Posted on 01/14/2003 2:26:38 PM PST by Luis Gonzalez
Ants...
That's my answer.
My wife hates ants, she freaks out when she sees those little tiny ones (pissants we called them as kids) running across the kitchen floor. She buys gallons of insecticide, she drowns them in the stuff, and we pay a guy to fumigate every month.
But the ants always come back.
One day I decided to find out what was going on, I had always thought that ants are just a fact of life, and that you better get used to interacting with insects, living in the tropics and all (the Florida State bird should be the mosquito), so I tracked one.
It came in through a tiny hole under the sliding-glass door leading out to the patio. It ran across the floor, along the wall, up the side of the cabinet, and into a little crevice that led it to the storage area below my kitchen sink. I opened the door just in time to see the little guy climb up the wall of the kitchen trashcan, and into a veritable pissant smorgasbord!
My kid's leftover banana peels from breakfast, the last two bites of a Pop Tart, some coffee grounds, and the crumbs from the bottom of a box of Frosted Flakes.
No lid.
That's our problem, we leave sugar out for the ants, and then we act surprised, and outraged, when they show up to do what ants do.
What needs to be done about illegal immigration, in order to truly bring an end the problem, may be more than what we as a nation may be willing to go through. We need to stop giving the house away, and quit electing politicians who do it. We need to convince others that they need to do the same.
The quick (and deadly) solution of militarizing the borders, is scary, and has no possible end in sight, the moment we think we have things under control and stand down, the ants will come again. It's like taking an over-the-counter cold remedy, you're still sick; you're just too medicated to notice; and as soon as you stop taking it, you feel like crap again.
We need to seriously curtail the welfare entitlement programs, for everyone too, not just illegal immigrants. We need to limit State assistance to anyone believed to be here illegally to:
· Emergency temporary shelter
· Transportation to the border.
We need to challenge the current interpretation of the XIV Amendment in Court, a well-organized, well-financed challenge seeking to eliminate "anchor babies". We need to severely fine and/or prosecute employers found guilty of knowingly using illegal alien help. We need hard time for smuggling, and manufacturing and/or distribution of falsified legal identification documents...hard time, not Fed time.
We need to increase the technological abilities of the INS and the Border Patrol, and improve their efficiency.
I think we should offer incentives to American manufacturing firms looking to set up shop overseas, to build in Mexico, and not China. Mexico needs to co-operate with some internal reforms, and by relaxing some laws. If we are about to help a nation grow economically, I want it to be the one right next door to me, not the one who has nukes trained on me.
We should also bring back the Bracero program, it's a win-win.
Any individual caught in the U.S. illegally should be deported, and not allowed to return to this country, for any reason, for life. But I also think that if we find someone who has been here illegally for fifteen years, working, not breaking laws, setting roots, and otherwise being a model member of the community, we need to give them special consideration, and try thinking out of the box for a kinder solution.
I want to solve the problem, not medicate the symptoms.
I think a long-term goal of US foreign policy towards Mexico should be one of mutually beneficial trade terms, and wealth creation.
And I think that we need to clean up our spilt sugar. The ants will not sneak in under the sliding-glass door, because they know there's nothing in here for them.
Ping to the quoted line for possible QOTD....
Does not make sense at all. How is 15 years a magic number? What is the reasoning behind the above 2 statements.
I do agree that we need to cut off the sugar. Even if we cut off the sugar, the problem with letting people in is, we will have to make it inconvinient for the legal folks in their everyday life by introducing somethign in the lines of national ID to find out who gets the sugar.
And what happens to the ones who aren't caught? If they work hard, don't break the law, and are model members of the community, in fifteen years from now they would also want people thinking out of the box for a kinder solution and special consideration. :-)
Never said that. But there are many levels of penalties that can be set when one is found guilty of breaking the law. Deportation is just one.
I agree with you on this. We need to give Mexicans a reason to stay south of the border.
Nice to see Mexican authorities taking care of their side of the issue.
Hard to do anything if they aren't caught. But, if they are caught….here is something I agree with:
"Any individual caught in the U.S. illegally should be deported, and not allowed to return to this country, for any reason, for life."
We should also bring back the Bracero program, it's a win-win.
I definitely like these ideas.
I would add that in exchange for the guest-worker program and incentives for American corporations to relocate to Mexico and not China, Mexico law enforcement agents will patrol the Mexican border to prevent illegal immigration into the US.
If you have been to Mexico, Luis, you know that all those single guys with a one-way ticket to Reynosa or Tijuana are not local tourists. The Mexican federales can be our best ally to seal our porous border if they are given incentives. Boarding buses and checking national flights can stop most of the illegal immigration into the US if properly done by Mexican law enforcement agents.
I would propose that a minute percentage of the guest workers’ paycheck should go to pay the salaries of the Mexican federal agents. This tax will be collected by the Mexican authorities when the Mexican workers send back their remesas to their families.
Collect that instead of Social Security.
Wow! Congratulations.
I agree with your article, btw. Just pulling your leg a little.
Again, by eliminating the reasons why they come here to begin with.
Given a choice, most people would rather not leave the country where they were born, and become a stranger in a strange land. Given the opportunity to live and take care of their families in Mexico, I firmly believe that most Mexicans would opt to stay home.
It's my number, yours may be 20...or 0.
Bet that left a mark!
Trajan88
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