Thursday, March 30, 2006
Illegal Immigration Problems
This evening I ate dinner with my son at a restaurant that had a TV mounted on the will with closed captioning turned on. FoxNews was tuned in. First, I caught pieces of O'Reilly and then Hannity and Colmes. Much of the discussion on both shows centered around illegal immigration. On the way home from dinner, I listened to Michael Savage on his typical insane, mad man rant. (Insane, mad man is his appeal.) It centered on illegal immigration. Last Saturday, I happened to be in the car listening to the radio when President Bush gave his weekly radio address. It focused on illegal immigration.
One thought struck me over and over again, the illegal immigration is screwed up from top to bottom and nothing they are planning on doing now will probably make much difference. Illegal immigration has become rampant because of lack of enforcement of our immigration laws. Making new tougher, different, more lenient laws probably won't make much difference. Enforcing the laws we already have probably would.
John McCain was on Hannity & Colmes. They talked about how many illegals were in the country, how much it would cost to round them up and deport them, etc. There are millions of illegals because McCain and his ilk sat around and did nothing while the problem festered and grew to epidemic proportions. Which is also why it would cost so much to round them up and deport them. Now McCain claims to have a solution to the problem he helped create. Don't bet on it.
Savage played bits of Dianne Feinstein's comments on the Senate floor. I just remember her saying, "some would call them illegal immigrants..." or something very close to that with the affect that she was having trouble considering illegal immigration illegal. It appears "undocumented worker" is the politically correct term.
It struck me that most, if not all, of the Senators are rich, powerful people who will enjoy wealth and its trappings for a long time to come. "Undocumented workers" will never be a threat to them but will provide plenty of landscaping services for their estates. Middle class and the lower classes of legitimate U.S citizens are the ones threatened by "undocumented workers." With "undocumented workers" willing to work below minimum wage and/or well below prevailing wage, legal citizens without special skills find it increasingly difficult to find work.
In his weekly address last Saturday, President Bush reverted to a worn out, blatantly false piece of crap phrase, that the "undocumented workers" are "doing the work that Americans won't do." Hogwash. Again, plenty of Americans want to do the work but Americans must be paid minimum wage and/or the prevailing wage. Americans won't work for less. "Undocumented workers" will.
The overwhelming majority of these politicians are maneuvering to try and look good while hoping to allow the businesses and the people who fund their campaigns to continue to make profits off exploiting the "undocumented workers" while Americans could use the work.
But a great part of the problem lies in that while Americans would do the work for a legal wage, there may well be more work needed to be done than Americans able to do it. We have allowed "undocumented workers" to freely enter into our country for so long that we are as economically dependent on them as they are on us.
If we consistently enforced immigration laws, over time the problem of "undocumented workers" would diminish. Virtually all the "undocumented workers" from Mexico return to Mexico on a regular basis. Simply make sure that in order to return they do so legally. This is not a quick fix but a slow fix may be better. The economy can adjust, businesses can adjust, no need for the 200,000 buses George Will says we would need to ship everybody back. They would eventually almost all go back by themselves.
But the Senators, Congressmen and Congresswomen, President Bush and all the other politicos need to cut the new speak. The problem is squarely their fault. In reality it seems unlikely they will effectively do anything to remedy it unless we vote out a significant number of them.
Final thoughts: What kind of pathetic country is Mexico any way? Literally millions of its citizens must leave it each year and work for meager, subpar wages in order to eke out a living. When you compare the standard of living in Mexico to the U.S. or Canada it's no wonder so many come here to work. What is a mystery is why demonstrators, of Mexican descent or whatever, would carry the flag of a country that can't provide the opportunity to earn enough to keep one's self or one's family alive for millions of its hard working citizens.
One thought struck me over and over again, the illegal immigration is screwed up from top to bottom and nothing they are planning on doing now will probably make much difference. Illegal immigration has become rampant because of lack of enforcement of our immigration laws. Making new tougher, different, more lenient laws probably won't make much difference. Enforcing the laws we already have probably would.
John McCain was on Hannity & Colmes. They talked about how many illegals were in the country, how much it would cost to round them up and deport them, etc. There are millions of illegals because McCain and his ilk sat around and did nothing while the problem festered and grew to epidemic proportions. Which is also why it would cost so much to round them up and deport them. Now McCain claims to have a solution to the problem he helped create. Don't bet on it.
