Adam's Apple
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- Apr 25, 2004
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Tackling a Handful of Immigration Myths, Misnomers and Red Herrings
by John Hawkins, Human Events
May 17, 2006
Theres no topic hotter in the body politic right now than immigration.
Everywhere you turn, especially in the blogosphere, somebody has an opinion. So, since illegal immigration is the topic du jour, it seemed like a good idea to address a few of the myths, misnomers and red herrings that seem to keep popping up like a kangaroo on a hot tin roof.
We need illegals to do the jobs Americans wont do.
There is no such thing as a, job an American wont do. There are only jobs some Americans wont do at a certain price. Most illegal aliens are from poor countries and they can make much more here working for minimum wage than they can at home. Add to that the fact that as often as not, they either dont pay taxes or pay much less than they owe. Furthermore, they generally dont buy health care and have no auto insurance. Put it all together and its no surprise that an illegal will do a job for much less than an American worker.
But then when wages are driven through the floor by a flood of illegals, the employers who are hiring them announce that Americans, wont do those jobs. Well, of course they wont do them. Would you stay at your job if your employer announced that he was slashing your salary and your benefits down to the bone because there was an illegal who offered to do the same job for peanuts?
Weve got to bring the illegal aliens out of the shadows.
Theyre in the shadows? Really? I seem to remember hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens proudly announcing that they were boycotting American businesses as they marched in the streets, made demands in Spanish, and waved foreign flags. Quite frankly, I think most Americans liked them a little better when they were still in the shadows.
Theyre immigrants.
This is a rhetorical trick designed to lump in unwanted visitors whove entered our country without permission with legal immigrants, who are welcome here. But, referring to illegal immigrants as immigrants is like referring to burglars as occupants of a house. Yes, they may be standing in the living room, but they have no right to be there and calling them occupants confuses the issue. People arent up in arms about immigrants. Theyre up in arms about illegal immigrants, and trying to muddy that distinction is intellectually dishonest.
Theres just no way to secure the border without instituting a guest worker program to help slow down the flow of illegal immigrants.
Thats absolutely trueif you chronically understaff the border patrol and refuse to give them the resources they need to do their jobs.
Currently, we have 12,000 border patrol agents and President Bush claims that he wants to increase that number to 18,000 by the time he leaves office. Great, that would get the border patrol up to less than half of the 39,110 police officers that are in New York City aloneexcept that the border patrol agents arent just responsible for policing a single city. Theyre tasked with stopping terrorists, drug dealers, and illegal immigrants from crossing 6,000 miles of border.
If your boat springs a leak, do you (A) just give up because you cant bail the water out fast enough with a thimble or do you (B) grab some more sailors from topside, hand them buckets, and start working to make sure your boat doesnt sink? Most Americans would choose (B), but thats not how weve dealt with the situation on our borders.
Theres no way we can round up and deport 12 million illegal aliens. Who are these people saying that we should do that? Certainly they may exist, but I cant name one off the top-of-my-head. Can you?
What people are actually suggesting is that we crack down on the employers of illegal aliens with fines and even jail terms, so that theyll quit hiring undocumented workers. Then, if the illegals cant get jobs here, most of them will leave. After all, they came here to work. If theres no work, theres no reason for them to be here. That means we wont need to round them up because most of them will self-deport.
Illegals are an essential part of the economy.
Actually, no, theyre not. Illegals only make up about 5% of the work force and they generally do low-skill, low-income jobs. If you add up all the government services they end up usingfor example: school for their kids, illegals who fill up our prisons, money paid to illegals who have children on American soil, etc., theyre actually a net drain on our economy. The Center for Immigration Studies estimates that undocumented workers actually cost us $10 billion a year. Incidentally, that number would triple to $30 billion if the illegals became American citizens and therefore were able to qualify for more government aid.
We want to make illegal aliens go to the back of the line.
The back of the line isnt in America, its in the illegals home country where large numbers of other people are filling out paperwork, paying ridiculously high fees, and checking their calendars to see how many months or years they have left before they can emigrate to the United States. No illegal who is allowed to stay in the United States can fairly be said to be at the back of line.
I do not support amnesty, but heres my plan that accomplishes the same thing. The majority of illegal aliens are coming to this country for the same reasons that legal immigrants come here. They want to get jobs or become citizens. So, if theyre allowed to stay here and work or become citizens, despite the fact that they broke the law, its an amnesty, pure and simple.
The only reason that politicians wont call an amnesty an amnesty is because they have such a low opinion of the American people that they believe we can be tricked with weasel words. Its not an abortion, its a choice. Were not raising taxes, were asking people to pay their fair share. Its not amnesty, its earned legalization. Any way you slice it, its the same piece of rancid meatloaf.
http://www.humaneventsonline.com/article.php?id=14910
by John Hawkins, Human Events
May 17, 2006
Theres no topic hotter in the body politic right now than immigration.
