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Importing underclass that will bankrupt the country
Houston Chronicle ^ | May 23, 2007 | GEORGE F. WILL

Posted on 05/24/2007 12:57:12 AM PDT by ruination

Compromise is incessantly praised, and has produced the proposed immigration legislation. But compromise is the mother of complexity, which, regarding immigration, virtually guarantees — as the public understands — weak enforcement and noncompliance.

Although the compromise was announced the day the Census Bureau reported that there now are 100 million nonwhites in America, Americans are skeptical about the legislation, but not because they have suddenly succumbed to nativism. Rather, the public has slowly come to the conclusion that the government cannot be trusted to mean what it says about immigration.

In 1986, when there probably were 3 million to 5 million illegal immigrants, Americans accepted an amnesty because they were promised that border control would promptly follow. Today the 12 million illegal immigrants, 60 percent of whom have been here five or more years, are as numerous as Pennsylvanians; 44 states have populations smaller than 12 million. Deporting the 12 million would require police resources and methods from which the nation would rightly flinch. So, why not leave bad enough alone?

Concentrate on border control, and workplace enforcement facilitated by a biometric identification card issued to immigrants who are or will arrive here legally. Treat the problem of the 12 million with benign neglect. Their children born here are American citizens; the parents of these children will pass away.

Under current immigration policies, America is importing another underclass, one "with the potential to expand indefinitely," according to Heather Mac Donald of the Manhattan Institute. To sentimentalists who cling to "the myth of the redeeming power of Hispanic family values, the Hispanic work ethic, and Hispanic virtue," she says:

From 1990 to 2004, Hispanics accounted for 92 percent of the increase in poor people. Only 53 percent of Hispanics earn high school diplomas, the lowest among American ethnic groups. Half of all children born to Hispanic-Americans in 2005 were born out of wedlock — a reliable predictor of social pathologies.

The legislation supposedly would shift policy from emphasizing family unification to emphasizing economic criteria (skills) when setting eligibility for immigrants. Critics will say this will sunder families. But the sundering has happened; it was done by illegal immigrants who left family members behind and are free to reunite with their families where they left them.

Anyway, the supposed shift from emphasizing family relations — the emphasis that results in "chain migration" — to economic merit may be diluted to nothingness. It is highly suspicious that there was a rush — fortunately stymied — to pass this legislation through both houses and get it to conference, where the majority of participants will be Democrats eager to court Hispanic votes.

Some Democrats argue that liberalism's teetering achievement, the welfare state, requires liberal immigration policies. The argument is: Today there are only 3.3 workers for every retiree. In January, the first of 77 million baby boomers begin to retire. By the time they have retired, in 2030, there will be 2.2 workers for every retiree — but only if the work force is replenished by 900,000 immigrants a year.

On Monday, however, Robert Rector of The Heritage Foundation stunned some senators who heard his argument that continuing, under family-based immigration, to import a low-skilled population will cost the welfare state far more than the immigrants' contributions to the economy and government. He argued that low-skilled immigrants are costly to the welfare state at every point in their life cycle, and are very costly when elderly. Just the 9 million to 10 million illegal adults already here will, if given amnesty, cost an average of $300,000 — cumulatively, more than $2.5 trillion — in various entitlements (Social Security, food stamps, Medicaid, housing, etc.) over 30 years.

To those who say border control is impossible — often these are the same people who said better policing could not substantially reduce crime, until it did — one answer is: It took just 34 months for the Manhattan Project to progress from the creation of the town of Oak Ridge in the Tennessee wilderness to the atomic explosion at Alamogordo, N.M. That is what America accomplishes when serious.

In an attempt to anesthetize people who sensibly say "border control and workplace enforcement first," important provisions of the legislation would supposedly be "triggered" only when control of the border is "certified" by the president. But in what looks like a parody of the Washington mentality, certification would be triggered not by border control but by the hiring of border control agents and other spending. So, the supposedly hardheaded aspects of the legislation actually rest on the delusion that spending equals the achievement of the intention behind the spending. By that assumption, we have long since tranquilized and democratized Iraq.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Foreign Affairs; Government
KEYWORDS: aliens; amnesty; heritage; immigrantlist; immigration; immigrationcost
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1 posted on 05/24/2007 12:57:14 AM PDT by ruination
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To: ruination

...related.

