Illegal invasion
News ·Thursday April 13, 2006 @ 00:52 EDT (link)
Wherein I rant about the current immigration issues.
I'll start with apropos quote that dear old Dad (in-law) sent me after reading the original item:
In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the person's becoming in every facet an American, and nothing but an American.... There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag.... We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language... and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people.
—Theodore Roosevelt, 1907
First, it's not immigration if you sneaked across the border or hid in a truck or otherwise got here illegally. Someone that did so is not an "undocumented worker", as if they just mislaid their papers or someone forgot to issue them. They are an illegal invader, or just "illegal", a tresspasser, and a criminal. As a legal immigrant who filled out all the paperwork and paid the required fees, any talk of "amnesty" is intensely annoying; it's usually just pandering for votes, anyway (and you won't get mine when I get my citizenship, which I should be eligible to file for within the year).
Where to begin? There's so much wrong with the situation, from understaffed, underequipped, and unsupported border ("ICE") agents to the bleeding heart open borders twits to the Mexican flags at the recent protests.
I suppose the protests would be a good place to start: since the illegals were all conveniently together, it would have been a great opportunity to round them up, check their papers, and deport them. Yes, I support deporting 11+ million people. Just because you've been breaking the law and gotten away with it for a while, and even gotten comfortable, doesn't mean I owe you anything. Of course, removing them doesn't do any good if they'll just turn around and sneak back in again, so we need a fence, too.
Jobs Americans won't do:
"What harm do they do?", one may ask. After all, they do "jobs Americans won't do". Do they? Rush Limbaugh, April 3 (radio):
... What is this silliness that Americans won't do these jobs? Somebody tell that to the West Virginia coal miners. Somebody tell that to the Americans, those lazy Americans in Iraq on the battlefield.
This notion that there are jobs Americans will not do is getting a little bit histrionic to me. I'm sick and tired of being told by these elites in Washington, these politicians how we all refuse to work. They seem to think we're all raised like Ted Kennedy or married into wealth like John Kerry. The American people work. They work damn hard. The economy and the numbers there prove it but yet we're told, "No, no, no! The Americans are lazy. They're uppity. There are certain jobs that they will not do."
Well, check the coal mines. Check the military. I don't see any illegals there.
I liked another quote that I can't find now, that states that America was founded and became strong because there was no job that Americans wouldn't do.
They're cheaper:
So, perhaps the story is that they work for lower pay than Americans would; well, if that's below minimum wage, that's illegal, Go Directly to Jail and Do Not Pass Go. But let's assume it's above minimum wage, but citizens and legal residents ("legals") aren't lining up to work for you; perhaps working as a cashier or in food preparation is preferable to picking strawberries in the sun. Well, that's sad, but let me let you in on a little secret on how you can get workers: pay more money. "Ah, but it's not that simple! Farmers can't survive without illegal workers." Respect the Invisible Hand.
So, you pay 1.5x minimum wage, and people—legal people—start applying to work for you. You pass on the cost to the consumer. Ideally, they gripe but everyone has to pay this wage so they pay the higher cost, but then pay less income tax because they're no longer supporting the Mexican welfare state. Less ideally, growers are undercut by foreign imports and start to go out of business, but congress comes up with tarriffs and subsidies to save the day (protectionism? what's that... well, let's just say it's an encouragement to buy local).
Open borders, free movement of capital:
The idea is that borders should be open and capital free to move where it wants, which seems libertarian (but isn't necessarily). Sounds like a fine idea, except that with the United States' social programs (also called "entitlement programs", usually by those opposed to them), the US ends up bearing the costs of the poor, criminal, and uneducated that move here: welfare, hospital stays, incarceration, policing, housing increases, etc. If those were dispensed with, it might make more sense to allow open borders (but with no handouts, would they still come?) but it would also be a country of small fiefdoms with a lot of anarchy in between.
Where do your loyalties lie?
If you're coming to live in a country, your loyalties had better be with that country, and you'd better try to fit into it, not it to you. Previous waves of immigrants haven't demanded the US speak their language and provide government forms in their language, but the hispanics have, and they're getting it. That translates to higher costs to taxpayers, and to Spanish-speaking ghettoes springing up in cities across the country. It's Mexican flags and reconquista.
Sure, bring your culture here, but give it to the melting pot, don't try to impose it. I'm from Canada, but as a permanent resident of these United States, my loyalty is to the United States; I don't send money back to Canada, and I don't fly a Canadian flag. The freedoms I have here would allow me to do all of that, but I chose to come here, and it is my home. Billions of dollars that could be spent here flow from the US to Mexico; if legals had the jobs, I'm fairly confident that the money would remain in the US.
It's not amnesty if they have to pay a fine!
A fine is a slap on the wrist and an encouragement of illegal behavior. If someone breaks into a house, you don't fine them and let them keep their loot. They forfeit anything they've taken, and their liberty besides. Illegals should be rounded up, have DNA samples taken to prevent re-entry, and be sent back across the border, possessions forfeit, to be sold by the government at auction.
What about the chylllllldrun?
What about them? The parents chose to have them while illegal; personally I think their citizenship should be revoked and they should be turfed out with the parents. At the least, minor children should be sent back to Mexico with their parents. Children of illegals (or even legal immigrants), so-called "anchor babies", should not become citizens just by dint of birth within the borders of the US; that's a ridiculous interpretation of the 14th amendment: illegals are breaking the law by their very presence.
How can employers know?
The US social security administration is very willing to verify the legality of SSNs; it's not a breach of privacy because the employer provides the information to the government, which only returns back whether the potential employee is legal or not—no other information.
As in many cases, the way to get rid of the problem is to reduce demand (consider illegal drugs, for example); this can be done by heavily fining those employing illegals, and jailing those responsible (a $100,000 fine per illegal and 60 days in jail, per illegal worker, should do nicely).
A net gain:
So, fruits and vegetables cost a little more; the price of some goods go up, as services previously performed by illegals (janitorial work, construction) now cost more when done by legals, and must be factored into costs. But everyone's playing on a level field: farmer John can't hire illegals, but farmer Fred can't either, and if either does, the fines will probably put them out of business. With no-one hiring, the illegals go home; the government stops providing Spanish versions of anything, social service costs in the border states and areas with high illegal concentration fall, local spending increases, and everyone's taxes are reduced. With less illegals, legal immigration quotas are raised.
And America is back on the straight and narrow path, strong, self-sufficient, independent, free.
(Unfortunately, it'll probably never work. Republicans are in the pockets of big businesses that want illegals for cheap labor, and Democrats want to throw (our) money at them to pander to the hispanics to get their vote—probably the votes of those given citizenship by the 1986 amnesty; look how well that turned out.)
