Please, A Little Honesty about Illegal Immigration

It’s time to take out the hysterical rhetoric.

By Victor Davis Hanson


President Barack Obama recently assured El Salvador that the United States would not deport the more than 200,000 Salvadorans residing illegally in the United States. As the election nears, and the president looks to court Hispanic voters, he has also created a new position of “public advocate” for illegal immigrants, whose duties would appear to be advocating that millions circumvent, rather than follow, current federal law.

The administration has also said it will focus its enforcement only on those who have committed crimes — with the implicit understanding that it is no longer a crime to illegally enter and reside in the United States. Obama has caricatured those supporting completion of a fence on the border as wanting to place alligators in the Rio Grande.

It is time that Americans revisit the issue and ponder very carefully the morality of entering the United States illegally.

True, American employers have welcomed in illegal aliens as a source of cheap labor. Employers were happy to pass the ensuing social costs on to taxpayers. To summarily deport those who have resided here for 20 years, obeyed the law, worked hard, stayed off public assistance, and are now willing to pay a fine, demonstrate English proficiency, and pass a citizenship test would be impracticable, callous, and counterproductive.

Most, however, probably do not fit those reasonable criteria.

More important, we forget that the influx of millions of illegal aliens unfairly undercuts the wages of the working American poor, especially in times of high unemployment.

Crossing the border was also hardly a one-time “infraction.” It was the beginning of serial unethical behavior, as illegal aliens on everyday forms and affidavits are not truthful about their immigration status.

The legal process of immigrating to America has been reduced to a free-for-all rush to the border. Million of applicants abroad wait patiently, if not naïvely, in line to have their education, skills, and capital resources evaluated. But they are punished with delay or rejection because they alone follow immigration law.

Billions of dollars in state and federal social services do not just help provide parity to illegal aliens, but also free them to send back about $50 billion in remittances to Latin America each year. That staggering sum also suggests that Mexico and other Latin American governments, as an element of national policy, quite cynically export human capital to gain U.S. dollars, rather than make the necessary economic, social, and political reforms to keep their own human capital at home.

Nor is it very liberal to turn illegal immigration into an issue of identity and tribal politics. Too many advocates for open borders and amnesty argue about the politics of ethnic solidarity rather than considerations of immigration law. In other words, we do not hear much national outrage over the plight of the occasional Pole, Nigerian, or Korean who overstays his tourist visa, but rather equate the circumvention of immigration law almost exclusively with social justice for Latinos.

How reactionary and illiberal that debate has become, when Mexican-Americans who object to the undermining of immigration law are slandered as sellouts, while non-Hispanics who do the same are smeared as racists and nativists.

In fact, illegal immigration has unfairly warped perceptions of Hispanic success. If one does not include millions of recently arrived, poor Latin American foreign nationals in federal and state surveys, then Hispanic-American citizens prove statistically to be assimilating, intermarrying, integrating, and finding economic success at rates comparable to those of many other immigrant groups of the past.

To mean anything, laws have to be followed. When newcomers choose to ignore them, then the entire structure of jurisprudence crashes as well. If aliens are free to ignore federal immigration law, why can’t citizens likewise pick and choose which statutes they find inconvenient?

Finally, illegal immigration has wrongly been couched in terms of a xenophobic and insensitive exploiter preying on a more noble and defenseless guest. In truth, the United States is the most generous host in the world, and never more so than during the present age.

There are now about 40 million foreign-born people residing in the United States, both legal and illegal immigrants. That is both the greatest absolute number and the greatest percentage of the population in our nation’s history. No other country in the world is more liberal in its legal immigration policies or has been more caring toward new arrivals. To suggest otherwise is dishonest and shows an ignorance of how most countries, who now export their citizens to the U.S., treat any who would do the same to them.

We can argue about the history or the future of illegal immigration. But please spare us the psychodramatic appeals to a higher morality.

In most respects, illegal immigration has proven as immoral as it is unlawful.



http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/2....

Quote:

advocating that millions circumvent, rather than follow, current federal law

This would be a great idea if it applied to everyone equally.

Exactly Ab. this illegal **** sucks.

Anecdotal: A very good customer of mine got a 4 year degree in horticulture about 25 years ago. He started a landscaping business in FFLD county CT. At one point in time he grew his company into being the 4th largest landscaping company in CT. This was not a grass cutting business. He had almost 2 million dollars in excavating / construction equipment and worked on multi million dollar homes. His reputation was impeccable. I think at the height of his business he had over 50 employees. He paid them all very well and really believed in promoting within the ranks.
Without exception his employees genuinely enjoyed working for him, he worked his crews hard but also paid them very well and had quite a few "off the books" bennies....small personal loans etc....