Savage played bits of Dianne Feinstein's comments on the Senate floor. I just remember her saying, "some would call them illegal immigrants..." or something very close to that with the affect that she was having trouble considering illegal immigration illegal. It appears "undocumented worker" is the politically correct term.
It struck me that most, if not all, of the Senators are rich, powerful people who will enjoy wealth and its trappings for a long time to come. "Undocumented workers" will never be a threat to them but will provide plenty of landscaping services for their estates. Middle class and the lower classes of legitimate U.S citizens are the ones threatened by "undocumented workers." With "undocumented workers" willing to work below minimum wage and/or well below prevailing wage, legal citizens without special skills find it increasingly difficult to find work.
In his weekly address last Saturday, President Bush reverted to a worn out, blatantly false piece of crap phrase, that the "undocumented workers" are "doing the work that Americans won't do." Hogwash. Again, plenty of Americans want to do the work but Americans must be paid minimum wage and/or the prevailing wage. Americans won't work for less. "Undocumented workers" will.
The overwhelming majority of these politicians are maneuvering to try and look good while hoping to allow the businesses and the people who fund their campaigns to continue to make profits off exploiting the "undocumented workers" while Americans could use the work.
But a great part of the problem lies in that while Americans would do the work for a legal wage, there may well be more work needed to be done than Americans able to do it. We have allowed "undocumented workers" to freely enter into our country for so long that we are as economically dependent on them as they are on us.
If we consistently enforced immigration laws, over time the problem of "undocumented workers" would diminish. Virtually all the "undocumented workers" from Mexico return to Mexico on a regular basis. Simply make sure that in order to return they do so legally. This is not a quick fix but a slow fix may be better. The economy can adjust, businesses can adjust, no need for the 200,000 buses George Will says we would need to ship everybody back. They would eventually almost all go back by themselves.
But the Senators, Congressmen and Congresswomen, President Bush and all the other politicos need to cut the new speak. The problem is squarely their fault. In reality it seems unlikely they will effectively do anything to remedy it unless we vote out a significant number of them.
Final thoughts: What kind of pathetic country is Mexico any way? Literally millions of its citizens must leave it each year and work for meager, subpar wages in order to eke out a living. When you compare the standard of living in Mexico to the U.S. or Canada it's no wonder so many come here to work. What is a mystery is why demonstrators, of Mexican descent or whatever, would carry the flag of a country that can't provide the opportunity to earn enough to keep one's self or one's family alive for millions of its hard working citizens.
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You are probably correct about "criminal and/or tax penalties for employers who pay substandard wages." Oddly, while I don't like illegal immigration, I'm not angry at the illegal immigrants themselves just our governmental bodies that de facto support illegal immigration.
In the area where I live we get a lot of illegal immigrants who do farm work. They work very hard for wages less than what local help was paid 10 or 15 years ago. The overwhelming majority return to Mexico during the cold months or when they have enough money to get through until the next year (which is not much apparently).
I know one immigrant, now legal (I'm not sure if he was originally illegal or not). He is from Mexico City. The level of crime and governmental corruption he describes would be intolerable anywhere in the U.S. He says someone could rob and murder you in public and the police would do nothing to catch the perpetrators. He will visit for a short period a couple of times a year.
From what I've heard and read governmental corruption in Mexico is far beyond anything we ever seen in the U.S. in terms of scale and breadth.
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In the area where I live we get a lot of illegal immigrants who do farm work. They work very hard for wages less than what local help was paid 10 or 15 years ago. The overwhelming majority return to Mexico during the cold months or when they have enough money to get through until the next year (which is not much apparently).
I know one immigrant, now legal (I'm not sure if he was originally illegal or not). He is from Mexico City. The level of crime and governmental corruption he describes would be intolerable anywhere in the U.S. He says someone could rob and murder you in public and the police would do nothing to catch the perpetrators. He will visit for a short period a couple of times a year.
From what I've heard and read governmental corruption in Mexico is far beyond anything we ever seen in the U.S. in terms of scale and breadth.
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