In a previous edition you have heard me complain loud and clear about the threat we face, as a nation, as a society and as an economy, from the invasion, of illegal immigrants. Apologists for illegal behavior, bleeding heart liberals, and unethical politicians only interested in keeping some voting groups happy are more than eager to sell out our interests.
Not that George W. Bush or his administration have done anything to stop the flow of good jobs out of the country legally or the flow of illegal immigrants into the country. The loser mentality he displayed by saying 11 million is too large a number to deport was just another way of hanging Welcome signs in Spanish for the next 11 million to crawl across the border.
Much that I disagree with the right wing social conservatives on how they try to shove religion into our government, I do have to say Thank You to them for putting pressure on Bush and others to do something about big government and illegal immigration. According to a story in the New York Times, they have even threatened to withhold support from Republicans this midterm election, which may be the best thing that could happen to our country. It would force a little bit of national accountability on our elected leaders and help bring about some balance into our government.
It seems that, George Bush, is going to do the minimum he can do to make it look like he is doing something about it, and that is what he will be discussing in a speech this evening. Apparently he is going to suggest using the National Guard to try to stem the flood, the invasion, that is going on through our border with Mexico.
In my humble opinion, even that is a small, minimum step and not enough. Yet, already, people are speaking out to oppose the plan. And they are not saying that it is not enough but are finding excuses that even this little pathetic step is not taken to defend our borders or stop this INVASION of our nation. That is SHAMEFUL.
Some are making the excuse that the national guard is stretched thin. That is such a lame excuse NOT to use what we have. YES, the National Guard is stretched thin because of our STUPID decision to invade Iraq, that did NOT attack us, while we are being invaded by a silent enemy from the South. So, yes, let’s bring the national guard back from Iraq but let us not hesitate to use them to protect our borders.
Others are saying we need more border patrols. Yes. Let’s spend the money we gave away in tax cuts to the rich on hiring more border agents and at least try to look like we care about having a border that no one else gives a damn about.
Some others are making it a humanitarian issue. Oh, these poor people come across the border to work that no one else will do. What baloney. Businesses and society will pay fair wages to Americans who will do any honorable job IF they are paid fair wages. The INVASION of illegal immigrants who come in and do work below market wages not only causes the middle class American worker to find no paying jobs, but any taxes he, you and I pay, are then spent financing the social services that these illegal non-tax-paying invaders suck up. If you don’t believe me, read a little on what is happening in California and states in that area.
Then we have George Bush’s good friend, Mr. Fox, the President of Mexico. Instead of having some shame that his country is so pathetic, so screwed up, so lousy to live in that MILLIONS would rather risk dying in a desert to come to America to clean toilets, he is telling US he does not like the idea of us patrolling our border with him. Shame on you Mr. Fox. Get YOUR house in order, get a grip on crime, get a grip on lawlessness, do something about your unemployment and your economy. Stop this invasion of our nation and stop complaining when even our incompetent President SEEMS like he is going to do something before his 29% approval rating drops to ZERO.
I would much rather have our soldiers back from our illegal war in Iraq, and have more of them hunting Bin Laden and even more of them protecting our homeland from this insidious invasion that has already started taking a toll on us. I would put electric fences and armed guards on our borders. Shoot first, ask questions later. If you want to come to our great nation, get in line, follow the rules.
We have already seen gang members, drug sellers and criminals come in jumping over fences and literally driving through tunnels. What’s stopping Bin Laden from using these same gangs and routes? So, come legally or get shot trying because we do not have the patience, the time or the opportunity to let even ONE AlQaeda agent slip in through Mexico. But, our politicians would rather make speeches about protecting us but not do anything to close our borders and stop this invasion.
My solution would be a little extreme but you know, this is just In My Humble Opinion.
8 comments:
This is all great rhetoric, for some European country. Like, say, France.
America, for better or worse (mostly for the better -- apparently) has had a very lax immigration policy.
This is why, when most other Western countries are worried sick about who will "support" them in their old age, the USA chugs right along with one of the youngest populations in the developed world.
It's all about immigration, legal AND illegal.
There are real solutions to this topic. America benefits far more from immigration of both legal and illegal varieties for anyone other than a demagogue like Lou Dobbs to really consider building a fence.
And even if we build a fence, what would we do with the tunnelers? Build a 20ft subterranean metal underground wall? What about the swimmers and boaters and the hang gliders ?
The bottom line is humans can walk, climb run and dig under almost any barrier. Sorry but it's true.
In fact, just as a thought experiment, imagine 1M people from Mexico just walking slowly across the fence/wall/barrier. Unless the USA military is willing to open fire on men, women and children, we have to admit that any kind of "fence" is illusory. Don't believe me? Just look at http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/africa/05/30/migrants.babies.ap/index.html
Disparity in incomes and living standards is driving pure desparation. If you want to live in a gated community, just make sure that the poor people outside the gates don't get too desparate.
A fence just makes you feel better just like the Israeli wall makes Israeli citizens feel better. Does anyone seriously think that terrorism will stop because the Israelis built a wall?