Then came the illegals. Lawnmowers became push mowers....
My friends competition started to hire illegals exclusively...thus able to undercut his valid legit estimates by as much as 30% at times. This guy had the accounts of many local towns....until the towns found out they could save a buck by hiring Joe ****ing Blow and his crew of Jose' and Hose-B. Things got all pear shaped from there and within about two years his business took such a hit that he had to start selling equipment and downsizing. This was about 15 years ago. It never stopped. He is now out of business. So here's a guy who did everything by the book, played the game being "legal" and righteous and he got his ass chewed up by the HOARD. The cities and towns in FFLD county were complicit in ass raping this guy.
Myself? In my last crib I owned with my ex, I had a **** bag neighbor that I locked horns with on a pretty regular basis because he used to let his half dead dawg loose who would come over 2 times a day and plane steamers on my lawn. Push came to shove and I paid a local landscaper 15K to plant a wall of evergreens between my property and his. I then wired a 100 watt ultrasonic sound system that ran 24/7 aimed at the end of my driveway to deter his mobile organic feces producing nuisance from coming around the wall of green. It worked.

Any hoo.... back to the treeeeez. The landscaper dude showed up with the back-hoe... did his thing and the next day a flat bed trailer appeared with a bazillion trees. The "boss" showed up with about 5 or 6 dudes, none of who spoke even spanglish...

I said "OK hoss.... I paid you your 1/3rd deposit for these trees.....don't even offload them off the trailer until I have proof, some way....some how....that every mo-fo who sets foot on my property can be legally employed here in the US. Otherwise.... take your ****, your trees....and all your home boys and GTFO my property."

Well, he came back the next day with 2 local dudes to help him out and finish the job.

I just did this for a little ****ing payback for my good customer / friend who lost his business to illegals and the **** bags who hire them.

/rant off.

Remove their access to benefits. Make employers withhold taxes at the same rate, plus an "illegal" fee for them. They don't want to get an ID number, the money goes into the general pot. 10 years of good, documented work, no trouble and they get a streamlined green card.

No school for children without paying, no medical service without paying, no welfare without paying, etc, etc, etc.

Oh, and working and having taxes withheld doesn't constitute paying. You have to pay for services out of pocket...

Once you remove the benefits the freeloaders will take off. All that will be left are the ones who really want to make the US their home but have no other way to do so.

BBQ any employer who pays them under the table and BBQ anyone that lies about their status to receive benefits and BBQ any criminals.

I also say that anyone we deport should be given a parachute and kicked out of the back of a C130 over mexico city... First parachute is free, after that it's bring your own...

Illegal immigration is a problem easily fixed..................................

IF ,
--

you want to fix it.

Quote:

I said "OK hoss.... I paid you your 1/3rd deposit for these trees.....don't even offload them off the trailer until I have proof, some way....some how....that every mo-fo who sets foot on my property can be legally employed here in the US. Otherwise....

Wife and I did similar when we had our backyard ripped out and redone about 5 years ago +/-.
We hired a company that was highy recommended by neighbors. Sat down, negotiated an amount, and then specified VERY CLEARLY that anyone on-site had to be "legal" labor before we wrote the deposit check.
The "hispanic descent" owner actually thanked us for the request when I made it. (In his own words..."I'm tired of getting my price beat by jumpers".)
We had a copy of the owner's business license and insurance as well as personal DL on file when we wrote the deposit check.
Further... we received copies of "green cards" (2) and/or DL+SS (3 others) for each person on-site for the project.

Could we have been duped?
Maybe.
But, if the workers were illegal, then they had to go through some hoops to pull it off at least.

I, personally, have absolutely no issue with someone here LEGALLY. But I take every reasonable precaution available to avoid illegal labor. If more folks did this the problem would fix itself.

YMMV though, as always.

Good one Duc.

There's a mexican guy who works on boats of neighbors of ours. He charges $15/hr for himself and another $15 if he brings a son along. I've seen his work and it's not flawless, so we don't let him touch the brightwork. But we did need new poop hoses pulled between the forward head and the tank (about 12' of run). I was happy to defer.

We paid extra because it was a lame job, and took the time to get to know him. He was an illegal in the 70's but is now a citizen. His son was born here. They used to take jobs between California and Washington but now won't go to California because he gets undercut by illegals. It ticks them off.

Well his feelings are his business, but he has no standing to complain.

Duc and Phantom: Good job!!