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| Immigration Reform -- Farmers Branch |
| Tuesday, November 14, 2006 |
The city council of Farmers Branch, TX (which abuts Dallas) passed a bill to basically outlaw being an illegal immigrant. And, imagine this, they're catching flack for their legislative interpretation.
It is among the most ridiculous occasions in recent memory, when a law stating that it is illegal to be illegal or participate in illegal action is condemned as illegal. To me it is difficult to imagine that anyone fails to understand that entering the borders of another country without permission of that government is punishable by law, particularly when it is against the law of the country entered.
Portions of the Hispanic community has complained about the measure taken by the city council claiming that the actions are anti-Hispanic and these are the portions that are presented in the press. I am a citizen of the fine state of Texas, I work in the construction industry, and I know hundreds of individuals of Hispanic descent. Allow me to state that the Hispanic views often presented in the media do not represent the entire demographic of Hispanics, particularly, legal Hispanic American citizens. Most recognize that the issue itself not that complicated - it just the solutions that cause problems.
I will be the first to admit that I do believe that the immigrant population both legal and illegal adds value to our rapidly aging nation. It allows many American companies to be competitive and to drive consumer cost down for product, particularly real estate development. Take a look at realty sites and compare the relative cost of new homes, landscaping, catering, and other services that require large amount of low wage labor in areas that are likely to have high concentrations of illegal immigrants working and it easy to see that the consumer costs are lower, because the labor cost are lower. So, I would expect that the costs for a lot of service would increase substantially if only legal labor was used in the marketplace. At the same time, I disagree entirely with amnesty programs. The idea is obscene and solves none of the existing problems. It in fact will invite more illegals, because if their is a "Amnesty 1" their will likely be "Amnesty 2".
The use of guest workers is common in the economies of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, where the citizens benefit from oil revenues and have no desire to inflate the size of the body that is eating the pie. And, traditionally this represents an owner class of people that can be used for labor-intensive jobs to increase the luxury of the elite and many countries have large bodies of low paid, unskilled workers. At present we are looking like much of the rest of the world. However, the problem with our country and the huge population of illegals has great ramification because of the socialist tendencies of our 20th century government and rich entitlement programs.
When there is low wage illegal labor in the US all those families that are just making it are subsidizing the undocumented worker benefits. The people who should have the biggest problem are not in the middle class, but are the economic lower classes. This group, which tends not to vote or form special interest lobbies, is the biggest loser presently and, in the event of an amnesty program, will likely continue to be the loser for three reasons:
- This population tends not to aggressively compete for available opportunities.
- Many of the existing illegals will receive little if any benefit from registering as guest worker and elect to continue working for approximately the same rate they are at present - many will probably just lose their jobs if the demand higher wages.
- New illegal will come in to continue to drive down labor costs at the expense of those who register as guest workers.
The problem is has been and will be at the borders - I mean sieve. Illegal immigrants are pouring in from nations all over the world and Latin America is only one of them. The problem is compounded by an ineffective or under funded INS, there is no support from most local municipalities.
Farmers Branch has taken it upon itself to pass a bill that would fine business owners and landlords for respectively hiring or renting to illegal immigrants. This is a community action to establish legislation that agrees with federal legislation. It is a small community trying to do what the federal government refuses to do.
To parody a Ronald Reagan line:
"Mr. Bush put up that wall!” |
posted by Domesticated Dog @ 11:46 PM   |
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