Saturday, April 01, 2006

Give me your tired, your poor, etc. PS: Just send me a few at a time


Here are some facts for you…There are currently 11 million illegal aliens in the USA, according to estimates by academic and government agencies, although some analysts claim that the actual number is closer to 20 million.

Illegal immigration has accelerated under Bush The Younger thanks in part to his 2003 dissolution and subsequent absorption of INS into the Homeland Security Dept. alongside FEMA. Until Bush’s genius idea INS had been part of the Justice Department. After September 11th, the Bush Administration complained that the INS was insufficiently focused on deporting and expelling illegal immigrants, WTF?!! and requested that it be transferred to Homeland Security. Then in 2003 the Border Patrol which had been part of INS was also sucked into Homeland Security independent of INS.


You’re following this right? Hold on because now it’s going to get ridiculous. After all of the major overhaul was approved by Congress Homeland Security was supposed to have hired 10,000 additional Border Patrol Agents beginning with 2000 right off the bat, but our beloved leader per usual ignored that law mandating the hiring of the new agents and instead of budgeting money for the 2000 agents in the 2006 federal budget Bush The Younger provided the money for only 210 new agents… WTF!? It’s gotta be the new math. Both houses of Congress worked together twice in 2005 to bypass the White House, and hire 1,500 new Border Patrol agents......500 shy of that required by law, but surpassing the 210 planned by President Bush.


Now let’s get into the realm of opinions: The Congressional Immigration Reform Caucus, which is primarily Republican (like I didn’t see that one coming) and many Americans believe that illegal immigration should be stopped, and that legal immigration should be slowed. Wtf?!! Do these people even remember the words to “The New Colossus,” the poem that’s on the plaque at the base of the Statue of Liberty?
Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me:
I lift my lamp beside the golden door.
Did I miss something where in there does it say PS: Just send me a few at a time. ?

The caucus believes that there is a clear link between open borders, unregulated or lightly regulated borders and the potential for terrorism. No wonder we haven’t caught Osama yet, the boy’s been chilling over in one the border towns! Bush should’ve looked there first. Just how many terrorists have we caught making a run for the border? Does anyone have a number for me? I couldn’t find any. But okay for the sake of security let’s do a better job there. How about we hire the friggin ‘exact number of Border agents needed? That’s a start.


The one thing I remember learning in history class as a child was that every single immigrant group that has come into this country has been blamed for unemployment and undermining the state of the economy. This from a country that was built on the backs of immigrants, because let’s face it unless you’re a member of an American Indian Nation your ass is an immigrant. Even the Mexicans were here first. Remember prior to the Mexican War in 1840’s that whole area where our government wants to build a wall up on belonged to them.


Millions of US citizens believe that undocumented workers take jobs from unemployed and underemployed US citizens. They believe that it’s an economic fact that low wages paid to illegal immigrants serve to keep wage levels depressed for all American workers. They also believe that the presence of illegal immigrants causes paralyzing burdens on public health services, school systems and law enforcement, thereby causing US citizens delayed or loss of access to quality, taxpayer-funded services. Yeah okay that’s the real reason Johnny can’t read because Miguel and some of his boys snuck over. Yeah and families go bankrupt paying off medical bills because Amadou and Seamus over stayed their visas and crime rates go up because it’s a known fact that all illegals are criminals, here in America we import our crime.


Now let’s go over some realities this may not be pretty but fluck it I’m game if you are…The reality of the situation is that illegal immigration into the United States is a highly profitable proposition for both employers and the US government. However before we get into that let’s throw some stats around… About 75% of undocumented immigrants are Latinos and 50% are Mexican. Oh yeah by the way just because they speak Spanish doesn’t make all illegals Mexicans. I’m gonna address the Mexican thing because that’s what people seem to be focusing on and it’s what I’m familiar with…

1)Why are so many Mexicans making a run for the border ?
The answer is simple wide spread poverty and hunger. According to the World Bank, 53% of Mexico' population of 104 million residents live in poverty, which is defined as living on less than $2 a day. Come on man you can’t even get a cup of coffee at Starbucks for that in this country. Now try living on that out there.

Close to 24% of Mexico's population live in extreme poverty, which is worse than just plain old poverty. Extreme poverty means they live on less than $1 a day. The bottom 40% of Mexican households share less than 11% of the country's wealth. Millions live in extreme poverty, and children have to work on the streets in order to help provide food for their families and I assure you they are not doing this after school. Unemployment in Mexico is realistically estimated near 40%, and there are no government unemployment benefits. There are also virtually no welfare benefits to provide the basics for poverty-stricken, often-starving women, children and families. Tell me honestly if this was the reality of your daily life wouldn’t you risk your life and run for the border? Fluck it I say if they can survive running into the US through the desert and its hostile conditions then they deserve a job.


