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March 27, 2006
The New Civil Rights Cause
Replacing the Civil Rights movement of the 1960's is the new (or should I say, nuevo?) civil rights movements for our oppressed, quasi-legal, citizens, who are almost regular-legal-American-citizens, except for one small detail, they were born citizens of Mexico (cont)
and elsewhere south of the border. A technicality of "birth location", that's all.
But, that one small technicality seems to be a big problem for the INS charged with enforcing our immigration regulations and laws. Millions of almost-legal citizens, be it not for this "birth location" tiff, say they should not be held accountable for that and certainly not punished by extradition, fines or incarceration!
Huddled masses without passes, what should we do, America?
The exact number of illegal citizens is not known, because they are undocumented, but those people who make their living by getting elected to high office say it's between 11 and 12 million potential voters and that's a sizeable lobby and it's caused both parties to be catering to them, never mind the legalities. That number is large enough, some say, to start dictating terms to the government, not vice versa. Recently, angry mobs of illegals in Los Angeles have taken to the streets in such numbers that the INS and Border Patrol were too terrified to come near them.
The illegals argue they are needed to fill the jobs that the regular citizens don't want and that many industries depend on them. Those opposed say that's not entirely true, if those jobs were paying at least minimum wage, plenty of American citizens would want them, but illegals short circuit the system. Illegal employers say it's not so much about minimum wage as it is work ethics. They say they hire illegals because they work hard and tend to be more reliable than low wage American workers addicted to welfare. And the addicted welfare recipients say welfare pays better than working hard for a mere minimum wage; they have no incentive to work. Welfare recipients are a huge lobbying force too, catered too by democrats who want to keep them there and keep their votes.
It's a mess out there!
Unfortunately, our best estimates tell us that, even if everything the employers and the illegals say is true, the American citizens come up short. Illegals are still costing taxpayers much more than they put back into the system. We (taxpayers) payout more to keep illegals here than all the money they generate, much of which is sent to Mexico to help their economy, not ours. So from a purely economic reason, illegal immigration is not cost effective, except for a few big employers that benefit enormously.
Are we a country of laws or are we a wide open country for immigration?
The polls say an overwhelming majority of Americans, and that includes Hispanic-Americans, want illegal immigration stopped because of the many problems it brings them: Such as, higher crime and the drain on limited law enforcement resources, as evidenced by the disproportional number of illegals represented in our prisons. In California they are the largest number of inmates per capita.
Illegals have bankrupted many hospitals along the southern border and as their numbers increase, the drain on hospital budgets is spreading into the heartland and that raises serious concerns how long we can continue before it overwhelms our medical system. Of course there is the higher costs for education, social services and a host of other drains on our limited resources. There is also the fear of epidemics and thrid world diseases spread by uncontrolled immigration.
So, why aren't the politicians paying attention to the polls? Because the American voter is a push over compared to the very active, very vocal, very manipulating, special interest groups that pressure politicians and pay generously in campaign contributions.
As wealthy as America may be, many of us are slowly beginning to realize we do have limits that are being reached.
One compelling idea to temporarily relieve this economic/immigration crisis would be to raise taxes. Many fear, if we do that, the higher taxes would slow the economy and that would lead us backwards to higher unemployment like we had in the Carter years. Eventually this would mean lower tax revenue for the government. Government would then have to either make serious cuts in benefits, military and social programs (not likely) or increase taxes again to make up for the loss revenue and so the cycle continues until?
This is a very real fear and we've been down this road before with tax and spend liberals.
One thing is for sure, this is a real crisis and it won't be solved by ignoring it. The House acted and passed a guest worker program, but the Senate didn't like it and wanted to ad a provision that would entitled the guest workers to file for citizenship...the President, who was elected with the help of a large Hispanic vote, may feel once again compelled to take very minimal (band aide) action, as we've seen in his first term in office.
Congress, and our local Representative, Wally Herger-R, have assured us the guest worker program is the way to go. Even though they acknowledge that current illegal immigration laws are not being enforced. Despite some slight improvements to border security, we still have a very porous southern border! So, the logic of why a guest worker program would be anymore enforceable than previous laws, remains a mystery to most voters.
and elsewhere south of the border. A technicality of "birth location", that's all.
