A good third of the country is ready to kill immigrants as they view them as foreign invaders, mass perpetrators of heinous crimes, job usurpers, and parasites feeding hoggishly at the public trough. Of course, none of this happens to be true. This is the crooked tale told by political operatives to create a distraction such that the real political aims of the party in question remain well hidden from the voting public. In actuality, immigrants are crucial to maintaining the economy and spurring financial growth. They are critical to such industries as agriculture and construction, doing the work most Americans do not wish to do. As a general rule, they are underpaid to perform such work, receive no job-related benefits, but do pay taxes, to include those that fund Social Security and Medicare. For these reasons, their presence serves to keep inflation in check. And yet, as undocumented aliens, they receive no government-sanctioned benefits either. By the way, they are much more law-abiding that native Americans. Furthermore, these supposed invaders have often been recruited to do the work they do by businessmen and farmers and then unceremoniously sent home. This being the case, why are Americans so inflamed by the presence of immigrants in this country, this land of immigrants? Why do Republicans decry them, hunt them down in businesses, schools, hospitals, and churches, separate them from their children, never to be reunited, pen them up in concentration camps, and deport them without due process? Possible answers to the questions above include the following: 1. ignorance, 2. bigotry, 3. fear, and 4. hate. Don’t pick one. You’ve been duped twice: once by politicians and again by me. In this case, the correct answer is “All of the above.”