Just what does Mark McGuire and a migrant worker have in common?

Well, when I dwell on the idea that the government wants to crack down on illegal activities such as illegal immigration, I start to think of other activities that the government is trying to crack down on like the drug problem in professional sports. All of the same ideas connect illegal immigration reform and the steroids controversy plaguing sports. Everyone knows that something must be done. Efforts are being made to thwart (yes, I said THWART) both of these problems but are coming up short. Illegal immigrants are still crossing the border and athletes are still taking steroids. Neither problem has a definite solution and its impact in their desired fields is speculated extensively. The idea for this paper would mostly be to show the impact of these problems and how people and the government view them as problems.

Over the past couple of years, Congress had hearings on the steroid problem in professional baseball. The baseball players at that hearing were, to name a few, Jose Canseco, Rafael Palmero and good old Mark McGuire. All testified that they either never took steroids or questioned why they were being asked that question (McGuire mostly). Bud Selig, commissioner of the MLB, started to enforce stronger penalties for offenders. At the same time, legislature throughout the country are trying to do the same thing with illegal immigration. Trying to enforce stronger penalties on illegal immigrants. In my perspective, Mark McGuire trying to shy away from admitting he took steroids (because we all know he did) or Rafael Palmero lying to Congress that he never and would never take steroids (he was caught taking them a few months later) is about the same as someone trying to cross the border with a fake ID. The ID is fake and the person knows it but they want to try and con somebody into believing them for their own benefit.

The premise of this entire paper is to show a couple things. First, it is to show how damaging this problem is to society (since kids look up to professional athletes) in relation to how illegal immigration is damaging society. Second, it is to show how the government is acting towards this issue when they do not have to (with stricter penalties being enforced and congressional hearings). This will link with how much the government should act towards the illegal immigration problem, which is something that the government IS responsible for. Another look on these topics is how people are sympathetic of both issues. For the steroids use, having record books with asterisks next to names to show the record was made by someone who used steroids. For illegal immigration, amnesty for those who cross the border illegally.