Friday, December 12, 2008

LET THE BACKLASH BEGIN!



You’re probably going to think I’m racist, but I’m no more racist than any other American; which is to say that I have prejudices, we all do, but I would never do any racist action or anything of violence to anyone solely because of their race or ethnicity. I have to preclude this blog entry with that because I’ve gotten harsh criticism from people whenever I express my views against accommodations made for illegal immigrants in this country.

So I was reading about Herbert Hoover in preparations for writing another blog and I came across the Mexican Repatriation Act. From 1928-1937 up to 2 million illegal and legal immigrants, citizens, and aliens were forcefully deported to Mexico. The reason was that American sentiment was that Mexicans were taking away jobs and aid from American citizens during the early stages of the Great Depression. Unfortunately, it turned into a classic example of the rampant xenophobia in the USA in the 1920s, with more than 60% of those deported being legal immigrants or American citizens. However, I agree with the premise of the program, and I believe something like it should be part of an economic stimulus program today.

Today, every time I mention sumthin about illegal immigrants gots to go, someone always responds with “theyre not takin food off your plate” or “theyre doing the jobs that Americans don’t want to do” or “you’re so racist” “They’re boosting our economy with cheap labor”. What they fail to realize is that my sentiments against immigrants have nothing to do with their country of origin or socioeconomic status. It mainly has to do with their ILLEGAL status. First of all, they aren’t takin food off my plate, but they are using my tax dollars to pay for services offered to their children. They send their children to schools here ; 90% of the time it’s a public school, which is funded by taxes. Illegal workers don’t pay taxes to the federal or state governments, so basically citizens foot the bill for things used by children of non citizens. Second, they are not doing jobs Americans don’t want to do; they are doing jobs that would be offered to Americans at higher wages, but they’re doing it for lower wages because they’re illegal and basically have no legal right to demand minimum wage from their employers, and if they tried to start a legal battle, they aren’t protected by US laws as illegals, and would prolly be deported by the government. Cleaning hotels, kitchens, other domestic jobs and construction jobs used to be done by American minorities, not illegal immigrants; and things were that way for decades until the influx of illegals, mainly from Latin countries. Its not that Americans don’t want to do these jobs, the unemployment level among minorities consistently has always been higher than that of whites. It the fact that employers would much rather pay an illegal $4 an hour rather than have to pay an American $5.15 and offer them benefits.

Also this cheap labor is NOT good for our economy. Those wages that illegals earn are not taxed. The money they earn also is not put back into the US economy on goods and services. Some of it is of course, but much of it is sent back to their home country to help their family there. Jobs are taken away from American citizens; so you have the double whammy of unemployment and money lost to US businesses; as a DIRECT result of illegal immigrants working and living here. How in the balls is that any type of good for our economy?

Being an illegal immigrant is a crime, no matter if you are from Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador, Spain, Ethiopia, England, or Scotland. Those who are illegal need to be deported or there needs to be some comprehensive plan for legalization. Bush tried to get a plan passed and it got shut down by his own Republicans because they consider legalization some sort of amnesty. Which it isn’t, it’s a path to citizenship. So basically for the past 20 years, the US has chose to do NOTHING and let the problem get blasted out of proportion ie an estimated 10 MILLION illegals in the US today. I personally think there should be a period of time where they are able to begin a period of legalization. If they pass, then welcome to American citizenry. If you fail, (ie have a criminal record, will need government aid of any sort, are mentally unstable ) ADIOS AMIGO, BON VOYAGE, MON FRERE…you GOTS to go. They even get a free ride home! And if you decide not to apply for legalization, well then you are knowingly and intentionally committing a crime and your ass needs to be deported. At that point, I definitely agree with immigration raids. It’s sad, because yeh, families will be broken up, a lot of these people are not criminals or delinquents, but when the legalization period passes, you are choosing to be illegal if you didn’t apply, and you must pay the price.

Such a plan will cost taxpayer money, but in effect will create jobs as well. Create jobs in enforcing the deportations, but also allow many positions to open up for American citizens, who will have to be paid minimum wage. I know this has the potential to turn into violence because a lot of people have animosity towards immigrants of certain ethnicities, and we all know law enforcement aren’t always the highest on the IQ totem pole. It just so happens that our media chooses to focus on those of Hispanic origin as the troublemakers; but in my opinion, if you’re here illegally, no matter where you’re from, you need to BOUNCE, son.

Most immigrants regardless of their legal or illegal status are upstanding people. People like them deserve to become American citizens. If you don’t wish to become citizens, go back to your country; or get a visa, work here, then when your visa’s up, go back to your country. This is the land of opportunity, not a free pad to crash at.


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