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"they'd just be forced to raise their wages to the point that they could attract the necessary workers.

"*THAT* is how the free market works Mr. Bush, not by artifically depressing wages by letting illegal aliens compete with your citizens."

Brit Hume raised this point this evening with one of his expert guests. The guest made the point that as American workers age and are better and better educated, there are many jobs that will just go unfilled if not for the guest workers. The market forces dictate the wages value of jobs on the basis of their importance in productivity, so there is a very real ceiling on how high wages can go in any given job. He also made the point that these 8 million undocumented workers are making an invaluable contribution to our economy. If you really want to expel them all, you will absolutely shut down our economic machine.

The Tom Tancredo wing of FR is as hopelessly blind as the protectionist Dick Gephart wing of the Democrat party. Blinded by xenophobia. I heard Pat Buchanan ranting on this earlier today, and he makes me want to puke.

The Bush plan is a reasonable compromise which still maintains a very real difference between a legalized guest worker status and green card immigration, and as is so typical of Bush, it's grounded in pragmatism and dealing with economic reality. All of you FR posters who spew your "down with Bush" garbage need to pull your heads out of your arses and take a reality check!

By the way, I am a WASP, despite my posting persona, and a citizen of the US by birth, I'm only latino in spirit, as a result of having lived many years in South America, so you can flame me all you want if you object to my opinions, but don't attack me personally on the assumption that I'm one of those "illegals" you love to hate.

He also made the point that these 8 million undocumented workers are making an invaluable contribution to our economy.

Oh yes! Why, just a few short years ago, we were paying $20 for lettuce, and $15 for a pound of hamburger since we didn't have the Mexicans here to help us out. Why, I remember slogging around in several inches of garbage in public buildings since their weren't any Mexicans to be janitors...to say nothing of the hotel sheets that hadn't been changed in years (no maids, you know). How did we EVER get along without them?

Sarcasm off. I really DO remember not waiting behind an endless string of illegals using the emergency room for their "free clinic" when I was there to be treated. I really do remember a small Iowa town that didn't have police officers in the schools to control Mexican gangs, as they do now. I really do remember excellent schools that weren't crushed under the extra weight of trying to teach English to thousands of illegals, at the expense of the education of the children of tax-paying citizens.

But, I really don't know why I bother trying to argue facts with people who argue platitudes.

I too admire the Latin Culture having lived in South America for a time but I do not want to import that culture in tact into America.

I want to retain my country as it was before the deluge. For this I have been called "natavist." I have been advised to school myself about the wave of immigrants at the turn of the last century and observe how misplaced the natavist concerns were about the southern Europeans. I review the era and conclude that the great post civil war wave of immigration occurred at a time when the frontier was still open and the country was largely agrarian so raw man power was needed and there was plenty of room for all.

Get in your car today and consider as you are locked in place by the sheer press of our population whether you want to sacrifice more of your life locked in a car for the grand and noble ideal of open borders. When you cannot drive your family through the Yellowstone in summer because of the crowds, consider whether we really need scores of millions more competing for open, green and unspoiled America. When your national legislature tells you, as it has, that you can have only enough water in your toilet to guarantee a clog for every third flush you can reassure yourself that our precious water is going to a newly documented worker.

When the political culture of this republic lurches so far left that we bear a frightening resemblance to France, no matter, you can be gratified that you have been PC.

>The guest made the point that as American workers age and are
>better and better educated.

If you think that the education level of our general populace is increasing, you need to do some research. Yes, more people are going to college and graduating. That says more about how various degrees in our society have been devalued than anything else. And asserting that such jobs will go unfilled and that there's a maximum cap on what people can pay for certain tasks is silly.

Go try and buy an apple in Japan sometime. You'll have instant sticker shock. If we need to pay more for our food, so be it.

You make one hell of an assumption in saying that xenophobia motivates us. Take me for instance. I'm a second generation *legal* immigrant (not from Mexico) who grew up in Texas. I've seen the problems caused in my hometown by wave after wave of at best uneducated and at worst criminal illegals invading the state. We have no business further damaging our standard of living by allowing illegal immigrants into the United States.

In a way, it's a sad commentary that this level of patriotism and clear thinking eludes self-professed "WASPs" like yourself whose great-great-grandparents got off the boat generations ago.