2)Why such poverty?
Mexico wasn’t always so poverty stricken, it all began in 1983 when the devaluation of the Mexican peso set off a chain of events. The devaluation of the peso encouraged US factory owners and corporations to set up shop in Mexico, enabling them to make higher profits by taking advantage of the cheaper labor costs. They also took advantage of the fact that they could get away with poor working conditions and few required benefits. The maquiladoras as they were called all sprung up along the Mexican side of the US-Mexico border. As a result of this thousands of poor Mexican workers and their families moved to northernmost Mexico to labor in the maquiladoras.

The “prosperity” was short lived because after ten years those same US corporations closed the maquiladoras, and again relocated factories, this time to Asia, which proffered even cheaper labor costs, no benefits and often horrible working conditions acceptable to their governments. The Mexican workers were then left with nada; they received no benefits or severance. And proving that when it rains it pours the crap really hit the fan in 1994 when Mexico’s banking and telecommunications industries were privatized. This move threw millions more into the poverty stew that was going on. To complicate economic matters more along with the rising unemployment rate there were increased consumer prices, and wages and benefits were being cut.

Oh yeah but lest you think there was a downside Mexico's massive privatizations also created a new privileged class of home-grown millionaires and billionaires. As of 2002, Mexico ranked fourth in the world in billionaires, behind the US, Japan and Germany. So you see there’s always a silver lining.


Now that we’ve covered that let’s move on to my statement that illegal immigration is a profitable thing for this government…here’s another little FAQ..

1) You’re tripping girl how can you say that illegal immigration is profitable to the US. How can you talk such nonsense?
Easily, I’ve got the NY Times as back up. According to a New York Times article “... illegal immigrant workers in the United States are now providing the system with a subsidy of as much as $7 billion a year....Moreover, the money paid by illegal immigrants and their employers is factored into all the Social Security Administration's projections. For illegal immigrants, Social Security numbers are simply a tool needed to work on this side of the border. Retirement does not enter the picture; because they are here illegally they will never collect Social Security benefits.” The fact is that illegals are paying into the system but never getting any of the money back. This helps The Social Security Administration stay solvent ( shhh perhaps another day this post is not about SS reform )


3)Are you telling me that the US government knows this and looks the other way?
Ya damn skippy they do… in 2005 Wal-Mart a company with $285 billion in sales, got fined a pitiful $11 million slap on the wrist for hiring illegals and in 2004 NO penalties were imposed by the federal government against any employer in for hiring undocumented workers. But then again remember the Wal-Mart case was highly publicized so the public was expecting something to be done.

4) Yeah but these illegals work with forged documents. The government must not know about the fake social security numbers and social security cards you know forgers are so talented these days…
(Mia raises eyebrow) Yeah okay…wrap your head around this… According to The New York Times , "Starting in the late 1980s, the social Security Administration received a flood of W-2 earnings reports with incorrect---sometimes simply fictitious---Social Security numbers. It stashed them in what it calls the 'earnings suspense file' in the hope that someday it would figure out whom they belonged to.
The file has been mushrooming ever since: $189 billion worth of wages ended up recorded in the suspense file over the 1990s, two and a half times the amount of the 1980s. In the current decade, the file is growing, on average, by more than $50 billion a year, generating $6 billion to $7 billion in Social Security tax revenue and about $1.5 billion in Medicare taxes. ...the mismatched W-2's fit like a glove on illegal immigrants' known geographic distribution and the patchwork of jobs they typically hold. An audit found that more than half of the 100 employers filing the most earnings reports with false social Security numbers from 1997 through 2001 came from just three states: California, Texas and Illinois."

This information shows that the Feds know which companies are employing illegal immigrant and odds are the feds most likely know who they are.


5) Wait a second why would the US government look the other way when this is costing American workers jobs?
Well it’s all about politics and votes. I read this once in The Christian Science Monitor ,”...experts blame the twin pressures of ethnic advocacy and business interests"

6) WTF does that mean?
Well even though an illegal immigrant doesn’t vote odds are he has friends and family that do. So basically "ethnic advocacy" means buying favor...and votes....within the illegal immigrant community. The politicians have to woo us we’ve surpassed African-Americans as the largest ethnic community in the United States. Haven’t you noticed the increase of politicians making commercials in Spanish? Many believe that the Bush Administration's lack of immigration enforcement in 2004 was directly connected to the Republican Party's goal to court the Latino vote, and convince Latinos to join Republican ranks. Hmmm ya think? It’s been shown that Mexicans born in Mexico tend to vote republican and are move conservative than American born Mexicans. Now for the “business interests” which we know is code for “profit”. A business tends to profit when labor costs are lowered. When thousands of businesses have higher profits, then the US business community becomes stronger and CEO’s do the happy happy joy joy dance but that’s another post. This strength is perceived as success by the voting public and translates into more votes for the politicians.

