The Illegal Immigrant Storm
The following is an editorial by Bill Schweitzer. He is an excellent editorialist whose Blog can be found here. If you like what you read here, I highly recommend subscribing to the Blog for more from Bill.
As many of you know, I am from Hazleton, Pennsylvania, which has in the past year become "Ground Zero" in the illegal immigration debate in this country. With tens of thousands of Hispanics, both legal and illegal, skipping work and school to protest in the streets on the first of the month, and the Lou Dobbs special broadcast from Penn State Hazleton that aired on CNN last night, the issue has once again been thrust into the spotlight. Over the past two days, I've seen and heard quite a bit of argument on this topic in support of amnesty for those who broke our laws and illegally occupy this country. With that in mind, I want to respond to some of the "points" that seem to always come up from those who defend the "right" of illegal aliens to live in America.
1. Illegal immigrants should not be deported because there is a demand for their services.
I'm starting off with this because it is, in my opinion, the most absurd "point" made by those in favor of illegally crossing our border, and is a "point" that I've heard on CNN, MSNBC and Fox News several times in the past two days.
The idea of that which there is a demand for should be legal is ludicrous. There is a demand for nearly all illegal activity. In this country, we have a very large demand for things such as illegal drugs, prostitution, counterfeit currency, identity theft, bootleg CDs and DVDs, child pornography, stolen cars, credit cards and other merchandise, as well as hitmen, smugglers, and even dangerous explosives used and warehoused by people in this country from local gangs to militias to terrorist cells found within our borders. If there wasn't a demand, criminals wouldn't risk their lives and jail time to engage in illegal activity.
In fact, the demand for inexpensive labor was one of the primary arguments of the Confederacy in their fight against the end of slavery. Using the logic offered by those who defend illegal immigration with the above statement, America should not have outlawed slavery, because there was, in fact, a large demand for their services on farms and plantations throughout the south.
Demand for an illegal activity is NOT justification to allow the illegal activity to continue unchallenged. End of story.
2. Illegal immigrants do the jobs in this country that Americans won't do.
I find this to be the most insulting of the points offered forth by those who defend illegal immigrants.
The United States has been the most industrious nation in the world since it was founded. We are a nation of hard working capitalists. We work longer hours and with less vacation than almost every European nation. We are a country that was founded upon coal miners who worked 80 hour weeks in the mines only to die of black lung in their 40s. We are a country built on the backs of Americans in the steel mills and factories, of truck drivers and assembly line workers. We are a nation that was built in less than 200 years from a newly discovered land to the largest and most powerful nation on this earth...and we did so by welcoming those who came to this country LEGALLY.
The reasons Americans don't do the jobs done by illegal immigrants is that those who hire illegal immigrants break federal law that was put in place to protect American workers. They pay less than half of the minimum wage, which in itself is not enough to support a family on, and exploit illegal immigrants for their own bottom line.
These businesses ignore our tax laws, our safety requirements, our protection against sexual harassment at the workplace by hiring men and women who have no legal recourse against their employer. If an illegal is paid $50 a week for 40 hours of backbreaking work, they have no one to complain to, while the rich white businessman buys another home in Palm Beach with the money he saved by hiring an illegal.
An illegal can be placed in an environment where they are forced to breathe carcinogens with no safety equipment for twelve hours a day for $3 dollars an hour. Is the illegal immigrant going to complain to OSHA? They can try, but there's no record of them even working for the employer, or existing in our country at all. Why would the company spend the money on safety equipment and maintaining a clean and healthy work environment? After all, they're perfectly willing to break the law by hiring an illegal and paying them less than minimum wage to save money. What happens when an illegal immigrant loses a finger or a hand working under unsafe conditions for very little money? Employers don't exactly have a health plan available for their illegal work force. What happens when the illegal is too old to work? There won't be any Social Security checks headed your way. You will be worked until you die, at which point, you will be replaced by another illegal alien.
When a young girl runs away from home and sells her body on the streets for a pimp, both she and the pimp are arrested and charged with a crime. When a businessman hires an illegal immigrant to work under unsafe conditions, our government looks the other way...and when cities like Hazleton step up to penalize these employers for their crimes, they are fought by the ACLU and Hispanic Rights groups. In many ways, the prostitute is offered a better life. She certainly has the opportunity to make much more money, and while the danger is high, at very least they are documented citizens who have the opportunity to turn their life around. The only opportunity for an illegal immigrant to escape their predicament is to find yet another sub-minimum wage job as they continue living in the shadows.
Looking at the lifestyle of an illegal immigrant, it is no wonder why so many turn to selling drugs and other criminal activity to put food on their table. After all, they're already breaking the law by being in this country illegally. If you're going to break the law for a better way of life, why stop at illegal occupation when the money and demand is so great for cocaine and heroin? Why settle for two dollars an hour for backbreaking labor when you can almost set your own salary living the Scarface dream? Either way, you're going to be arrested if you're caught. Might as well make as much money as you can.
