Now hold on
When you take money meant for someone else you are a thief. There is no way around this. This happens without question in our education and health care system. Never mind the broader, philisophical definition of taking what is someone else's in that you havent paid for it.
And as has been pointed out, illegals do not take jobs that US citizens want. They pay about as much tax as a US citizen would pay on an equivalent income. They don't get much health care or other benefits, but considering how they support our economy, I would say they more than earn what they take. Yes, they get schooled, but again, in my opinion, having a literate society is worth the investment. There's more ways of "paying" than just money, pipeline. There's such a thing as "working off your debt." I would say that illegals do just that.
By definition they ARE criminals. Why is this law wrong to enforce when it is right to enforce the laws against stealing tires off of someone's car? Because it is simpler?
Yes, they are criminals. Almost every adult I know is some sort of criminal, since it is almost impossible to have been alive in the US without violating a law or two. But there are levels of criminal activity. Again I ask, do you come down hard on the petty criminals and ignore the big bosses? Would you arrest the car thieves, but ignore the crime syndicate that is buying the cars from them? Yes, it is much easier to arrest the little fish, but it does nothing to solve the problem, because there are plenty of little fish.
But anyway. I cant speak for the nation as a whole, I CAN say what I have seen with my own two eyes. MANY here have lost jobs because of the illegals. You can pretty much forget the "part time" or "summer" jobs for kids.
My experience is otherwise. Like BPSCG, I see all sorts of openings for unskilled labor. True, a lot of them are McJobs, but I don't see too many people actually unable to find work. But I reiterate, if companies are hiring illegals and firing nationals, then it is the
companies you should be angry with, not the people taking jobs. They are the ones holding the cards.
More seriously, the people *I* work for no longer have jobs, or no longer have jobs with enough discretionary spending to afford my 15 dollars an hour. I am talking about framers, a perfectly noble profession that used to typically carry 12-25 dollars an hour. These jobs are gone, replaced with 5-8 dollar an hour illegal labor, or "coyote slaves", which is a whole nother can of worms.
Who is responsible for that management policy to hire "coyote slaves"? Why is it they are able to do your job for one half to one third the price? If the cost of doing business for a company suddenly doubled, would they be able to stay in business? How would they cover their increased costs?
This is not as simple a solution as you might think.
Painters, again, good money for a hard worker, gone
Food service, with no threat of prosecution, even the most expensive restaraunts have turned to illegals, so that age old stepping stone profession to the music industry is gone
Maybe you can see the effects by checking out our formerly thriving live music nightclubs. The VERY few we have left now are so underpopulated that bands must buy tickets from the clubs to sell so that there will be patronage at the bar as there is no longer a customer base for the club.
Punish the bosses, not the grunts, or at least make their punishments relative. If a boss hires ten illegal grunts, punish him ten times as much as each grunt. Make him pay for health, medical care or even for relocation to Mexico for each and every one of them. That's how you'll solve the problem. That and paying a lot more for everything. And don't let me hear you complaining about the cost of living when everything costs more because we're paying the workers $25 an hour instead of $8.
Maybe you can come to a public school here and see the effects.
My wife teaches in public school in Houston. She says that children of illegals are among the best behaved and most hard-working, because they don't want to make trouble for their parents and get them deported. Also,they are seeking a better life for themselves, yeah, they have a language problem, but I know a lot more bilingual Hispanics than "long-time" Americans. The biggest discipline problems are legal immigrants, though "long-time" Americans rival them.
People ARE losing jobs HERE. People are suffering HERE
maybe not where you are. Maybe you benefit where you are, we sure dont, and if you ARE benefiting, maybe you could send some of that windfall to the hospitals and school systems here.
Yes, there is suffering, though I cannot see that the US economy is sinking because of illegal immigration. In fact, our economy is quite robust. I compare the average comfort of the average US citizen today to what it was back in the 60's and it looks to me like we are doing quite well overall.
And consider the suffering of others as well. Do you not think illegal immigrants suffer too? Does the fact that they are taking advantage of a loophole in our law enforcement (which is dangerous for them to do, but not at all dangerous for those enticing them) in order to support their family make you callous to
their suffering?
There are problems and we need to work on solutions, but demonizing illegal aliens is not going to do a bloody thing except feed your rage.
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