You speak passionately in CAPS about an INVASION. Think carefully, who is the invasion from? What are these so-called "invaders" doing ? Last time I checked, they're doing low tier jobs that the Irish, Italians, Chinese etc. etc. have all done when it was their turn.
So what are my solutions? Recognize that immigration continues to build this country. Ronnie Reagan was brilliant in that he absorbed millions of illegals, regularized them and made them productive members of society. The last amnesty worked. We need to do it again. If we need to extract some fees from the immigrants, so be it. The other solution to this is to stop living in a fool's paradise and admit that our "real" need for immigrants is about 10x of what we say it is and amend the laws. Let poorer people come in legitimately, let unkilled workers come etc. That at least admits the truth.
What had been the great difference between us and the French? Us and the Germans ? Us and the Danes? It's that we welcome and deal with immigrants AND that we we DONT (UNlike the French etc.) condemn illegals to forever live a hidden existence. Every so often, we conduct an amnesty and clear the decks.
You make some great points. But one simple fact remains. Previous waves of immigrants came here, learnt the language, assimilated, paid taxes (unless they were Italian mobsters :) ), and raised the quality of this country. Watch what the current breed of invading hoards does.... they are ghettoizing America, we are paying for them to drop countless babies in hospitals at our expense, and EVERY neighborhood they assemble in becomes dirtier, worse off, than before they arrived. Sorry. I am not racist, I am an immigrant too and say this from simply driving through areas where these people swarm.
Imran
The "don't break laws" issue is vacuous IMHO guys. The issue is that the legitimate demand in a capitalistic economy for immigrants is at least 10x higher than people have been programmed to believe in this country.
Witness the hordes of working middle class people that are totally dependent on immigrant servants (oh yes, we don't like to admit that we have servants here, but just go visit any wealthy suburb and see who's taking care of the children, who's cutting the grass, who's blowing the leaves).
Think of the second order results of choking the flow of these "servants". You'd see two income spouses become an endangered species with the consequent drop in USA GDP and standard of living everywhere. Corporations would then become even more callous of people (after all a working spouse is a buffer against capricious corporations) and you'd see some serious erosion in the quality of life for us all.
THIS is a core of the issue and this is what the Europeans have never understood.
You speak confidently and smugly about "ghettos" and talk about "dropping babies" with gusto. Ask yourself a couple of questions: Europe has had a low tolerance for immigrants and had treated them extremely harshly. They have done all the social engineering that you covet and to what end?? Are the Europeans missing immigrant "ghettos" ??? Far from it, mon ami. Far from it. Paris is a tinderkeg. Frankfurt is rife with 3rd generation immigrants who are still called "auslanders".
In fact the worst "ghettos" that I have had the misfortune to see in the USA are the sad result of segregation and injustice against african americans, not immigrants. My contention is that the harshness you advocate would simply build new immigrant ghettos which, unlike the immigrant communities of today which are left behind as the immigrants get rich, would become dead end, lawless hell holes.
In other words, welcome to France.
Bad laws like alcohol prohibition have been flouted throughout history. What we are seeing today is the result of laws that have distorted the labor market and made legitimate low-tier, unskilled work tantamount to crime.
Think about it Imran. They are hard working, brown skinned people like you, only they don't have the benefit of a college degree. They come to do menial labor.
If you had not been part of the Pakistani creme de la creme, with the great benefit of education/travel etc. would YOU have done any different ? Judging from the entrepreneurial skills you've shown, I think not.
The reality is that the American standard of living is contingent on a lot of low cost labor well below legal min wages. I don't see Joe and Jane six pack volunteering to move from their McMansion to a 2 bdrm apt. any time soon (remember that Mc mansions are not "normal" in the world --many married people live in 2 bdrm apts with parents to boot --americans in the 50s made do with much smaller houses etc.). Yet people are quite happy to unload on Jose who cuts the grass and Juanita who takes care of the babies!
Think about, Anonymous. I did not say throw out brown skinned or uneducated or ugly or Mexicans only. THROW OUT ALL ILLEGALS, including, sadly for me if it comes to that, any members of the Swedish Bikini team here illegally.
If we need so much cheap labor, then the market will drive us to have more visas for them.
If you are here ILLEGALLY, you GO BACK. Simple.
Europe has ghettoes NOT because they have ILLEGAL immigration as a problem but because they treat their legal AND illegal immigrants, especially brown or black colored ones, like shit. We are more democratic, we treat every one not playing basketball, on TV, in Congress or a friend of Bush/Cheney as shit. Big difference.
I repeat - ILLEGALS, OUT. Get back in line, and then come over legally. Thank you... or gracias I guess for the most part.
