"On the matter of immigration, what is best for the average
American citizen?" Just once, it would be nice to hear immigration
issues measured against that standard.
Instead, there is a lot of cheap talk on radio and TV about the tide
of immigrants flowing into the United States. So many lines in the
rest of this piece are often repeated. But the lines grate as
they are biased, or uninformed and trite, and often just wrong! The
words misinformation, propaganda, lie, spins, etc. come to mind.
Yet none is exactly on point.
For lack of a better word, let's call each loaded media statement
a "myth" which is being spread.
MYTH: Illegal aliens do the jobs that Americans won't do.
The talking-head pundits repeat this myth time and again.
They never mention the theory of "supply and demand."
What if the supply of "illegal" workers goes down?
FIRST FACT: Daily, when one worker leaves a job, another
is recruited. That worker may switch jobs to do so.
Plus, there are plenty of unemployed and underemployed American
citizens who will gladly accept the job. Pretty normal.
SECOND FACT: If a necessary job is open for any lengthy
period, the hourly wage rises until the job is filled.
"Supply and demand" is a most basic notion from economics.
The "grease" to achieve the balance is the "price", whether the
price rises or falls.
This myth that Americans don't want certain jobs does not take
into account the "price" being offered. The pundits' failure
to even mention this shows that the pundits don't understand the
simplest concept in economics.
MYTH: Illegal aliens are just mostly working low wage jobs.
That can't be "assumed" to be true.
The Wall Street Journal reports that illegal immigrants
account for 25% or more of industries including agriculture,
construction and meat processing.
These jobs are not necessarily low-paying.
One of the "immigrant rights" marchers
is an illegal alien from Central America. He said he was making
$22 an hour. He works construction in an urban area with
high unemployment. Wouldn't an unemployed American citizen take
a job for $22 per hour?
The Financial Times reports:
"According to Mexico’s central bank, the estimated 7m Mexicans
living and working illegally in the US send their families back
home more than $20 billion a year, making remittances
Mexico’s second-biggest source of foreign currency after oil."
That's nearly $3,000 in extra money per person each year.
MYTH: America is a nation of immigrants.
What on earth does that mean?
What would our native American Indians say about that?
The ancestors of these good Americans were here
tens of thousands of years ago.
Vine Deloria, author of "Custer Died for Your Sins", told this:
"When asked by an anthropologist what the Indians called
America before the white man came, an Indian said simply, ‘Ours.’".
Our white American ancestors from Europe settled the country between
1620 and the Civil War, i.e. starting nearly 400 years ago.
Then, the European corporations, needing more cheap labor in
America, started importing black slaves from Africa. That started in
the 1600's. African-Americans also count their ancestors as the
earliest Americans. Those people built the country.
Noted black abolitionist, and former slave, Frederick Douglas wrote
this in the 1800's:
"Before we talk about opening up the country to more immigration,
we need to talk about justice for those with centuries-old roots in
the United States who are still doing badly. Then, and only then,
can we discuss bringing newcomers to this nation and not be guilty of
hypocrisy."
Most of us born in America, red, white, and black, count
these people as our ancestors.
Yes, there have been periods in recent history when people fled
famine, religious persecution, and economic depression.
But never immigration on the scale as we see in the last 25 years.
There are at least 10 to 12 million illegals here.
That is out of a current American population of over 300 million people.
We are not a nation of ILLEGAL aliens. If you add in the
LEGAL immigrants, there are over 38 million foreign-born people
in the U.S. today. The rate of influx is a shock to the American
system.
MYTH: Illegal aliens make a positive contribution to the American economy.
Whose economy are we talking about? Yours?
On any given day, there is a fixed number of jobs.
A new job-seeker coming into your community, an illegal or legal
outsider, finds work by displacing a current job-holder.
It's not a question that you and everybody else gets a nick out
of your paycheck when one new job-seeker finds a job. At that
moment you, or your neighbor, becomes unemployed. Secondarily,
it produces pressure for lower wages.
The seats at the workplace are like the seats in musical chairs.
When the music plays, someone is going to lose his or her job.
MYTH: We just can't deport 10 million illegals.
Not overnight. But, deportation must be one part of the solution.
Plus, it's a necessary deterrent to remove any reward for others
planning to sneak in. Major deportations have occurred before.
President Hoover started Repatriation. President Franklin Roosevelt
continued the deportation program. Some estimates say that over
a million people were deported. In the 1950's, President
Eisenhower initiated another effort.
MYTH: We just can't put 10 million illegal aliens in jail as criminals.
No one is seriously proposing that. However, it is the
illegal entry into the U.S. that is the crime. Short-term
detention, fingerprinting, and transport to the country of
origin would be all that is necessary.
The entire program would continue
for years. Other countries operate exactly that way.
MYTH: That Senate guest worker bill is not an amnesty bill for illegals.
Of course it is amnesty. It's the proposed law being supported by
Bush, McCain, and Kennedy, among others. Let's call it what it is:
"Leave no Mexican behind!!!"
MYTH: The unions would love to organize all those new immigrants.
Labor, organized and otherwise, are opposed to immigration.
