(Very interesting timing: I wrote this essay in mid-March, then scheduled it for the May issue. In mid-May, Sen. Ted Kennedy put forward a ludicrous and unworkable Illegal Immigrant Amnesty Bill [S. 1348], which is now postponed for a vote until June.)
I was invited to a weekend party last year among some local Balloon People – Albuquerque is host to the world’s largest and oldest Hotair Balloon Fiesta each October. The party was in a very rural area on the far side of the mountain from Albuquerque, where everybody has propane tanks and septic tanks, and solar panels, and wood or pellet heating is common.
Most of the party-goers were professionals – realtors, doctors, teachers – which allows them to afford the high cost of ballooning. Balloon People are a rowdy bunch; their idea of a good time is to dip the basket of the balloon in a river or a lake, or to fly thru Los Alamos Canyon, rather than over it: they carry poles to keep the balloon from bumping the jagged rock cliffs.
So I was amazed when the party conversation touched on Illegal Immigration, and saw that the feelings of these strangers were very deep, and very, very strong on this matter. That seems to be the case for a great number of people in New Mexico (and probably elsewhere), ranging across Anglo professionals (white collar & blue collar), small town folk, and to Hispanics and whites who work on or own farms and ranches.
I am opposed to Illegal Immigration, but I don’t get het up about it. It has become a touchy matter for others, however.
* * * * * * * *
DEFINING TERMS
Illegal immigrants are anyone who is in a country without proper papers, so they are also called undocumented immigrants or undocumented aliens.
Illegal immigrants basically trespass into U.S. territory in four different ways:
(a) on student visas or tourist visas or work permits that then expire – they simply stay here instead of returning home;
(b) citizens of Canada or Australia or Europe who look Anglo enough to walk thru any port of entry without challenge
(recently made tougher for even U.S. citizens by a requirement for passports);
(c) citizens of Mexico who hire
‘coyotes’ to bring them across the southern U.S. border on foot or crammed into unsanitary
and unventilated trucks; and
(d) the rare bunch of (usually Asian) individuals brought in by ship, sometimes even locked into containers for the journey.
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THE PROBLEM
The Feds lie about the unemployment situation in America, mostly by reporting spurious statistics: That there are 4 million people receiving unemployment benefits, even if true, is meaningless. The true rate of unemployment in the U.S. is
TEN percent, and higher in depressed areas like Detroit and Louisiana (remember Katrina?). Plus little matters like the Big Freeze this winter that damaged the West Coast citrus and avocado crops, eliminating 10,000 seasonal jobs in California alone.
Figure 8 million Americans out of work. Then bring in the common estimate that there are 12 million illegal immigrants in this country and the relationship is obvious.
Get rid of the illegals and there will be full employment in America.
The largest source of revenue in the Mexican economy is the sale & export of national resources, mostly oil & natural gas. Mexico’s second largest revenue source is the money sent home by illegal workers in the U.S., money effectively removed from the U.S. economy.
The Oligarchy is committed to dirt cheap labor with no benefits, and the Culture-Structure works diligently to prevent the necessary economic solutions to the tanking economy, such as a Living Wage}. With a tight labor market, workers could demand minimum wages & overtime pay, seek union representation, and bargain for health & other benefits.
Get rid of illegal immigrants and the Middle Class once again has a chance to improve their lot, a future that died from Reagan’s pro-fascist economic policies.
Too bad about reversing the robber baron salaries of corporate execs and the unearned wealth of the Oligarchy. They have enough wealth already, siphoned off from the efforts of labor.
I say again: “Labor is the source of all wealth.”
* * * * * * * *
THE SOLUTION
There are plenty of laws in place to prevent employment of illegal/undocumented workers.
The Bush administration has prosecuted something like a mere dozen such cases in his six years as our leader.
The strategy is simple: Have the H.S.D./I.N.S. prosecute and jail any
employer whose operation includes illegal immi- grants. Throw a few suits into prison for violating existing laws and the others will clean up their human resources practices.
Wider government agencies – state, federal, local – can also do a great deal to remove illegals. One simple action is that when a driver is caught on any traffic violation, and they cannot provide proof of legal residency, then they are detained. No auto insurance? – nail them on that as well.
Before handing the detainee over to the H.S.D./I.N.S. machinery, officials can offer them a chance for leniency if they reveal their employer’s identity. Half a dozen reports on any employer should enable search warrants, with the evidence going to local prosecutors.
The detainee is then turned over to H.S.D./I.N.S. for return to his/her home country. (Sure, Bush’s funding for
real border security is meager, but that is where illegals should go; if H.S.D./I.N.S. releases bunches of such illegals anyway, then the newly-Democratic Congress can call officials on the carpet.)
* * * * * * * *
THE RESULT
The U.S border, especially that with Mexico, is a sieve. So stopping immigration of illegals is not likely to get done any time soon. But put employers of illegals in jail or prison, and illegal jobs will disappear. When illegals can no longer feed themselves thru such employment, their only course will be to go home. Perhaps many will even turn themselves in to
‘la migra’.
Then these jobs will go to citizens &
documented foreign workers. Then the unions can put pressure on employers, workers can improve their economic situation, the economy will grow like it used to, and the cash flow will once again move toward and within the U.S. economy.
Maybe we can all cut back to the one job per household, 40-hour work week lifestyle. Maybe we will have time then to organize as labor unions, to demonstrate on political matters (the Oil War, healthcare, environment, education), to visit with our families, to go to school, to put wages into savings accounts – those elements of the disappeared Middle Class that constitute the rising tide that lifts all boats.
This is something that must be fought for. The Oligarchy expects to have their evil dictates obeyed by the unwashed peasantry, and they will resist Constitutional oversight and-or punishment of their puppets in the Bush White House.
But fight we all must. Unless we do, and unless we pressure Congress for a rapid return to Constitutional rule, then our collective failure will throw us into World War III or into economic collapse (making The Great Depression look like a bad day) or into life under a totalitarian government of the United States.
Should History send America over any such precipice, and we lose even more of our Sacred Freedoms, you will know what you did to prevent that dire fate. And if enough citizens bombard Congress with our demands for correction of all of Bush’s crimes, and catastrophe is averted, then you will know that your actions caused that successful Revolution.
Freedom – Use it or lose it.
[copyright 2007 by Gary Edward Nordell, all rights reserved]
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