Posted on 06/02/2003 5:20:42 PM PDT by Technoman
In February, an article in my daily newspaper caught my eye. "Illegal immigrant population doubled in NJ during ‘90s." Doubled! In the most densely populated State in the nation, the number of ILLEGAL immigrants had gone from 95,000 to 221,000 between 1990 and 2000. The Immigration and Naturalization Service provided the statistics. The INS noted that, during the same decade, the numbers nationwide went from 2.5 million to 7 million ILLEGAL immigrants.
While the Department of Homeland Defense is busy raising and lowering the threat levels to and from yellow to orange and back again, the reality of life in America is that we have seven million ILLEGAL immigrants, 69% of whom are Mexicans. Behind them, the flow of others entering illegally includes El Salvador, Guatemala, Colombia, Honduras, Ecuador and China.
The INS and the 2000 Census estimate that, every year, 350,000 ILLEGAL immigrants enter the United States. California alone has more the 2.2 million, about 32 percent of the total, residing there. Texas has over a million.
Each and every one of them is breaking the law and should be deported. Instead, countless other laws offer them protection. If caught, most do not show up in court and most cannot be found. In the decade between 1990 and 2000, 200,000 ILLEGAL immigrants were given LEGAL status!
I suggest that what this nation needs are jobs for our native-born Americans and the eight million legal immigrant population. What we don´t need are seven million ILLEGAL immigrants who all need schooling for their children, hospitalization for illness or injuries, and a variety of social services that include welfare, plus the criminal element among them who put demands on law enforcement authorities. All of this is paid for by American taxpayers.
Every single day, the United States of America is invaded along its border to the north with Canada and its border to the south with Mexico. For those using the immigration system, until 9-11, anyone could declare themself a tourist, arrive, and disappear into the nation. In 2002, the National Security Entry-Exist Registration System (NSEERS), activated in 2001, had stopped 330 known foreign criminals and three known terrorists at various official ports of entry.
In January, however, Sen. Teddy Kennedy (D-MA) slipped a provision into the Senate´s omnibus appropriations bill that would have cut off funding to the system! Michelle Malkin, an expert on immigration issues, noted that "not a single illegal alien has actually been kicked out yet as the result of being caught through NSEERS." It need hardly be stated that allowing criminals and/or terrorists into the US is a very bad idea. In reality, as of December 2001, more than 314,000 illegal aliens at large in the nation were under orders to be deported. Finding them is the problem. Last year, the INS managed to find and remove 70,000 criminal aliens. In the first six months of this year, 36,000 have been deported. That´s a lot of criminals!
How many of the illegal aliens wandering around are, in fact, a terrorist is anyone´s guess. Under the new Homeland Security Department, immigration enforcement functions have been separated from immigration service functions. At this point, hoping the INS is going to get the job done is a fool´s dream.
This nation is not effectively patrolling its borders. Last month 19 illegal immigrants died. They had been packed into a truck with dozens of others. One of them was only five years old. Trucks coming in from Mexico yesterday, today, and tomorrow, hold more ILLEGAL immigrants. They are pouring across our southern border. And here´s the really bad news, they call our Southwestern States of California, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, and Texas "Aztlan." This is the territory ceded to the US by Mexico as part of the Treaty of Guadeloupe Hidalgo in 1849. They want it back!
Mexico has launched an effort to reclaim these States and to lay siege to the rest of the nation by encouraging as many Mexicans as possible to come here either legally or illegally; mostly the latter. Mexicans, according to the US Census Bureau, are now the largest minority group in the US, numbering at least 37 million. So, we not only have a national security issue involving Islamic terrorists, we have an entire nation to the south of us bent on taking over the US by sheer force of numbers.
To the north, Canada´s immigration laws are a bad joke, admitting virtually anyone for any reason. It´s just a drive across a bridge or down a highway to get here.
America is a point of destination for every illegal immigrant who believes, with good reason, that if they can get in, they will ultimately be granted amnesty and, if they are caught, they can easily move to avoid deportation. They are right.
The United States has to shut its borders for awhile. It should consider stationing troops along our southern border to deter a massive invasion. We have troops in Afghanistan, in Iraq, in Kuwait, and for over fifty years we´ve had them in Europe and South Korea. We need them here! In his State of the Union speech, President Bush devoted exactly eleven words to this problem, saying, "We have intensified security at the borders and ports of entry."
President Ronald Reagan said, "A nation that cannot control its borders is not a nation." By that definition, the US, right now, is not a nation. We need to put the brakes on a massive invasion and, if it continues, there will be so many illegal "citizens" the map of the United States may be re-drawn because we weren´t paying attention.
Money. Inflating supply of labor reduces prices, ie wages, in the market for labor. Especially at the lower paid jobs.
Big employers profit in the short term. This is why they spend money on campaign contributions and promoting front groups united with immigration "advocates".
They promote their self-interested policies in two lines in general.
1. "Pro-business" arguments. One is to insinuate a "shortage" of labor. What they really mean is a shortage of labor at the price they want to pay. A free market of American labor is not the most profitable device for them, so they seek non-Americans to subvert the labor market.
2. "Racist" Arguments. If one questions illegal immigration one is labelled "racist." Generally it's left-wing groups are coddled and promoted to push these arguments. But open/illegal immigration is a racist policy since it harms the labor bargaining power of hispanic and black American citizens disproportionately. They are disproportionately represented in the types of jobs illegals do.
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I still need my lawn mowed.
I find it insulting and outrageous that so many of them don't care. Southern California's Dana Rohrabacher is one who does, he listens and he sponsors anti-illegal immigration legislation.
I've go news for you friend - chances are you're eating fresh lettuce and enjoying a new roof because of that 'cheap, abundant labor' ...
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