Posted on 11/04/2003 9:29:11 AM PST by paulklenk
Taking time out from the war on terror and the war on drugs, President Bush, to the purple born, has declared war on cleaning ladies.
The agents of his wrath swooped down on 61 Wal-Mart stores in 21 states where men and women from South America and Eastern Europe toiled at minimum-wage jobs mopping floors and cleaning toilets until Bush closed them down. One wonders if the president remembers the words of the man whom he once cited as his role model: “That which you do to the least of these, you do to me.”
Perhaps the president and all his advisers have forgotten that their ancestors, too, were immigrants who had to struggle to make it in this new land. The fact that their forebears may or may not have come here legally and these plunderers of our national treasure came without sanction of law merely betokens how self-involved we are in our prosperity, narcissistically refusing to share it with those in need.
These men and women now in jail came here seeking work, not welfare. The $11 billion a year Mexican Americans send home to their impoverished nation gives every man, woman and child back home $110 with which to buy food and other necessities. Bush no doubt has no family memories of immigrants who sent money home, but those of us of more recent vintage recall clearly the stories of our fathers and grandfathers. It was that money that allowed our ancestors to survive.
Does Bush seriously contend that, with 6 percent unemployment, there are Americans waiting to take the jobs of those he arrested at Wal-Mart? He knows full well that the alternative to illegal immigrants performing those jobs is to use robots to do it. He has not saved jobs for Americans. He has saved them for robots.
For those in high dudgeon who are reading this column and would intone piously about the rule of law, let me ask if you are sure the toilet you used at the gas station was cleaned by a legal immigrant or a U.S. citizen. How about your garden and lawn? And your housecleaners? And the guy who waits on you at the lunch counter or cleans the dishes after you have eaten? Are those all here legally? I invite you to vindicate your self-righteous views on immigration by mowing your own lawn, cleaning your own toilets and cooking your own food — or do so for $5.25 an hour.
America needs Bush to crack down on illegal immigration, but from nations that harbor terrorists or sponsor them. We need an end to immigrants coming in on student visas from those nations. We must have more aggressive efforts to round up those who have overstayed their visas who hail from lands that wish us no good.
We need an immigration policy along the lines of legislation proposed by Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.) that would reward with amnesty and citizenship those who pass certain criteria such as English literacy, no arrest record and employment with contributions to Social Security.
The Republican Party can continue its war on Hispanics and its battles against cleaning ladies if it wants, but it does so at the price of its own electability. What message does the Wal-Mart raid send at a time when Bush is attempting to overcome past GOP insistence on cutoff of aid to legal immigrants by adopting pro-Hispanic policies and appointing top level Hispanics to key jobs?
Americans do not confuse hardworking Mexican and Eastern European immigrants, legal and illegal, with those who come to our nation from nations that sponsor or harbor terrorists. We know that the former build our nation and the latter want to tear it down. Bush does himself and his party no good by attacking the good immigrants and letting the bad ones go free.
Yes, anyone who disagrees with you is a racist. That's a pathetic argument straight from the leftist debating handbook.
Look, I'm all for getting rid of unnecessary bureaucracy and letting those willing to work hard and support themselves come here. The problem is that there are also lots of people who would rather feed off our welfare system, so letting everybody in who asks is not an acceptable solution.
Only Dims and some Libertarians use the race card, which are you? By your reasoning I should be able to get a job at some fortune 500 company by sneaking in the boardroom and pretending to be a member, shucks I will even take 200,000 a year to start. Never mind that I would be (1)Not qualified and (2)Lying through my teeth, after all I am a hard working type person. Welfare mentality has to be the worst trait for any humanbeing to have. Thankfully less then 20 percent of the public feel like you do.
In my experience, people do not value what they haven't had to work for. What they can steal, they value even less.
It's actually quite simple. The rules exist. They work. There are some people who don't care, or are desparate enough (for whatever reason) to break the rules. To tell these people that, "It's OK. Now that you're here you can stay." is criminally dangerous. It tells everyone else that our laws don't mean a damned thing, and that we don't value our citizenship-- and neither should they.
