If you are illegal ... then face the music
Let's get one thing straight: if you are here in the United States illegally, you are a criminal under the laws of this country. If you work here illegally, you may be guilty of more crimes -- do you pay taxes? How about FICA? Do you hire others? Do you have appropriate licensing and insurance coverage? Do you cause the US taxpayer to pay for translation services because you cannot speak our language?
Yes, there might be poverty in your home country. Yes, conditions in your home country may not be as good as the conditions you might make for yourself here. Yes, this IS the land of opportunity. Yes, in your shoes I'd do the same too (but try and get legal). Yes, yes, yes, yes and yes.
But you are a criminal. I don't care that you even pay taxes (though I appreciate that, and the fact that you do should be taken into consideration whether to deport you or not), you are still a criminal -- only this time not guilty of tax evasion.
So a whole bunch of people were arrested in a raid in New Bedford. The Boston Globe's reporting goes to the human issue (and is blatantly manipulative): ""Has anyone seen my wife? She left for work yesterday and never came home. Our newborn baby is hungry and crying. Can someone please help?" asks a young father in the basement of a crowded church, one clear voice above the din of the hundreds gathered. The fear is palpable in the young man’s eyes. He implores the listener to offer solace, hope, and encouragement." Yup. I feel for them, honestly.
The Globe adds: "These families in New Bedford escaped severe poverty and oppressive governments because they dared to believe in the American Dream. Ineligible for public benefits, they work every day and pay taxes in hopes of providing a better future for their children and their communities. The land that first welcomed Pilgrims is no longer the land of opportunity that the Statue of Liberty represents."
Sorry, Mr. Globe reporter, you fail to mention the single salient fact that, if things had been otherwise would have avoided the whole sorry mess: they were illegal. Had they been legal, they would be in a different situation. Also, note that while they may be ineligible for public benefits, they CAN and DO just walk into hospitals for medical treatment. Their kids go to our schools and cost more to educate through ESL programs, etc. Note, too, that "public benefits" means stuff that you and I pay for with our taxes -- and that they would not get in their home countries either. In short, America does not have the responsibility to shoulder the economic woes of anyone who can manage to arrive here. Get your head out of your poop shooter: the United States CANNOT support the entire world on everyone else's terms. Just can't be done. We need the rule of law to move on in this regard: it is precisely the lack of obedience to the law that has created the corruption and poverty in the migrant's home countries in the first place. Can't you see that? If nobody obeys that laws, we get chaos and life becomes a free-for-all. Like Central and South America.
An entirely different question is this: should our immigration and labor laws work this way? Of course not. We should have a system for guest workers in place, whereby the migrant worker would: (1) be able to speak English; (2) pay taxes; (3) receive benefits in respect of those taxes; (4) have to go home when they become a burden on the State (unless they choose to become U.S. citizens); (5) not pass US citizenship on their children by virtue of being born here; (6) have reciprocity with the countries whose sons and daughters are "forced" to come here to work. There a bunch of other issues, but let's just start with these.
I have written before about the Mexican government's hypocritical position: if you try and work illegally in Mexico, you might find yourself in prison working for free. They certainly won't have any consideration about your economic migrant status or human rights -- as too many Guatemalans and Nicaraguans have found to their dismay. Throw open your borders Mr. Calderon, institute a workers program - then open your trap about our practices. Mr. Chavez ... you are so rich and magnanimous, how about open the Venezuelan doors to your fellow latinos? They won't even have to learn the language.
We ALL have to pay taxes. Period To be fully functional in this country and NOT burden to taxpayers, you MUST speak English. You can't simply come here, spawn, and then claim entitlement to remain by virtue of the fact that you are fecund. I won't pay for the by product of nookie. And when you are no longer useful here, too old, too infirm, too lazy -- goodbye. I certainly don't need to pay for you either. If you commit a violent crime here: you should do a full sentence on a work gang, then get sent home NEVER to return. If you do ... make it really unpleasant.
Back to new Bedford. The problem is that people will go wherever they can to do better in life: ants will find a way into your kitchen, if you leave sugar about. To prevent the ants from coming, you have to clean up the sugar. I don't mean to imply that migrant workers are ants, but only point out that nature is sure to its course. To clean up the sugar, you have to imprison those who flagrantly flout our laws: the employers need to be locked up. And the workers returned home -- with humanity. Round up the family, put them on a nice passenger jet home with suitcases and say $1000. Tell them that the following time that they are caught illegally, they will build nice new roads in the US of A -- for free. But don't penalize them in applying to enter here legally. If they have paid taxes, they go to the head of the line in front of those deported without having paid taxes.
