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Restaurants closed, kids stayed home from school, workers didnt show up. It was a nationwide strike on Thursday, Feb. 16, billed as a day without immigrants.

Coming on the heels of roundups of undocumented immigrants nationwide, organizers urged legal residents as well as undocumented ones to participate in the boycott in response to President Trump's crackdown on immigration, USA Today reported Thursday.

Businesses survived this boycott. But here on the Shore, watermelon growers, chicken companies, and other businesses would be in real trouble if that day without immigrants stretched into a week, or became permanent.

For some, a crackdown on illegal immigrants is simple moral logic. Theyve broken the law. They should have gotten in line and done it the right way, as so many thousands of legal immigrants have.

This argument sounds like common sense, but it has a major flaw: It presupposes a fair and functional immigration system that gives people a realistic opportunity to come here.

The reality is more complicated.

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According to the American Immigration Council, 675,000 people worldwide are allowed to come to the United States legally each year. There are also 140,000 employment visas.

That sounds like a lot of people. But it excludes a great many would-be immigrants. Only 7 percent of the total can come from any one country, according to the council, and family members of immigrants are given preference. Employment visas are temporary, restrictive, and require a company to sponsor the candidate.

How does that affect the waiting list? Again according to the American Immigration Council, as of May 2016, on average unmarried children of citizens must wait more than five years to come in, and siblings of citizens must wait more than 10 years. Depending on what country youre from, it could be a lot worse. Married children of citizens from Mexico must wait more than 20 years, and Filipino siblings wait about 25 years, the council says. These are people who are given preference.

Unauthorized immigrants who want to regularize their status in this country cannot just get in line, the council says on its website. There are lines, but a large number of aspiring immigrants are not eligible to be in any of them.

So yes, thousands of immigrants do it the right way, but many, many more, in practical terms, cant. So when a legal immigrant says, I did it the right way, so they should too, her feelings are understandable, but not reasonable. Its a little like saying I won the lottery, so you should too.

If it were practical to come legally, why would people risk rape, terrible conditions and death in the desert with human smugglers, then live here under the shadow of deportation?

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To make matters worse, weve had a wink, wink, nudge relationship with illegal immigration for decades. The government seems to be playing a cynical game in which it puts up with illegal immigration to help out the workforce, while refusing to deal with a political hot potato and actually reform the system. Our businesses have said to immigrants, in essence, if you can get here, well hire you. Now we want to make immigrants the only scapegoat.

Thats why telling immigrants just do it the right way in our current system is simplistic, flippantand ill-informed.

Militarizing the border and uprooting families who have been working here and contributing to our nation for decades is not a humane or moral solution, even though its painted as simply enforcing the laws.

The better, more compassionate solution is to open the way for many more people to come legally. Lets find a way to welcome immigrants.

Andrew Sharp is a producer at The Daily Times and delmarvanow.com. Email him at asharp@dmg.gannett.com. Find him on Twitter @buckeye_201 and on Facebook @andrewsharp201.

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Why illegal immigrants don't just 'get in line' - Delmarva Daily Times