VIVA LA RAZA!!!

Well, on to immigration.

This immigration debate has become so convoluted as to be meaningless. It started out well, but it didn't take long to degenerate into cries of racism, jingoism, bigotry, and whatever other smears the Left could come up with to mischaracterize conservatives.

There are several arguments against immigration reform...I'll hit as many of them as I can think of.

The economic arguments make the most sense of the bunch (just don't take that to mean that they make sense): basically, that illegal immigrants are doing jobs that Americans won't do, and we need them to keep our economy going. This could be solved in two steps: deport the illegal immigrants and get rid of welfare. Frankly, the thing that I can't stand about some Americans is that they think there are jobs that are beneath them. I've worked as a janitor. I've cleaned dirty, stinking toilets for a living when I couldn't find a better job. There was a point in my life where I almost ended up working out in the fields (then I was offered the janitorial position). When you need work in order to eat, there is no job that is below you. And if you have a problem with that, then you should be allowed to go ahead and starve...you have that right. It's not as much an immigration issue as it is a problem with the American work ethic. Of course, it's also true that Americans don't want these jobs because they can't compete with the sub-standard wages that employers are paying illegal immigrants. After all, why hire citizens when you can exploit illegals at a lower cost?

Proponens of this theory also use the rationalle that if we deport illegal immigrants and American citizens start working these jobs, prices will go up: prices for produce, houses, and more will jump up, causing a huge burden to America. The problem with this argument: only a fractional amount of illegal immigrants pay taxes, all the while draining our federal budget in the form of state-sponsored services. From CBS.com:

But the revenue [from taxes paid by illegal immigrants] is not enough to offset the drain on the federal budget in the form of services including $2.5 billion in Medicaid costs, $2.2 billion for health care for the uninsured, and $1.9 billion for food stamps.

What's more, illegal immigrants send around $20 billion back to their families in Mexico. While, on the surface, I have no problem with people wanting to take care of their families, that's $20 billion annually that isn't being re-invested in the US economy. Economic re-investment is essential for any nation's economy, and this money constitutes a $20 billion drain on the economy of the United States (on a side-note, money sent back to Mexico from illegal immigrants constitutes the second-largest moneymaker for the Mexican economy...second only to oil...no wonder Vicente Fox is out there actively advocating for illegal immigration).

To all of those who argue that deporting illegal immigrants will lead to increased prices: we're already paying higher prices for produce and housing...we're just paying for them in tax dollars to pay for social programs for these non-citizens, as well as all of the US dollars being exported to Mexico.


There are also people out there saying that this is a civil rights issue (cue "We Shall Overcome" and Martin Luther King, Jr. references). The problem with this argument is so fundamental and basic that it's embarrassing that it was even brought up in the first place: Civil rights are rights granted to citizens of a nation by their government. By definition, illegal immigrants are not citizens (whereas black Americans protesting in the '50s and '60s were citizens under the Constitution). Therefore, illegal immigrants are entitled to exactly zero rights from the U.S. government.


Finally, there are people out there framing the debate in terms of race. Nothing angers me more than the race card these days, and this is no exception. The real problem is that there is racism out there...but it's not on the pro-border security side.

The side of this debate that is in favor of increased border security is in favor of enforcing the law. To date, US immigration law either has not been enforced at all, or has been enforced so poorly that it may as well have not been enforced at all. After all, we're talking about millions of illegal immigrants coming across the border each year. The issue here isn't about Hispanics, or even just Mexicans. It's about enforcing our immigration laws, whether dealing with Hispanics, Asians, Africans, Middle-Easterners, or Europeans. Race is not the issue; law is.

Of course, there is a racist element in the debate...and it's coming from the Hispanic side. There are many groups out there, among them La Raza (the Race), the Aztalan movement, the Mexica movement, and MEChA, whose organizations want to take back the Southwestern United States for Mexico and kick European-Americans out. This is why we see marchers across the US carrying Mexican flags: they want California, Nevada, New Mexico, Arizona, and Texas to become the territory of Mexico again. This is where the debate gets racist - they want all of us white people of European descent to go back to Europe...like that's ever going to happen.

Basically what it gets down to is Mexico. Mexico is one heck of a screwed up nation, with a massive poverty problem...which they are exporting to the United States. They also have massive problems with corruption within the Mexican government. This is one of the main reasons Vicente Fox has been so vocal in support of the US allowing illegal immigration: it gets rid of a huge problem for Mexico. When Mexicans are flocking across the border for what are considered sub-standard wages here in the US, that's indicative of a problem in Mexico.


As for solutions, I believe that we have to approach illegal immigration in a 3-fold approach:

1. We need to secure the border. We need some kind of fence or wall, coupled with an enhanced and empowered border patrol. The way things are now, the fences we do have are weak or nonexistent, and our border is undermanned. If we are going to do anything about our illegal immigration problems, we must start by closing the border, or anything else will be entirely ineffective.
2. We need to start deporting illegal immigrants. Amnesty won't solve much of anything - after all, that was tried back in the 1980s, and the fact that we're still debating the issue twenty years later is all the evidence we should need that amnesty is a failing policy. Don't agree? Check this out. While there are massive practical issues surrounding the deportation of nearly 12 million people, the bulk of the problem can be taken care of simply by empowering our law enforcement personnell to arrest and deport anyone caught doing anything illegal who is an illegal immigrant. Stealing? You get deported. Speeding? You get deported. Get in a wreck without insurance? Deported. Make an illegal u-turn? Deported. You get the idea.
   
3. We need to punish businesses that hire illegal immigrants. One of the main contributing factors to illegal immigration has been the willingness of businesses to hire illegal immigrants, and we must keep these businesses from providing a demand for illegal immigrants. There have been various proposals on how to implement this, ranging from a $500 fine per immigrant, to shutting businesses down. I say we impose a $5000 fine for the first illegal immigrant, and $10,000 per illegal after that. Maybe that will get the attention of some of these unethical businesses.
   

In summation: this isn't a race problem, it's a legal problem. It's a practical problem. It's a problem that must be addressed, or we will lose this country.

In the words of Lou Dobbs of CNN:

There are 280 million legal citizens of this country. They are the ones carrying the burden of 20 million illegal immigrants. Oh, it's a great benefit for illegal employers. But don't you dare suggest that it is a benefit to working men and women, who are watching $200 billion of wages disappear every year because of illegal immigration. They're paying for their health care. They're paying for their children in schools that are overcrowded. We are failing the people who built this country, the American middle-class. Don't tell me how important illegal immigration is, because it's utter nonsense.

At a Los Angeles high school:

























Photo captions on the website of the Mexica movement in reference to the LA protest march:

One of the more negative parts of the march was when American flags were passed out to make sure the marchers were looked on as part of "America".

Our signs helped to counter the American flags. Our people expressed their agreement with our message.

Tomorrow: the protests themselves.