Propping the Back Door Open:

Posted on May 15th, 2005 by Christine.
Categories: Current Events & Politics, Pissed Off & Proud of It.

In the past, the debate about illegal immigrants– particularly from Mexico– crossing the border, has been pretty clear. It wasn’t much of a debate really– with the exception of exactly how we should effectively patrol our borders and keep them out. But somewhere along the way, this has all changed. Now, it seems that those up in arms are the ones who are pissed off that the U.S. government is taking successful measures to keep illegals out, and they want us to stop. Let’s go back for a minute. Why can’t the U.S. just open its borders and allow anyone who wants to, to just come on in? Is there anyone who really doesn’t know the answer to this question??? The United States has traditionally been very reasonable about giving asylum to people who were facing a life-threatening persecution in their own country. Granted, many times, those who are given asylum fit into the U.S.’s political agenda (Russian athletes who were allowed to defect during the Cold War, for example, to show the Russian government and communisim were “evil.”). But for the most part, it’s how our country was created– with us wanting to be free from the Brits and all– and we’ve held that close to our hearts for 200 years. But… as with anything, there has to be some controls or the system itself will collapse. To get into a concert, you have to buy a ticket. Maybe you’re lucky and you win tickets from a radio station. Maybe you’re unlucky and after waiting in line for hours at Ticketmaster, they’re all sold out and you don’t get a ticket at all. Maybe your rich Daddy knows someone who knows someone and he got front row tickets without having to do anything but open his wallet. Like a concert, there are only so many tickets available. And if the venue opened its doors and let everyone who wanted to see the band come rushing in, (1) there’d be no reason for anyone to buy a ticket anymore, and (2) the concert-going experience would be greatly compromised for everyone there. So the system is there to protect both of those things.

Vicente Fox, along with many others, feels that by instituting methods that more effectively decrease the number of illegals moving into the U.S. from Mexico, we are taking “a step back for bilateral relations.” Fox went on to defend the role of undocumented Mexican workers because they do jobs “that not even blacks want to do.”

Fuck bilateral relations. Anyone who agrees with his statement is taking a giant leap back in race relations and socioeconomic equality in this country. So, in essence, the president of Mexico feels that it’s perfectly acceptable for Mexicans who come to the U.S. illegally, to work their asses off and make a sub-standard wage that the U.S. government even agrees will keep a person below the poverty line? Talk about having your citizens’ best interest at heart… maybe that’s why people are trying to get the fuck outta Mexico. The truth is… illegals typically get low-paying jobs that pay cash. Each week, they wire a significant portion of that to their families who are still in Mexico. Therefore, as long as we keep letting illegals come here and do that, there will be less people in Mexico, and more money (earned here instead of there) will be sent back and dumped into the Mexican economy. So, needless to say, it’s in Fox’s best interest to encourage illegals to immigrate.

But, it’s not in our best interest. We allow thousands of people from all over the world to immigrate here legally each year. These are people who, after filing a ton of paperwork, and waiting it out, are invited to come here for a pre-determined amount of time. They are often chosen (if they are not filing for asylum) on the basis that they will be contributing members of our society, and if they are only temporarily approved to stay, they will also be contributing members of their own societies when they return. They are often allowed to come here for schooling and to take back with them skills that will help their country. Many of them who file for permanent residence, have families here who can help them financially, but also have some history of dedicated work in the country from where they come. In short, we aren’t picking people who will come here and be an additional drain on our system. From the perspective of doing what’s best for existing American citizens, to do anything else, wouldn’t make sense.

According to the recent Reuters article, Mexico has been pressing the U.S. to make it easier for millions of illegals to live and work in the U.S. Bush has been supportive of this, but Congress has put a hold on Bush’s temporary worker program and it hasn’t been able to move forward (thank God).

Millions of illegals? As is, yes… illegals are doing the jobs that no one else wants to do (it has nothing to do with whether you’re black, white, asian, or whatever). No one else wants to do them because they know it’s impossible to live in the U.S. and support a family on $25 a day. So of course, they don’t want to work all day at a job they can’t get ahead at, especially because they can do no work at all and receive more unemployment, while they hold out for a job they want. Well… some say, if illegal immigrants weren’t doing those jobs, who would? We’d have no one to clean hotel rooms, pick onions, or work in the kitchens of restaurants. No… if we didn’t have the illegals doing it for substandard wages, the hotel owners, the farm owners and the restaurant owners would actually have to pay Americans a higher wage to do these things. Trust me… American business owners aren’t going to go broke because it’s too much of a burden to pay minimum wage and hire legals. And if they do go broke, then that wasn’t a very lucrative business afterall and they need to re-think that.

The cost of having an influx of illegals coming into the country at the rate they are is detrimental to America. Fuck the business owners who are too cheap to pay a real living wage so they hire illegals while there is still a lot of unemployed people in this country who would work for them if the wage was decent enough to make it worth their time. Illegal immigrants cost the American people a lot. For the most part, they don’t have the money to pay for car insurance (I mean, if you were making $200 a week and had to feed your kids, what would you prioritize?), so whenever they get into accidents, uninsured driver rates go up for everyone who does pay for insurance. Many don’t have health insurance, so they bog down the free clinics which were designed to aid those who were legal American citizens who need help with health care. They are undocumented and therefore not counted in the census. Aid money is in part, determined by population, which is determined by the census. If there is a high concentration of people living in an area who are undocumented, and the census doesn’t reflect that, there are negative consequences for the legal citizens who are living in that area as well. Illegals don’t pay taxes either. Now, no one is excited about paying taxes, but we can all agree that they are necessary to pay for a lot of things that make the U.S. a nice place to live (mass transportation systems, school subsidies, insurance, etc.) I’m sure I could think of many more ways that undocumented workers drain our system much more than they contribute.

The recently passed law that allows the extension of a fence on the California/Mexico border that would deter more illegals from crossing was called “overly extreme” by Fox.

Overly extreme? So if we actually do something proactive to stop what we’ve already deemed illegal, we’re overly extreme??? Let’s not forget, what these people are doing when they cross the border is illegal. If a liquor store owner has to put bars on his window to keep people from robbing him, is that overly extreme? Or should he be expected to just let people break in over and over and steal his shit because it promotes better relationships with the community to allow it to happen? Come on. The theives breaking in are committing an illegal act and the store owner has every right to increase measures to stop it and protect his livliehood.

To those of you who think I’m being heartless, I’m not. I have a great deal of sympathy for people who feel they need to leave their families and homes and move to another country where they will essentially have to work like slaves just so they can provide for their families. If the conditions in Mexico are that bad, then Mexico needs to stop bitching about how we handle illegals, and start doing something to make these people feel like they can stay in Mexico without their kids starving. I think the U.S. would be more than happy to help them solve that problem by sending aid to help their education system, law enforcement, build factories, etc. But closing our eyes to the millions of illegals that come over the border doesn’t help Americans and it really doesn’t help the Mexicans either. American citizens will only have to compensate for the drain on the system, and Mexicans will never really have a quality of life they deserve.

Let’s stop illegal immigration and re-direct the funds lost in hosting them here, to help develop programs in Mexico that will improve all Mexicans’ quality of life.

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