Quote:
"Let's face it, there would be a lot less concrete, roofs, and landscaping without illegal immigrants (yes, illegal immigrants - that is what they are)," Mapp writes. "The only reason they flood here is because of opportunity and because we allow it. There is no reason we can't stop the influx at the border - remove the politics and let the Border Patrol do their job."
Or, you know, why don't you go after the people who hire those to do these jobs?
Better yet, start selling corn back to Mexico.
No, seriously.
I kinda hate the idea of farm subsidies, but they're also closely tied in to the ongoing problem we've had with too many* illegal immigrants entering the country. What happened was when gas prices started to skyrocket about 10 years ago, largely owing to the attacks on 9/11 and the anti-Arab attitudes that resulted (OPEC has never had any shame when it comes to lining their pockets), we started to do serious research into alternative fuels. Ethanol was at the top of the list and, go figure, for 50+ years we've been over-producing corn and selling it for pennies back to Mexico (bolstered by our taxes, of course). We crashed Mexico's farm industry by making it cheaper to import from the US. When we started keeping all those corn supplies to convert into ethanol or otherwise enter our own marketplace, Mexico and its neighbors suddenly found themselves in a food shortage because, like rice in East Asia, corn is in almost everything and provides a considerable proportion of poor people's daily calories. With farming depressed and funds limited to rebuild, because no one really plans for the day after tomorrow, hordes of people unwillingly jumped the border into the US.
And, in spite of years of endemic racism and hatred, that is what really sparked the current fire: previous waves of immigration have been willing to integrate because they wanted to be here. People forced here by sudden disaster are very different. It happened with the Irish exodus that brought my family to the States and, although most people have forgotten, we Irish were treated with as much or more disdain than Latinos. We were on par with African-Americans in many places, if not worse for also being pale-skinned. I've watched the same occur in my city as we're full of Somalian refugees who have only nominal interest in actually being in the US.
It really drives me crazy how little people actually bother to study what is really going on with complex issues like immigration. The rapid destruction of Mexico's frankly laughable economy with the signing of NAFTA (Ross Perot got the direction of the suction wrong) made worse by our removal of cheap food is directly responsible for the rise of ultra-violent drug cartels that make Capone's gang look like schoolyard bullies in the middle of a war zone.
Frankly, it makes me wish we'd reinstate the Monroe Doctrine (primarily the non-interference part) until we can re-educate our entire upper class about long-term consequences and the realities of a global economy. Building a *** fence and shooting Mexicans is pissing in the sea at best, pissing into the wind at least.
* Depending which economist you ask, we "need" illegals in the country just to cover the ***jobs that almost no one will do. As someone quite familiar with the majority of those jobs, I am unconvinced, but I'm also not an economist. The bulk of the jobs referred to are primarily avoided because the pay is lousy more than that the job is beneath someone's dignity. Scrubbing toilets is a miserable job, but I know plenty of folks of all colors who'd do it for a mere $10/hour. Also, working around a lot of Latin American immigrants (no clue on their legality), I can't say I've ever been seriously impressed. Safety practices and rules appear to be optional in Mexican culture.