But, that one small technicality seems to be a big problem for the INS charged with enforcing our immigration regulations and laws. Millions of almost-legal citizens, be it not for this "birth location" tiff, say they should not be held accountable for that and certainly not punished by extradition, fines or incarceration!
Huddled masses without passes, what should we do, America?
The exact number of illegal citizens is not known, because they are undocumented, but those people who make their living by getting elected to high office say it's between 11 and 12 million potential voters and that's a sizeable lobby and it's caused both parties to be catering to them, never mind the legalities. That number is large enough, some say, to start dictating terms to the government, not vice versa. Recently, angry mobs of illegals in Los Angeles have taken to the streets in such numbers that the INS and Border Patrol were too terrified to come near them.
The illegals argue they are needed to fill the jobs that the regular citizens don't want and that many industries depend on them. Those opposed say that's not entirely true, if those jobs were paying at least minimum wage, plenty of American citizens would want them, but illegals short circuit the system. Illegal employers say it's not so much about minimum wage as it is work ethics. They say they hire illegals because they work hard and tend to be more reliable than low wage American workers addicted to welfare. And the addicted welfare recipients say welfare pays better than working hard for a mere minimum wage; they have no incentive to work. Welfare recipients are a huge lobbying force too, catered too by democrats who want to keep them there and keep their votes.
It's a mess out there!
Unfortunately, our best estimates tell us that, even if everything the employers and the illegals say is true, the American citizens come up short. Illegals are still costing taxpayers much more than they put back into the system. We (taxpayers) payout more to keep illegals here than all the money they generate, much of which is sent to Mexico to help their economy, not ours. So from a purely economic reason, illegal immigration is not cost effective, except for a few big employers that benefit enormously.
Are we a country of laws or are we a wide open country for immigration?
The polls say an overwhelming majority of Americans, and that includes Hispanic-Americans, want illegal immigration stopped because of the many problems it brings them: Such as, higher crime and the drain on limited law enforcement resources, as evidenced by the disproportional number of illegals represented in our prisons. In California they are the largest number of inmates per capita.
Illegals have bankrupted many hospitals along the southern border and as their numbers increase, the drain on hospital budgets is spreading into the heartland and that raises serious concerns how long we can continue before it overwhelms our medical system. Of course there is the higher costs for education, social services and a host of other drains on our limited resources. There is also the fear of epidemics and thrid world diseases spread by uncontrolled immigration.
So, why aren't the politicians paying attention to the polls? Because the American voter is a push over compared to the very active, very vocal, very manipulating, special interest groups that pressure politicians and pay generously in campaign contributions.
As wealthy as America may be, many of us are slowly beginning to realize we do have limits that are being reached.
One compelling idea to temporarily relieve this economic/immigration crisis would be to raise taxes. Many fear, if we do that, the higher taxes would slow the economy and that would lead us backwards to higher unemployment like we had in the Carter years. Eventually this would mean lower tax revenue for the government. Government would then have to either make serious cuts in benefits, military and social programs (not likely) or increase taxes again to make up for the loss revenue and so the cycle continues until?
This is a very real fear and we've been down this road before with tax and spend liberals.
One thing is for sure, this is a real crisis and it won't be solved by ignoring it. The House acted and passed a guest worker program, but the Senate didn't like it and wanted to ad a provision that would entitled the guest workers to file for citizenship...the President, who was elected with the help of a large Hispanic vote, may feel once again compelled to take very minimal (band aide) action, as we've seen in his first term in office.
Congress, and our local Representative, Wally Herger-R, have assured us the guest worker program is the way to go. Even though they acknowledge that current illegal immigration laws are not being enforced. Despite some slight improvements to border security, we still have a very porous southern border! So, the logic of why a guest worker program would be anymore enforceable than previous laws, remains a mystery to most voters.
Posted by Post Scripts at March 27, 2006 12:52 PM