Again, the immigrant depresses our job market. It makes it
harder for American citizens to find a job at a fair rate of pay.
Remember Caesar Chavez, the Mexican-American union leader of
farm workers? He was strongly opposed to both legal and illegal
immigration. Most working people are opposed.
MYTH: The problem is that the illegal aliens live in the shadows.
Amnesty for some or all who are in the country will not stem
the tide of yet more foreigners sneaking into the country.
Amnesty will simply encourage more people that they too will
get in and eventually get rewarded with jobs, benefits, education,
and citizenship.
MYTH: It's just those Democrats who want to grant amnesty.
The truth is that most Democrats want immigration stopped.
That is also the case with Republicans and independents.
The New York Times just reported: "Illegal immigration was
characterized as "out of control" by 81 percent in a USA Today/Gallup poll.
And three-quarters of those questioned in an ABC News/Washington Post
poll said the United States was not doing enough to keep illegal
immigrants from entering the country."
So, if the majority of Americans, across the spectrum, are
opposed to immigration, why do the elected representatives
push amnesty laws? The current response
seen in the Senate amnesty bill is not a response to the demands
of the American people. Most Americans are even opposed to
LEGAL immigration? So . . . why are the elected officials not working
for US THE PEOPLE? In fact, it seems they are working against us.
(Again, if they're not working for us, who ARE they working for?)
MYTH: If you deport thousands, more will just keep crossing the border
to take their place.
More people sneaking across the border illegally? Really?
That assumes that federal and state laws will not be enforced.
Deportation and border enforcement are two different issues.
For fifty years, the government has not enforced the laws in any
meaningful, effective way. That is by design. The policy is
called "Looking the Other Way."
Myth: Illegals are just here to work and make a better life.
28% of the prisoners in federal prison are illegal aliens.
The normal rate of criminals in federal prison is below one
percent of the American population. For this fact alone,
be horrified at the lack of border enforcement. Just think
of the pain and suffering inflicted on the average American
victim. Second, in addition to the losses of the victims,
look at the enormous
and unnecessary taxpayer expense of capturing, trying, and
housing the alien criminals.
Homeland Security says it will search for some of the 590,000 immigrants in the country who have ignored orders to leave. The department is also working with state and local officials to try to identify and, if possible, deport many of an estimated 630,000 foreign-born individuals who are arrested on criminal charges and put into jail.
Myth: For goodness' sake, you can't build a wall along the Mexican border.
Of course we can build a wall. What better idea has come along?
Nor would a wall have to be 2,000 miles long. Perhaps
300 miles of strategic placement would be the optimum cost-benefit.
Stopping the flood of illegals at the border may require
several good ideas well implemented. Next, what about allowing
the National Guard units to do their training and maneuvers
along the border? All the border states, and others, could participate.
Third, satellites can detect any daytime ground movement and
alert the border patrol instantaneously. Within one second!
Now here's my most creative effort: Dam up the Rio Grande!
A few small dams will create a water wall. In sum, no one measure will
be adequate. A good strategic combination will work.
MYTH: Hundreds of thousands are marching for immigrant rights.
Rights? Illegal aliens have no "rights" to remain in the U.S.
Workplace rights? Illegal workers have no "right" to be in
the workplace. It's against the law.
Civil rights? Yes, their deportation should be civil.
Myth: Illegals from south of the border are the big problem.
A big media myth is the "Mexican-bashing" sort of focus on
the part of the talking heads. Mexico is just one source of
illegal aliens.
One thousand people per day enter the country illegally.
Nearly two thousand aliens per day enter the country and
take up permanent residence LEGALLY.
The objections to illegal immigration are quite the same for
legal immigrants. There are now over 38 million foreign-born
residents of the United States. Americans are being overrun,
Legal immigration is an even bigger problem than influx of illegals.
In sum, the U.S. immigration policy is the enemy of American citizens.
The U.S. government is simply working against us. All elected
officials can be held to account at the November election.
Don't forget to register and vote. Take a look at the
Countdown Clock.
MYTH: We just can't expect employers to know who is illegal.
That's another misleading assumption. No one magical measure
is going to work immediately. But it will gradually solve the
problem.
The Washington Post reported recently: "The General Accounting Office
reported last year that the number of notices of intent to fine issued
to employers for hiring unauthorized workers dropped from 417 in 1999
to three in 2004." THREE notices in one year. That's nothing.
The government is not enforcing the laws.
The New York Times described the recent employer bust of IFCO:
"An examination of the company's payroll of 5,800 employees found
that just over half of them had Social Security numbers that were
either invalid, belonged to a dead person or did not match names
on file, the department said."
Social security numbers can be compared
and cross-matched with other personal data, like date of birth. Each
year there are at least a million people submitting bogus personal
information to get a job. Why is it so difficult to find people
gaming the system? Many companies and their illegal workers are
easy to detect. It would be so easy to investigate the law-breakers.
All that's missing is the will.
History is Repeating Itself: To see what happened over immigration
in the 1850's, you may wish to learn a little more about
the Know Nothing Movement.
Hint: It played a big part in breaking up the two major political
parties of the day.