Posted by
jar-el on Thursday, October 25, 2007 12:40:06 PM
I was born about 90 miles from the Mexican border. That's the Rio Grand for those who have been publicly educated in the past 20 years. Growing up and living in Texas all your life gives one a keen perspective on the problems, attitudes and repercussions that have resulted from this basically unchecked illegal migration that has been in play my whole life.
When I was growing up, groups of Mexican men would walk up to where we were working on the ranch looking for work. They would be tired and hungry, ...destitute. My father would hire them or find them work. It was the Christian, and the right thing to do, and he might be able to get a few more things done that he wouldn't have, otherwise. They were glad to get the modest wages, food and shelter that my father could provide for them, because it was 10 times what they could earn in Mexico. Most would stay a while to make some money, sending it back to their families, then leave to go back home. A few without families of their own would stay longer. They weren't taking the jobs of any Americans. My father eventually sponsored some Mexicans for citizenship.
Later in life, I remember asking my Dad why we weren't hiring any more "mojados", meaning "wets" (it wasn't derogatory then, it just meant they had swimmed the river). He told me it was because he couldn't take the chance, since the government was cracking down on those that were hiring them and assessing costly fines, etc.... This was in the '80s. OK, fair enough, until now, years later when it turns out that for the past ten or fifteen years, businesses in this country have basically been allowed to hire illegals as full time employees, without repercussions and with the federal government's directive not to fire them if they are found to be illegal migrants. I'm talking fake social security numbers and everything - it's OK by your government.
Now, I've been known to call a spade a spade, and I've learned to follow the money to find out what's really going on. Here are the things at play, as I, and others, see them:
THE INSTIGATOR
1. Mexico and the Mexican government are where the problem starts. The Mexican poor are basically what's left of the poor natives (Aztecs and whatever else) that mixed with the Spaniards and that the Mexican Government never took care of. And there's a bunch of them, since they're all Catholic (not that there's anything wrong with that) and they're urged to procreate. Did you ever take a look at Vicente Fox? He's mostly (if not all) of European descent. Most of the wealth and land in Mexico is owned by a very small percentage of the population - the elite. You can guess what their lineage is. Also, Mexico has a culture of corruption. I believe they still have an unofficial branch of the government which assists people in illegally migrating, lest there be an uprising of the poor and the emergence of communism.
I remember my father telling me that one Mexican man he had sponsored, and that had gained citizenship had borrowed $2,000 dollars from him to go back and get his wife and chidren out of Mexico. Basically they needed birth and marriage records to be certified, and access to other documents. But, the money was not for government fees, but for grease money to Mexican public servants, just to get access to their own records.
THE FACILITATOR
2. Businesses in the United States, usually publicly owned, run by MBAs and driven by bonuses and stock options have diminished the need, and the tolerance for high-priced U.S. labor. The government has allowed domestic businesses to fill this labor vaccuum with Mexican migrant labor. The unions ignore the writing on the wall, although their numbers continue to dwindle.
So? The consumer gets a cheaper new home built by Mexicans, right? Nah, doesn't work that way. While, at face value, it doesn't look too bad, the burden these, now, low-level wage earning households put on the economy is estimated at over 200 billion a year. This is because they don't only take jobs, they take government benefits, everything from free lunches to CHIP health care and emergency room care. Hey, if you're a U.S. citizen, you or your insurance company pay at least $6,000 to have a baby at a hospital. But if you're illegal, come on down to Parkland Hospital in Dallas and have your baby FREE... Se Habla Espanol! So you see, we, the citizen consumers, are not getting a good deal. We're getting screwed.
Numbers presented by CNN transcripts reveal that about $140 BILLION a year is spent on illegals for welfare, medical, education and incarceration (30% of the Ferderal prison population), and this doesn't include the lost wages of U. S. citizens. The opposite side of the coin is that it would only cost $220 billion to deport all of them for good. We'd be in the black after 2 years! We're getting about as good a deal as we did when we bought lead-tainted toys from China, via Matel! (Gee, thanks corporate suits, my baby is brain-damaged, but at least you got your six-figure bonus, aarrgh!!!!) ...Sorry, I digress.
ALL THAT IS NEEDED FOR EVIL TO FLOURISH IS FOR GOOD MEN TO STAND BY AND DO NOTHING (OR HELP EVIL IN THIS CASE)
3. Career politicians, Republicans and especially Democrats, see this as an opportunity to import votes, feather their nests in the halls of power, polish up their legacies (Pres. Bush), and provide cheap labor for their business cronies - a triple win. While Republicans want to get on the bandwagon and win the Mexican/Hispanic vote, they never will. But, they still have a win-win by getting rich from being in positions of power and helping their business constituents, which translates to a tremendous amount of money down the road for them as board-members, CEOs etc....
Now, there are a few exceptions, Congressman Sam Johnson, 3rd district, Texas, for one, is doing a great job. Thanks, Sam. Also, Senator Cornyn has done fairly well.
THE FLY IN THE OINTMENT
Now you have this little annoying squeaky voice of talk radio and internet blogging and so-on, crying out in anger and indignation about what is right, saying, "the Constitution-this, and my taxes-that", and "We don't need reform, we need enforcement of the law"! Do you think politicians would like to squash our annoying little voice? Yes.
Do you think these forces in play will yield to what we think out here in radio/blog land...? NO, our elected officials apparently don't care what we think because they keep trying to legalize millions of illegals, by pushing through immigration reform. Because, sorry Dad, it's not about right and wrong anymore, it's all about politics and money.
This is just my humble opinion, based on simple observation and some facts that I've encountered. Thanks for reading.