Everywhere you turn, especially in the blogosphere, somebody has an opinion. So, since illegal immigration is the topic du jour, it seemed like a good idea to address a few of the myths, misnomers and red herrings that seem to keep popping up like a kangaroo on a hot tin roof.
We need illegals to do the jobs Americans wont do.
There is no such thing as a, job an American wont do. There are only jobs some Americans wont do at a certain price. Most illegal aliens are from poor countries and they can make much more here working for minimum wage than they can at home. Add to that the fact that as often as not, they either dont pay taxes or pay much less than they owe. Furthermore, they generally dont buy health care and have no auto insurance. Put it all together and its no surprise that an illegal will do a job for much less than an American worker.
But then when wages are driven through the floor by a flood of illegals, the employers who are hiring them announce that Americans, wont do those jobs. Well, of course they wont do them. Would you stay at your job if your employer announced that he was slashing your salary and your benefits down to the bone because there was an illegal who offered to do the same job for peanuts?
Weve got to bring the illegal aliens out of the shadows.
Theyre in the shadows? Really? I seem to remember hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens proudly announcing that they were boycotting American businesses as they marched in the streets, made demands in Spanish, and waved foreign flags. Quite frankly, I think most Americans liked them a little better when they were still in the shadows.
Theyre immigrants.
This is a rhetorical trick designed to lump in unwanted visitors whove entered our country without permission with legal immigrants, who are welcome here. But, referring to illegal immigrants as immigrants is like referring to burglars as occupants of a house. Yes, they may be standing in the living room, but they have no right to be there and calling them occupants confuses the issue. People arent up in arms about immigrants. Theyre up in arms about illegal immigrants, and trying to muddy that distinction is intellectually dishonest.
Theres just no way to secure the border without instituting a guest worker program to help slow down the flow of illegal immigrants.
Thats absolutely trueif you chronically understaff the border patrol and refuse to give them the resources they need to do their jobs.
Currently, we have 12,000 border patrol agents and President Bush claims that he wants to increase that number to 18,000 by the time he leaves office. Great, that would get the border patrol up to less than half of the 39,110 police officers that are in New York City aloneexcept that the border patrol agents arent just responsible for policing a single city. Theyre tasked with stopping terrorists, drug dealers, and illegal immigrants from crossing 6,000 miles of border.
If your boat springs a leak, do you (A) just give up because you cant bail the water out fast enough with a thimble or do you (B) grab some more sailors from topside, hand them buckets, and start working to make sure your boat doesnt sink? Most Americans would choose (B), but thats not how weve dealt with the situation on our borders.
Theres no way we can round up and deport 12 million illegal aliens. Who are these people saying that we should do that? Certainly they may exist, but I cant name one off the top-of-my-head. Can you?
What people are actually suggesting is that we crack down on the employers of illegal aliens with fines and even jail terms, so that theyll quit hiring undocumented workers. Then, if the illegals cant get jobs here, most of them will leave. After all, they came here to work. If theres no work, theres no reason for them to be here. That means we wont need to round them up because most of them will self-deport.
Illegals are an essential part of the economy.
Actually, no, theyre not. Illegals only make up about 5% of the work force and they generally do low-skill, low-income jobs. If you add up all the government services they end up usingfor example: school for their kids, illegals who fill up our prisons, money paid to illegals who have children on American soil, etc., theyre actually a net drain on our economy. The Center for Immigration Studies estimates that undocumented workers actually cost us $10 billion a year. Incidentally, that number would triple to $30 billion if the illegals became American citizens and therefore were able to qualify for more government aid.
We want to make illegal aliens go to the back of the line.
The back of the line isnt in America, its in the illegals home country where large numbers of other people are filling out paperwork, paying ridiculously high fees, and checking their calendars to see how many months or years they have left before they can emigrate to the United States. No illegal who is allowed to stay in the United States can fairly be said to be at the back of line.
I do not support amnesty, but heres my plan that accomplishes the same thing. The majority of illegal aliens are coming to this country for the same reasons that legal immigrants come here. They want to get jobs or become citizens. So, if theyre allowed to stay here and work or become citizens, despite the fact that they broke the law, its an amnesty, pure and simple.
The only reason that politicians wont call an amnesty an amnesty is because they have such a low opinion of the American people that they believe we can be tricked with weasel words. Its not an abortion, its a choice. Were not raising taxes, were asking people to pay their fair share. Its not amnesty, its earned legalization. Any way you slice it, its the same piece of rancid meatloaf.
http://www.humaneventsonline.com/article.php?id=14910