contrast, Donald Trump routinely paid less than $1k in federal income taxes per year.

I’ll concede that undocumented immigrants are more likely to work under the table than everyone else.  Many will aspire to fly under the radar; the smaller the paper trail, the easier it’ll be to avoid detection.  In those cases, they will not pay income tax at all.

However, undocumented immigrants barely benefit from the taxes that they contribute.  As stated in Myth #2 above, they do not get free healthcare.  They do not collect Social Security.  If anything, if we successfully deport all undocumented immigrants, we will remove their contribution (nearly $90 billion in 2023 in taxes) to our country.

This is a net negative. 

Myth #4: They are criminals

Let’s say you have two neighbors to your right and your left.  One is a US citizen; the other is an immigrant.  Statistically, the US citizen is more likely to be a criminal than the immigrant.  Some politicians assert, “They’re not bringing their best.”  This is unfounded.  In fact, the ‘not-their-best’ who enter our country are better than our own citizens.  This is not my opinion; this is backed by statistics.

Let’s say that ICE deports your immigrant neighbors.  A new family moves into their house; your new neighbors are US citizens.  Since immigrants, especially undocumented immigrants, are less likely to commit crimes than native US citizens, you have effectively raised the crime rate in your neighborhood.

There are exceptions, of course.  ICE might’ve deported an undocumented immigrant with a history of felonies, and your new US citizen neighbor may be Pope Leo.  However, the law of averages will indicate that swapping an undocumented immigrant for a native US citizen will more likely increase the crime rates than not.  You could play Blackjack and hit on 19, but this is generally a bad choice.

Some will point out that undocumented immigrants are already criminals.  Not necessarily.  If someone gets a (student, travel, etc.) visa and stays past its expiration, it is not considered a crime:

As a general rule, it is not a crime for a removable alien to remain in the United States.

If you don’t care for that assessment, take it up with the Supreme Court.

As for those who actually crossed the borders without authorization.  This is a crime; it is generally a federal misdemeanor.  I suppose you can be pedantic and insist on calling these people criminals for a misdemeanor, but then you’ll agree that conviction on 34 felonies makes someone a felon.