Imran
Do you make any distinction between stupid laws (laws prohibiting drinking, laws that constrain what consenting adults do in bedrooms etc.) and reasonable laws? IMHO, the current set of immigration laws are as stupid or stupider than prohibition laws enacted in an earlier era by self-righteous demagogues. Clearly this issue has attracted some of the selfsame types (Lou Dobbs wanting to set up latter day boxcar deporation etc.). The demagogues find an easy mark with Joe Bloe who has never travelled outside the USA, is scared of brown people "dropping babies" and fears the "dirtier" neighborhoods. At the same time Joe screams about building a machine-gun equipped wall at the border, he blithely munches strawberries that he pays almost nothing for [grown and picked by "illegals"], enjoys having clean manicured parks [cleaned by "illegals"], loves his wonderful McMansion [built by "illegals"] and enjoys the super deals at his neighborhood strip mall restaurant [cooked by "illegals"].
Any appeal to Joe Bloe should (for intellectual honesty if nothing else) include the new costs he and his wife would have to bear sans Juan and Juanita. Then we'd have a hope of a reasoned dialogue. At the moment this is all shrill demagoguery that is raising people's fear of the "other". Joe should be shown the "true" cost of a purely "legal" society from his food bill to his house bill to his childcare bill. Chances are that Joe may change his attitude about illegals.
If you're really so concerned about "illegals", please focus your attention on the 5-6 million Indian students, German wives, Italian parents, Swedish au pairs, Irish musicians, etc. etc. (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,198366,00.html) who overstay their visas and are also "illegal" immigrants.
Isn't it strange that no one mentions these people ?
The silence is deafening when compared to the self-righteous roar on poorer, less pretty immigrants who may look different, speak spanish or eat tortillas.
Isn't it strange that we're smugly comfortable using near-racist terms when speaking of poor illegals who come to do menial work ("brown", "dropping babies", "dirty" etc.) and yet are prfoundly silent about the 50% of illegals that look like us, work in surburbia ?
If this isn't blatant racism, I don't know what is. If you are so dead set on building walls and deporting illegals, would you speak loudly on your blog against the "other 50%" ? Would you set up a town patrol in your neighborhood to catch errant European nannies who may have overstayed their summer work permit or is your wrath reserved solely for the poorer hispanic 50% (viz. walls on the border etc.)?
> 5-6 million Indian students, German wives, Italian
> parents, Swedish au pairs, Irish musicians, etc. etc.
Read my lips, if someone is here illegally, from Mexico OR any country, they should be thrown out.
However, can you please share some numbers on how many of the above "5-6 million Indian students, German wives, Italian parents, Swedish au pairs, Irish musicians, etc. etc. " do not speak English, go on welfare, drop babies in hospitals whose bills taxpayers foot AND who ghettoize cities they swarm as locusts into? Thank you.
Stop trying to whine the racism cry-baby card, get illegals out, if there's 12 million Mexicans, kick them all out. If there's 12 million illegal Swedes, kick them out. Happy?
Imran
Well if you had said "Mr. Bush get rid of all illegals, including the white ones" one could have some sense of balance in the discussion.
Unfortunately you spoke about erecting a wall. Now if you had said that you want armed cops checking immigration status of *everyone* in Patchogue Long Island (since many overstayeers look like you and I), you may have had a point (a completely lunatic point ;-) but a point). No sirree you chose to play the Lou Dobbs "fear the brownie" card with your border strategy and "dropping babies" comments.
Give equal time to how you plan for the police to arrest and deport the other 50% of illegals otherwise you're just exhibiting some grudge against Mexicans.
And as for facts here are some: many legal first gen immigrants who import their parents from abroad on permanent residence visas is going on welfare these days (Medicaid). Just check around your own Indian/Pakistani/Bangladehsi community and you'll find doctors and lawyers declaring their own parents indigent so they don't have to pay the ludicrous premiums (another stupid law that reasonable people circumvent). Perhaps legal immigrants are also locusts eh?
As for dropping babies, I know of several students who are overstays and have had children at local hospital emergency rooms. Maybe we need to view them as a plague of locusts right?
MANY overstayers, especially from the "old countries" speak broken English (see older Iranians in Los Angeles, elder Indians etc.). Are they locusts ?
Before you call other human beings locusts (a frightening dehumanizing term used in the past by Germans), take a look in the mirror.
I do not see Irish, Germans, Swedes, coming over in swarms (like locusts), but if they are here illegally, they should go. It seems you only see racism in everything... just like some Black leaders will bitch and moan about the color of Congressman Jackson or whatever his name is, though he was videotaped taking a bribe AND the money was found in his home fridge, you are complaining about my attacking 'brownies'... have you seen a picture of me (you're posting anonymously, so you could be a neighbor for all I know) ? I am pretttttty brown... so where is this baloney claim of racism coming from. Illegal Mexicans are the ones you can STAND at the border and see RUNNING across the border (swarms), congregating in places and messing it up (see parts of Long Island, NY, or California, or AZ) like locusts. If 12 million Chinese were swimming in from the Atlantic Ocean, we could consider building a sea wall.. since HALF A MILLION ILLEGAL MEXICAN HOARDS swarm in EVERY YEAR from MEXICO, forgive me for asking for a WALL to be built on the MEXICAN border and not around Germany or Sweden or the Atlantic Ocean.
Imran
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