Fred Thompson NOT Good on Illegal Immigration Issue
(Power Line News)
http://www.plnewsforum.com/index.php/forums/viewthread/18610/


2 posted on 05/24/2007 1:00:17 AM PDT by familyop
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To: familyop

Rudy couldn’t shine Thompsons shoes.


3 posted on 05/24/2007 1:09:41 AM PDT by stephenjohnbanker ( Hunter/Thompson/Thompson/Hunter in 08! "Read my lips....No new RINO's" !!)
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To: ruination
I wonder why the Mexican's waited until the 20th century to come North to Gringo land.

Mighty suspicious if you ask me.

Could it be all those great Tex-Mex cafes one finds in Tejas.

4 posted on 05/24/2007 1:15:06 AM PDT by OKIEDOC (Kalifornia, DUNCAN 08, ELECTION 2008, MOST IMPORTANT OF MY LIFE TIME)
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To: OKIEDOC

: )


5 posted on 05/24/2007 1:19:20 AM PDT by stephenjohnbanker ( Hunter/Thompson/Thompson/Hunter in 08! "Read my lips....No new RINO's" !!)
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To: ruination

The Left wants to desrroy the USA they are gramscian marxists...death to the Left!


6 posted on 05/24/2007 1:34:56 AM PDT by wildcatf4f3 (Hey, this aint like the 1960s, this is like the 1860s.)
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To: stephenjohnbanker
I like your tag line Hunter/Thompson or Thompson/Hunter.

Ain’t politics fun.

Reading all this crap about the Democrats is a dang good excuse to have what the Mexicans down here on the border call a Chelada or Budweiser and Clamato juice a poor man's drink so say the libs.

Ain’t life beautiful.

7 posted on 05/24/2007 1:41:33 AM PDT by OKIEDOC (Kalifornia, DUNCAN 08, ELECTION 2008, MOST IMPORTANT OF MY LIFE TIME)
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To: OKIEDOC

Yep : )


8 posted on 05/24/2007 1:46:09 AM PDT by stephenjohnbanker ( Hunter/Thompson/Thompson/Hunter in 08! "Read my lips....No new RINO's" !!)
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To: stephenjohnbanker
"Rudy couldn’t shine Thompsons shoes."

...agreed. And my guess is that Thompson could very easily call on a few hundred thousand cheap, third-world foreigners in Tennessee to shine Duncan Hunter's shoes.


9 posted on 05/24/2007 1:46:20 AM PDT by familyop
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To: ruination

"Hey George Will - F_ck you!"

10 posted on 05/24/2007 3:23:47 AM PDT by SkyPilot
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To: stephenjohnbanker
Rudy couldn’t shine Thompsons shoes.

Rudy? Thompson? Where in this thread....???

11 posted on 05/24/2007 3:41:18 AM PDT by the invisib1e hand (Thank you St. Jude.)
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To: ruination
"underclass?"

woe to us who now use this highbrow terminology to couch our bigotry.

How about the term, "hungry." Ever heard that? Like, "Oh, they were hungry back then."

It means, "they hustled because they wanted it."

Hungry people work. Underclass, indeed. Easy for ivy league detritus to toss words like that around. Hey, maybe George Will would like to go pull weeds for a living, just so his kid can afford lunch money.

12 posted on 05/24/2007 3:46:15 AM PDT by the invisib1e hand (Thank you St. Jude.)
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To: OKIEDOC

20th century abortions are up over the rest of human history. The meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee generation.


13 posted on 05/24/2007 3:53:58 AM PDT by Major_Risktaker (Global Warming is a cover story for Peak Oil.)
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To: OKIEDOC
In large part because in the 19th century, it was (1) harder to get here, (2) the average peasant had less information to suggest things were better here and (3) their opportunies here weren't significantly better than they were in Mexico. Oh, and lots of people didn't much like "little brown brother" and his progeny.

