Border Battles
Integrity of its borders is a pretty low standard for a nation to aspire
Maybe it started when the New Deal made the US worker more expensive. Subsequent legislation such as the minimum wage exacerbated the problem. The industrial growth after World War II masked the effects for a while. It became worse when the Great Society created an idle underclass with no reason to work. All the while, various immigration laws made it more difficult for unskilled workers to legally enter the US at a time when corrupt political systems in Latin America exploited them. Then Reagan had to go and fix the economy and the resulting decades of growth created an insatiable demand for workers. And that is how we got a half million illegal aliens marching in the streets of LA.
From the center of the country it is hard to understand why the feds aren’t there rounding them up for immediate shipment back to wherever it is they came from. Hey, I know it’s harsh but nobody asked them to cross the border. Now that they are here, we can hardly treat them any different than those born in this country. If citizens have to live under whatever draconian law is passed in this formerly free country, I say cuff ‘em and stuff ‘em. It is 2006, haven’t we learned that discrimination is wrong? How can we justify discriminating against undocumented workers by denying them harassment by out legal system? That is simply unconscionable.
Now don’t get the impression that I’m against immigration. That is known in logic as a low redefinition. In other words, opposition to illegal immigration is redefined to encompass all immigration. Supple misuse of language like this is a basic tool for those that want to twist this from a debate about law and order into a debate about racism, such as Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. In a speech at the rally he actually said, “We are workers, not criminals. That we work hard. We pay our taxes. We live by the rules. And we want this great America to take us into account.” I’m pretty sure the idea that living by rules includes illegally entering a country is covered in Ethics for Politicians 101.
In case you missed it, the point of the marching and rallying and whining was to get Congress to back down on tough immigration reforms. This sets up one of those classic situations in American politics where you try to figure out who is dumber. On one hand you have the politicians that are contemplating acquiescing to a vocal minority that can’t vote for them while 89% of their constituents think illegal immigration is a serious problem. On the other hand you have the same constituents that return members of congress to Washington at a 90% clip. The smart money says the politicians aren’t dumb, just well trained. They know that their seats are safe so they are free to vote their contributions (you thought I was going to say conscious didn’t you?).
No matter, the problem is beyond the ability of Congress to fix anyway. There is virtually nothing that can be done to make the American worker more cost effective. The minimum wage, Social Security, and Medicare commitments are simply too large a disadvantage. On top of that are poor work ethic and substandard education. You can see why the native lower class in unattractive to employers. That there are jobs Americans won’t do is a canard. Correctly stated, there are jobs that Americans are too expensive, lazy, and stupid to do.
Similarly, our options are limited in enforcing the border. Realistically, all we could do is mine it. As Pervez Musharraf says,” It's not difficult”. If possible death in the desert is preferable to economic oppression in Mexico, I wonder how certain death by land mine would stack up?
Speaking of Mexico, I’m sure we could do more to help it provide opportunities for its citizens. We should look at NAFTA as a good start. Mexico now exports about 700,000 cars and trucks to the US. Obviously the inability of Mexico to provide economic opportunities to her citizens is due to the US not working hard enough to export jobs to Mexico. For example, we could build a school for migrant workers where experienced Mexicans could teach dirt poor Americans from Appalachia how to see the world as migrant workers while remaining dirt poor.
Hopefully the spectacle in LA was a tipping point for the citizens of the US. It should be clear that our government is doing nothing, our neighbor to the south is doing nothing, and the illegal immigration advocates are well organized. Integrity of its borders is a pretty low standard for a nation to aspire. The 89% should realize that the 90% isn’t even that ambitious.