And by the way: I pay for that "press one for English" message, and it pisses me off!
I don't use gas station rest rooms - they're never cleaned anyway. I clean my own house, I mow my own lawn. I take care of my own children too.Walmart buys third-world labor and wants to hire it here too.
It cost me $12,000 for a new roof and would have cost a lot more with native labor - but I don't see any more native construction crews. There ought to be. If eight Americans working two twelve hour days got an extra ten bucks an hour, I could afford it. And maybe there wouldn't be so d... many McMansions springing up all over NJ.
Mrs VS
Punishment is a deterrent. (OK...I know liberals don't believe it but thinking people do.)
Therefore, if the US begins to crack down on illegals, it will have an effect on the flood coming across the borders. However, if there is no consequence, the flood will increase. This is one of the solutions.
So what "Toe-sucker" Dick Morris is suggesting is that we need a labor class that can be paid substandard wages. $5.25/hr for an illegal immigrant? Hardly, Dick. Try $1.50-$2.50 an hour.
This is, in effect, slavery.
Bush no doubt has no family memories of immigrants who sent money home, but those of us of more recent vintage recall clearly the stories of our fathers and grandfathers.
Morris is confused. The ancestors that he is referring to came here LEGALLY. And they came here LEGALLY because they wanted to become US citizens. They came here because they wanted to become PART of this culture. And there are millions of future US citizens who are willing to follow the law, and wait their turn and meet the requirements, to become US citizens LEGALLY and become part of our culture. So do we want a set of new US citizens who choose to follow the law or do we want to cave in to those who view the law as a simple nuisance? Do we want a set of new US citizens who want to become part of America, or do we want to develop and encourage a separate culture?
Yes, if they are first offered practical help for free, they will. Things change when they are separated from their home countries and their close circle of friends.
But it means you have to talk to them. You have to initiate friendly conversation, and not be intimidated by a difference in language, culture and religion. Treat them decently and kindly and you will then have the foundation -- later -- to share your faith. They will listen because they have seen Christ in you and you have helped without asking anything in return.
There is an awful lot of practical help we can give -- English training, classes on American ways of doing things, assistance finding a school or lawyer or even a grocery store.
The local high school (Fort Hamilton, Bay Ridge) has seen its student body grow from 4,200 four years ago to 5,100 today. Reason: children of illegal Arab, Mexican and Asian immigrants. Sure, their dads may be hard working, but their kids usually get corrupted by the ghetto lifestyle and cause assorted social problems.
We do need a guestworker system to address legitimate labor sources. Ending "family reunification" and allowing only single workers, male or female, would be the best solution, in my opinion.
It's neither decent nor humane for the government to pick my pocket to provide programs for illegals. This includes housing, food, medical care, education for themselves and their kids, counseling, job placement, utilities assistance, car repair, etc., to say nothing of the costs incurred through illegal alien crime, illegal aliens wrecking cars and running away, ad nauseum.
You get the government to quit stealing money on their behalf - in other words make them act like real immigrants - and we'll talk about it.
Right now, though, my solution is to deport them all along with their "anchor babies".
Here's the difference:
People in Cuba do not have the opportunity to leave legally. They are being held prisoner by a murderous communist dictator. There is no mechanism for them to come here or anywhere legally. By definition, they are seeking political asylum.
People in Mexico have the ability (however difficult) to come to this country legally. They choose not to.
Write a NEW law that we can put on the books that will LEGALLY give temporary amnesty to current illegals, help them register and become citizens, and make it easier for more to do the same.
Been tried before, made the problem of illegal aliens entering the country worse not better. Sorry, don't buy it and do not see any need to "make it easier for more" to continue in violation of immigration law.
Oh, let me guess -- you just don't want them here in the first place, right? Legal or not.
Seeing as my family were "legal" immigrants, your charge is baseless. Anyone who abides by the law has a right to be here and participate in the advantages of this nation, those that don't abide by the immigration laws, make it more difficult for future legal immigrants.
I don't buy your appeal to emotionalism in this. And your attempts to impute racial or ethnic considerations to those who disagree with your demogoguery is transparent.
And you call others racist.
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