NO NO NO NO NO!!!

Mood: Aggravated
Music: El Canto del Loco - Porque no ser amigos

Call me a screaming toddler throwing an epic temper tantrum if you will, but NO NO NO I WON'T DO IT, I WON'T DO IT AND YOU CAN'T MAKE ME!!!

Okay, I understand that xenophobia is a problem in Costa Rican culture. Everyone hates Nicaraguans, Colombians, and Jamaicans, got it. They steal Costa Rican jobs, raise crime levels and the amount of drugs in the country, and reap the benefits of free health care from taxpayer money. Same as the Mexicans in the United States. Right.

But the Diputada is asking too much of me.

Last week, a 20 year old college student got caught in a cross fire outside of San José, and she was shot in the head. When agents of the OIJ caught up to the suspects and pursued them, one agent also wound up dead from gunshot wounds. It was later determined that the suspects were Jamaican.

So now, Doña Lesvia wants me to go through the Ley de Migración (Immigration Law) with a fine-tooth comb, and find a way to prohibit: recently arrived foreigners from marrying Costa Ricans, the children of undocumented immigrants from receiving Costa Rican citizenship, and the adquisition of citizenship for any person who is or was at some point an undocumented immigrant in Costa Rica. Additionally, she wants me to find a way to legalize the immediate deportation of any immigrant suspected of a crime, even before they are taken to trial.

I. WON'T. DO. IT. It goes against everything I stand for, every principle I believe in. Sure, the people who killed that girl and that law enforcement agent were Jamaicans. But that is not a reason to start discriminating against every person who comes to this country to seek a better life!!! Their means of entry may not always be entirely legal, but that's not saying that just because they enter the country in an unconventional manner that they will automatically turn into hardened criminals! I'm sorry, but this just isn't okay. This is punishing people who have nothing to do with the issue.

I'll go through the Ley de Migración with a fine-tooth comb all right. And I'll find everything I can to prove that she can't do this. ¡Viva la inmigración, el intercambio de culturas, y la multiculturalidad del pueblo costarricense!

Always pura vida, even when the ticos aren't,
Sarah

New words:
hampa - underworld
quisquilloso - fussy
morbosidad - perversity
conurbación - an aggregation or continuous network of urban communities
otrora - former, one-time
paulatina - gradual
acosar - harrass