BTW, there were substantial numbers of Mexicans in (mostly Southern) California, Texas, Arizona and New Mexico, but they fell into two categories: if they were ordinary peasants, they lived an essentially subsistence life not much different than in Mexico. if they were part of the old Spanish/Mexican upper class, they integrated pretty successfully.

In California, for example, the old Spanish/Mexican elite were known as Californios and were often highly respected members of the upper reaches of California society. As a small child in San Francisco, I remember being introduced to one or two of them, very very old women (in their 90s-100s in the early 1950s), as great ladies of California.

14 posted on 05/24/2007 3:59:58 AM PDT by CatoRenasci (Ceterum Censeo Arabiam Esse Delendam -- Forsan et haec olim meminisse iuvabit)
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To: ruination

Some Democrats argue that liberalism’s teetering achievement, the welfare state, requires liberal immigration policies.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Social and education welfare workers need jobs.

Underclass immigrants are a jobs program for middle class liberal/Marxists with little ability and talent. The welfare system has **nothing** at all to do with helping the poor become prosperous. It has **everything** to do with providing jobs to middle class Democrats who have attended college.


15 posted on 05/24/2007 4:05:22 AM PDT by wintertime (Good ideas win! Why? Because people are not stupid.)
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To: wildcatf4f3
The Left wants to desrroy the USA they are gramscian marxists

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

This needs to be said plainly and often.

Leftists are Marxists.
Leftists are Marxists.
Leftists are Marxists.
Leftists are Marxists.

They hate America and want it destroyed.

16 posted on 05/24/2007 4:09:52 AM PDT by wintertime (Good ideas win! Why? Because people are not stupid.)
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To: wintertime

The Democrats want more undereducated prolific welfare recipents to further increase the public pay rolls with govt workers with big paychecks, retirement and health care.
CA has reached the tipping point. The state is really broke..selling bonds to finance current non-capital expenses. The cities in CA are in worse shape. San Diego can’t sell any bonds.
White tax payers are fleeing..and being replaced by non-high school grads and single Moms with delinquent kids.


17 posted on 05/24/2007 4:13:17 AM PDT by Oldexpat
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To: ruination
WITH RESPECT TO THE SHAMNESTY PROPOSAL, YOUR RIGHTEOUS ANGER IS TIPPING THE SCALE.

We have been fighting the amnesty proposal as if the future of our country depends on our efforts... because it does. As working, voting, law-abiding, thinking Americans, we can only come to one conclusion: that those who support the Senate bill have chosen to intentionally ignore the will of the people, and have put their own political ambitions ahead of what is good for the United States of America. This agenda is unacceptable, and we have rejected it utterly. Moreover, it constitutes a direct threat to the future of this republic, because it indicates that there are members of the body politic who no longer answer to the will of the people, the Constitution, or even to rational thought itself.


Keep the pressure on, because the Senate is hoping this will all just go away if they wait long enough. Write, call, email, and fax your representatives... and DO NOT STOP. If you are unable to reach your Congressional or Senate rep, try the office of El Presidente. Contact your local and state party representatives, and the Republican and Democrat National Committees. Keep building the tidal wave that we need to KILL THIS BILL!

Links and contact info:


CONTACT YOUR REPS NOW

MORE CONTACT INFO

Stop Amnesty Now!... a must read

18 posted on 05/24/2007 4:27:24 AM PDT by snowrip (Liberal? YOU ARE A SOCIALIST WITH NO RATIONAL ARGUMENT.)
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To: Oldexpat

White tax payers are fleeing..

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

They are moving into my state by the thousands every year. Sadly, they bring their Liberal/Marxist mentality with them.


19 posted on 05/24/2007 4:34:34 AM PDT by wintertime (Good ideas win! Why? Because people are not stupid.)
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To: ruination

It might bankrupt the country, but the elites who crave cheap labor will get wealthier than ever.


20 posted on 05/24/2007 4:43:27 AM PDT by Wolfie
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