Guantanamo

"No one alleges that Joseph was ever a terrorist, or a soldier, or a criminal. The military told him in 2002 he was innocent. Again in 2003. Again in 2006. He filed a habeas petition in 2005. He would be gone if the military could find a country to take him."

This from the Globe's op-ed page, by way of Mike: a "released" Guantanamo detainee urges his wife to leave him and get on with her life, because he'll never get out.

Here's an irony for you:

This country has worked itself up into a froth about America absorbing refugees and folks from other nations who want to feed their families, because a lot of them don't have any legal status and are commanding public resources. But then we have the folks in Guantanamo, determined to be innocent, who have homes in other nations and don't want to be here. Our government insists that they don't have any legal status, and we feel we have to keep them because the military can't "find a country to take them." And of course our so-dearly-bought public resources are paying for these people's involuntary room and board.

In short: it's okay to spend taxpayer money providing miserable subsistence-level provisioning for no-legal status foreigners who don't want to be here and are unable to contribute anything of value to the economy or to any local community. As to no-legal status foreigners who do want to be here and are working for their families and providing services to America's privileged native-born: screw 'em. They're living off our dime.

Nice one, America.