Posted on 03/27/2006 9:08:57 PM PST by RWR8189
Immigration is yet another issue which we seem unable to discuss rationally -- in part because words have been twisted beyond recognition in political rhetoric.
We can't even call illegal immigrants "illegal immigrants." The politically correct evasion is "undocumented workers."
Do American citizens go around carrying documents with them when they work or apply for work? Most Americans are undocumented workers but they are not illegal immigrants. There is a difference.
The Bush administration is pushing a program to legalize "guest workers." But what is a guest? Someone you have invited. People who force their way into your home without your permission are called gate crashers.
If truth-in-packaging laws applied to politics, the Bush guest worker program would have to be called a "gate-crasher worker" program. The President's proposal would solve the problem of illegal immigration by legalizing it after the fact.
We could solve the problem of all illegal activity anywhere by legalizing it. Why use this approach only with immigration? Why should any of us pay a speeding ticket if immigration scofflaws are legalized after the fact for committing a federal crime?
Most of the arguments for not enforcing our immigration laws are exercises in frivolous rhetoric and slippery sophistry, rather than serious arguments that will stand up under scrutiny.
How often have we heard that illegal immigrants "take jobs that Americans will not do"? What is missing in this argument is what is crucial in any economic argument: price.
Americans will not take many jobs at their current pay levels -- and those pay levels will not rise so long as poverty-stricken immigrants are willing to take those jobs.
If Mexican journalists were flooding into the United States and taking jobs as reporters and editors at half the pay being earned by American reporters and editors, maybe people in the media would understand why the argument about "taking jobs that Americans don't want" is such nonsense.
Another variation on the same theme is that we "need" the millions of illegal aliens already in the United States. "Need" is another word that blithely ignores prices.
If jet planes were on sale for a thousand dollars each, I would probably "need" a couple of them -- an extra one to fly when the first one needed repair or maintenance. But since these planes cost millions of dollars, I don't even "need" one.
There is no fixed amount of "need," independently of prices, whether with planes or workers.
None of the rhetoric and sophistry that we hear about immigration deals with the plain and ugly reality: Politicians are afraid of losing the Hispanic vote and businesses want cheap labor.
What millions of other Americans want has been brushed aside, as if they don't count, and they have been soothed with pious words. But now the voters are getting fed up, which is why there are immigration bills in Congress.
The old inevitability ploy is often trotted out in immigration debates: It is not possible to either keep out illegal immigrants or to expel the ones already here.
If you mean stopping every single illegal immigrant from getting in or expelling every single illegal immigrant who is already here, that may well be true. But does the fact that we cannot prevent every single murder cause us to stop enforcing the laws against murder?
Since existing immigration laws are not being enforced, how can anyone say that it would not do any good to try? People who get caught illegally crossing the border into the United States pay no penalty whatever. They are sent back home and can try again.
What if bank robbers who were caught were simply told to give the money back and not do it again? What if murderers who were caught were turned loose and warned not to kill again? Would that be proof that it is futile to take action, when no action was taken?
Let's hope the immigration bills before Congress can at least get an honest debate, instead of the word games we have been hearing for too long.
Bump.
Good thoughts. Thanks for the post.
The illegal aliens and the criminals who hire them and the criminals who harbor them are getting out in the street making their desires known. It is way past time those of us who support the rule of law and secure borders did the same.
Join Veterans for Secure Borders, The Minuteman Project, Latino Americans for Immigration Reform, Mothers Against Illegal Aliens, and other groups protesting amnesty for these criminals, and demanding the government protect our borders.
http://www.areckoning.com/
FReepers should be at this rally in strength. Saturday, May 6, in Crawford, TX.
The Bush administration is pushing a program to legalize "guest workers." But what is a guest? Someone you have invited. People who force their way into your home without your permission are called gate crashers.
Funny/sad stuff Mr. Sowell. Bush should call his immigration reform the Gate Crasher program. I like it.
Golly, he's got to be just about the smartest man ever born.....
susie
The problem has simply gotten so big that we can't or won't or don't want to deal with it. I say give them guest status and then control them. Guest status will require them to register so we can then keep tract of them.
Amen to that!! How refreshing to hear the voice of reason.
The quiet voice of reason.
Perhaps this will give you another persepective to consider.
I have a question for fans of Sowell. One of my twin daughters is majoring in economics. She loves it! I'd like to get her a Thomas Sowell book. Does anyone here have a favorite? (I haven't read any of his books - just his opinion pieces.)
Today Rush called Mexico an ally......
Does an ally send 500,000 criminals to your country every year?
Does an ally use the money sent back by those 500,000 to cover up its economic faliures?
Does an ally openly encourage more and more of its criminals to violate its allies laws?
Does an ally fail to extradite murderers back to the US?
Does an ally.....you get the point. When we started saying things like there are to many of them I gues theres nothing we can do we have already surrendered any soverignty we had.
Its time to send them all back or burn the constitution. It is all or nothing.
Yeah, Sowell's the man!
I've only read one, "Black Rednecks and White Liberals." I found it fascinating, but there wasn't much economics in it.
Frist seems to be the only only one with some sense in DC recently....close the border and then we can deal with the illegals allready here.
I lived a Guantanamo Bay, Cuba years ago as a Naval Dependent. The Cubans came in busses every day to work on the base and then they went home. We had control of the border!
Thanks for the recommendation. :)
They are already required to register for alot of things (like a visa).
Guest worker status has absolutly no incentive that is not already in place to make them register except for claiming that its now "above board".
Problem is, there is more disincetives to the program than incentives.
We have totally reversed the process where we tell legal immigrants they are screwed and tell illegals they are welcome, then turn around and complain whats happening?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.