Austin, TX

I was listening to NPR today, as I drove around from appointment to appointment. The subject matter was illegal immigrants and the Mexican border, a subject which is always likely to raise my hackles.

The border between the United States and Mexico stretches from San Diego, California to Brownsville, Tx on the US side. It stretches 1,969 miles in length and is the most frequently traversed international border in the world. With over 250 million legal crossings a year, it is also has the largest number illegal crossings in the world.

So now, of course, we’re building the Great Wall of the U.S. We all know how well that worked out for China. Thanks to the “Secure Fence Act of 2006″ we’ll be getting a 700 mile fence, the construction of which will not be subject to any laws. You can thank the Real ID Act for that little gem. Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff used that little rider to trample over the Endangered Species Act, among others to extend fencing through the Tijuana river.

I sometime wonder if I’m entitled to more freedom simply by virtue of being fortunate enough to be born in this country. I’m bothered by the hypocrisy of our immigration laws where we open our arms to Cuban refugees and spit on Haitians. We live in a country that we conveniently forget that we stole from the Native Americans who are in large parts extinct now and those that aren’t are still living on land “allocated” to them. Many living below poverty. Yeah, I know about the casinos. That’s doesn’t equal things out in my books. We forget that this nation was built on the sweat of immigrants. Yeah, I know they may have been “legal”. I also know that I’ve never been so desperate for freedom that I’d stuff myself in a wheel well or put my family on a rickety boat to cross miles and miles of treacherous waters knowing you may be turned back or that you may die. We have over 11 million illegal immigrants. I don’t think we have the manpower to kick them all out. Yeah, I know we could be taxing them. Do you honestly think the fact that they don’t pay taxes means they aren’t spending money in this country? They gotta eat, right? Buy gas, right? Pay rent to someone? If you had to sneak over the border to put food on the table for your family, would you? Furthermore, a great number of illegals do pay taxes, and pay into the Social Security and Medicare funds as well. They just can’t get anything out of those funds, because they’d get deported. Yes, many illegals work “under the table” jobs, but many also work with forged documents so their employers either don’t know or can claim to not know they hired illegals.

I’m not, for a moment, suggesting that illegal immigrants don’t pose problems nor that we don’t need to find a decent solution. However, “economists generally believe that when averaged over the whole economy, the effect is a small net positive. Harvard’s George Borjas says the average American’s wealth is increased by less than 1 percent because of illegal immigration.”

But, whatever. Get the hell out of “my” country!

One of my legal immigrant friends, who lives in Miami, had this to say:

The laws to becoming a legal resident are confusing and long, those that do not pony up to an immigration attorney that can cost from 5K to 15K in order to get “legalized” have to live under the fear of being found out. I have seen people who have to make it on $3.50 an hour (yes they are paid an hourly wage) but who know they can never complain about it, or their boss will rat them out.

America was built on the immigrant’s backs. Today we eat vegetables and fruits that we could not afford if it were not for cheap immigrant labour. Here in Florida, the Fanjul family has the ability to import workers for picking season, and pay them 500 dollars a week. Sweet deal? Not really, they work 12 hour shifts in the fields, and then the Fanjul’s charge them for lodging, food and equipment, and yes, they are kept in holding facilities near the everglades, these immigrant “work camps”, so they are never to see Miami, except when they arrive, and when they leave on the armed escort. Beach - ha, these poor folks don’t have days off, I forgot, they signed their rights away to make some money to take back home.

Will the wall end the flood of immigrants from Mexico? I wonder. I guess time will tell. I seriously doubt it, though.

If you’d like to read more of my political articles, you can read them here.

politics, mexico, texas, border, immigrants, illegal, wall