For Republicans, Contest's Hallmark Is Immigration

[TexasBushwhacker]

From the Washington Post:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/01/AR2008010102333.html?wpisrc=newsletter&wpisrc=newsletter

"The imagery of the mailings is designed to pack a wallop: a Mexican flag fluttering above the Stars and Stripes, the Statue of Liberty presiding over a "Welcome Illegal Aliens" doormat, a Social Security card emblazoned with the name "Juan Doe," a U.S. passport proclaiming, "Only one candidate has a plan to STAMP out illegal immigration."

I'm a white gal from Texas, and needless to say, we have a lot of illegal aliens. However, I also know that there are plenty of people who, when they see a brown face, they think "wetback". Nevermind that their ancestors may have been here for generations before my ancestors were, or that Spanish was spoken in Texas long before English.

I've also worked for a company that hired some illegals and in fact helped them to get into the US (they were from Brazil). As long as aliens can come here and work, they will come here, legally (H1-B visas) or illegally. They will also continue to work for substandard wages and conditions that American citizens generally won't tolerate. So the "cure" for illegal immigration is not to crack down on the immigrants, but to crack down on the people who hire them.

The thing is, although the politicians pay lip service to solving the illegal alien "problem", I don't think we as a country really want to. Do we want to pay more for crops that are picked by American workers making at least minimum wage, including the employer's cost of Social Security, Medicare and worker's compensation insurance? Do we want to pay more for housing (which is already too damn high)? Think about how a mass exodus of illegals would affect all the landlords who rent to them. Think about the families that hire (and often exploit) them to clean their homes, mow their lawns and take care of their brats (er, children). The list goes on.

The thing is, if the powers that be really wanted to fix the illegal alien "problem", they would have already. Then don't really want to fix it because they reap the benefits. So the illegals stay here, making substandard wages, and their children have a horrendously high drop out rate because their families push them to quit school and start working (at substandard wages), and the cycle continues, generation after generation. We don't educate them about birth control, and guess what, they generally start having babies really young! They are our permenant, exploitable, under class. As in Brave New World, they are our Epsilons, and just like in Brave New World, we look down upon them, even though we made them.

[yurbud]

1. the last paragraph is the real issue, but righties don't care about that