The reason Americans do not do these jobs is because these jobs are not available to them. They are reserved for illegals to increase the profit margin. For the cost of hiring one American citizen protected by our laws in the workplace, an employer can hire up to a dozen illegal immigrants; nameless, faceless human beings that come to this country to be exploited. The only reason that America is a desirable place to live for illegal immigrants is because a demand was created by greedy, criminal, lawbreaking businessmen who are protected by the politicians who rely on these businessmen to fund their campaign.
3. We are a nation of immigrants.
We hear this one all the time, and it's almost always countered by those who oppose illegal immigration with the phrase "We are a nation of laws". This verbal ping pong is getting us nowhere.
The fact is, we are a nation of AMERICANS. Each of us have a different story by which our ancestors became Americans. Some, like my maternal grandfather Jesse, became citizens when America took possession of his home (my grandfather is a native Hawaiian, born before Hawaii was a state into a family that existed before Hawaii was a territory). Others, like my paternal great-great grandfather Primo Corra, were among the European settlers of this country, who set sail for the new world in search of a better way of life.
The difference is that Primo didn't sneak over a barbed wire fence and through a desert. He came here legally, not to become an Italian living in Americas shadows, but to become AN AMERICAN.
My family did not sacrifice their cultural identity. To this day, my grandmother makes a mean lasagna, and follows many of the traditions passed down in our family. However, my family ASSIMILATED into the American culture. They learned the English language, rather than to demand that their new neighbors, English, German, Polish and Irish settlers, learn Italian. They worked hard, followed the rules, and began a legacy in the new world that continues to this day with the existence of my family...an American family. Just as you don't begin a successful marriage by breaking your vows...just as you don't begin a successful career by violating company policy...[color=red]you do not start a new life for yourself by breaking the laws of the place that you wish to call home....period[/color]
4. "We Didn't Cross The Border...The Border Crossed Us!
This is the rallying cry for hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants. I often wonder if the Hispanics who march in the street carrying Mexican flags and shouting this phrase are talking about everyone, or just themselves.
Does this ring true for illegal Chinese immigrants who pay smugglers to get them into this country, where many find work in prostitution rings? How about the terrorists who remained in this country on expired student visas, only to fly planes into the World Trade Center. Did the border cross them, too? Did the border "cross" everyone who wants to be here for any reason, or did it just cross you...the Hispanic population.
I find it incredibly arrogant that Hispanics have attempted to turn this around to being a racial issue. To begin with, Hispanic is not a race...they are the descendants of European settlers to the new world..the same as any Italian, German or Irishman. They may have a darker skin tone than the majority of Anglo-American citizens, but the fact remains that "Hispanic" is a nationality, not a race. These men and women who cry racism when they are told they cannot break our laws are WHITE, wether they accept that fact or not. They come from the exact same background that you and I do. The only difference is that Spain's holdings in the new world, when it was all said and done, fell closer to the Equator. Therefore, the idea that the battle against illegal immigration has anything to do with race is an outright lie. It has to do with people who enter our country illegally...from ANY race or nationality.
The ONLY people who have any right to use that ridiculous quote are Native Americans, including tribes on the mainland, Native Hawaiians and Inuit people of Alaska. Using that phrase to justify the Hispanic agenda of breaking our laws to enter and live in the United States is a slap in the face to the native people that BOTH of our cultures slaughtered hundreds of years ago. When Columbus set sail in the employ of Spain...when Cortez and his Conquistadors reigned terror over this continent, the Indians didn't tell each other to beware of the Europeans and the Hispanics. They said to beware of the WHITE MAN, of which the Hispanic "race" is included. Neither you nor I have ANY right to spit in the face of these people for a political agenda, and each and every man or woman who used this asinine phrase in the news media need to issue a public apology IMMEDIATELY. Crying racism in such a manner with such a phrase is an embarrassment. You should be ashamed of yourselves.
5. The Statue Of Liberty says blah, blah, blah. We have the right to seek a better way of life.
You certainly do...and we have LEGAL ways for you to EARN that quality of life that you seek, instead of STEALING an artificial copy of the American dream. You owe it to what you hope to call your new home to become an American citizen, to learn the English language in which we communicate, and to pay taxes and contribute to the services and quality of life that you hope to enjoy. You DO NOT achieve the American dream by living illegally in the shadows, by driving down the pay rate of the American workers by working for less than what our law allows, and by refusing to assimilate into our culture and rejecting the language of our land.
It is time for those who wish to enter this country behave HONORABLY, as proud citizens of their new land, instead of settling for the life of a fugitive...the life of a criminal who works for next to nothing and lives their lives hoping that they are not discovered.
It is time for the illegals to grow up and act like adults, not children who have gotten away with breaking the rules, and are stomping their feet in anger at the fact that they are told that it will no longer be tolerated.