7) Yeah but what about the strain to education, healthcare, and law enforcement?
Maybe if the companies and The Social Security Administration who have been made richer by the illegals actually reimbursed the local and state authorities for the costs of these services associated with the illegals there wouldn’t be such a strain. What am I saying? This would mean giving up some profits instead it’s easier to make illegals the villains in all of this. Heaven forbid we should take a second look at the government and corporations that are benefiting.

Now let’s talk about HR 4437 – The Border Protection, Antiterrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005. The supporters of this bill says it beefs up border protection. Uhuh yeah that’s the only reason I’m sure that the illegals running in from Mexico got nada to do with it. After all it is an election year and per schedule it’s time to wail on the illegals. Why else would the politicos talk about building the The Great Wall of Mexico and encouraging mass deportation? Why else would these puto elected officials encourage the harrassment of 12 million or more people ? Illinois Congressman and Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert decided last fall to make the “illegal immigration" issue the Republican Party's new emotionally charged wedge issue. Remember it was homophobia and anti gay marriage sentiment that got them in 2004.

Provisions of HR 4437 unlawful presence in the US would be considered a felony, with undocumented immigrants facing a year in jail this in turn would permanently bar a person from becoming a citizen. This law makes the 11 million undocumented workers "aggravated criminal felons" and turns anyone who tries to help them people like priests, social workers, doctors and everyday people like my father into criminals for "aiding and abetting" the undocumented.


In 2005, Senators Edward Kennedy (D-MA) and John McCain (R-AZ) introduced an immigration reform bill that allows for illegal immigrants who clear criminal background checks to apply for temporary work permits. After 6 years, they could apply for permanent residence status, and after 11 years, for full US citizenship after meeting certain other requirements. I’m down with that. There are those within the Republican Party that are against this they feel it is rewarding the illegals. Bullshit. I agree with gonzo yeller Howard Dean, "…you've lived here for a significant period of time---whether you're undocumented or documented---and you have contributed to your community, you have never been arrested or gone to jail...you've paid your taxes and worked hard, that you ought to have a path to earn legalization of citizenship." That was beautifully worded Howard and gracias for not yelling afterwards.


Okay let us press on here (damn this is a long post) In late February 2006, Senator Arlen Specter, a moderate Republican and chairman of the Senate Judiciary committee, presented a to overhaul US immigration laws. The Specter proposal calls for a guest-worker program that would temporarily legalize millions of undocumented workers now living in the US. Bush supports this program. Excuse me but that can lead to I dunno something called indentured servitude. In other words come pick our crops, toil in our fields, do our dirty work and then get the fuck out, go back home. Not to mention it rings of creating a permanent underclass of immigrants. Hello did we not learn anything from the Muslim youth rioting in France last summer? Oh yeah I forgot here’s the kicker in a twist of irony or maybe it was intentionally the 11 million illegals that are here now would be excluded from this program. WTF?!

Senator Specter is also advocating for his own brand of amnesty, his plan plays as follows the road to citizenship would take 11 years and would require a clean record, a steady job, payment of a $2,000 fine and back taxes, and knowledge of English and civics. I’m assuming that the illegals who’ve been paying taxes and contributing to social security would receive credit for what they have paid into the system already. Verdad? Sounds fair to me that would right thing to do but I can’t say I’ve heard anything to that effect.


I love what the governor of Illinois Rod Blagojevich and Chigaco Mayor Richard M. Daleey had to say about this last week: “Whether their names are Gutierrez or Lozano, Lipinski or Blagojevich; it doesn't matter, this is a country built by immigrants.” ( Gov. Rod Blagojevich)

“This is a fight that includes every American. Those who are here undocumented, we're not going to make criminals out of them. That is not what America has ever stood for and will not stand for.” (Mayor Richard M. Daley)

Labels: IMMIGRATION, politics

Posted by @ 7:57 PM
10 comment from:  Fouad,  Just Jane,  Just Jane,  mystic-soul,  Emory Mayne,  Mia,  Mr. Khurram,  Aisha,  Faith,  Mia,