Strict liability for U.S. violators --make employers pay $10,000 per person caught working illegally for them: you'd soon have the money for the repatriation program. Get caught on two different occasions, you do time and the fine. Three instances, you do Federal time and have all assets stripped.
I don't want to stop immigration, I want to stop exploitation and enforce our laws to increase the standard of living of ALL workers in the United States. People will get hurt in the process, families split up for a time, but don't forget these people -- for all their need and aspirations -- are still criminals, and they know it too. They know the risks and consequences.
Yes, there might be poverty in your home country. Yes, conditions in your home country may not be as good as the conditions you might make for yourself here. Yes, this IS the land of opportunity. Yes, in your shoes I'd do the same too (but try and get legal). Yes, yes, yes, yes and yes.
But you are a criminal. I don't care that you even pay taxes (though I appreciate that, and the fact that you do should be taken into consideration whether to deport you or not), you are still a criminal -- only this time not guilty of tax evasion.
So a whole bunch of people were arrested in a raid in New Bedford. The Boston Globe's reporting goes to the human issue (and is blatantly manipulative): ""Has anyone seen my wife? She left for work yesterday and never came home. Our newborn baby is hungry and crying. Can someone please help?" asks a young father in the basement of a crowded church, one clear voice above the din of the hundreds gathered. The fear is palpable in the young man’s eyes. He implores the listener to offer solace, hope, and encouragement." Yup. I feel for them, honestly.
The Globe adds: "These families in New Bedford escaped severe poverty and oppressive governments because they dared to believe in the American Dream. Ineligible for public benefits, they work every day and pay taxes in hopes of providing a better future for their children and their communities. The land that first welcomed Pilgrims is no longer the land of opportunity that the Statue of Liberty represents."
Sorry, Mr. Globe reporter, you fail to mention the single salient fact that, if things had been otherwise would have avoided the whole sorry mess: they were illegal. Had they been legal, they would be in a different situation. Also, note that while they may be ineligible for public benefits, they CAN and DO just walk into hospitals for medical treatment. Their kids go to our schools and cost more to educate through ESL programs, etc. Note, too, that "public benefits" means stuff that you and I pay for with our taxes -- and that they would not get in their home countries either. In short, America does not have the responsibility to shoulder the economic woes of anyone who can manage to arrive here. Get your head out of your poop shooter: the United States CANNOT support the entire world on everyone else's terms. Just can't be done. We need the rule of law to move on in this regard: it is precisely the lack of obedience to the law that has created the corruption and poverty in the migrant's home countries in the first place. Can't you see that? If nobody obeys that laws, we get chaos and life becomes a free-for-all. Like Central and South America.
An entirely different question is this: should our immigration and labor laws work this way? Of course not. We should have a system for guest workers in place, whereby the migrant worker would: (1) be able to speak English; (2) pay taxes; (3) receive benefits in respect of those taxes; (4) have to go home when they become a burden on the State (unless they choose to become U.S. citizens); (5) not pass US citizenship on their children by virtue of being born here; (6) have reciprocity with the countries whose sons and daughters are "forced" to come here to work. There a bunch of other issues, but let's just start with these.
I have written before about the Mexican government's hypocritical position: if you try and work illegally in Mexico, you might find yourself in prison working for free. They certainly won't have any consideration about your economic migrant status or human rights -- as too many Guatemalans and Nicaraguans have found to their dismay. Throw open your borders Mr. Calderon, institute a workers program - then open your trap about our practices. Mr. Chavez ... you are so rich and magnanimous, how about open the Venezuelan doors to your fellow latinos? They won't even have to learn the language.
We ALL have to pay taxes. Period To be fully functional in this country and NOT burden to taxpayers, you MUST speak English. You can't simply come here, spawn, and then claim entitlement to remain by virtue of the fact that you are fecund. I won't pay for the by product of nookie. And when you are no longer useful here, too old, too infirm, too lazy -- goodbye. I certainly don't need to pay for you either. If you commit a violent crime here: you should do a full sentence on a work gang, then get sent home NEVER to return. If you do ... make it really unpleasant.
Back to new Bedford. The problem is that people will go wherever they can to do better in life: ants will find a way into your kitchen, if you leave sugar about. To prevent the ants from coming, you have to clean up the sugar. I don't mean to imply that migrant workers are ants, but only point out that nature is sure to its course. To clean up the sugar, you have to imprison those who flagrantly flout our laws: the employers need to be locked up. And the workers returned home -- with humanity. Round up the family, put them on a nice passenger jet home with suitcases and say $1000. Tell them that the following time that they are caught illegally, they will build nice new roads in the US of A -- for free. But don't penalize them in applying to enter here legally. If they have paid taxes, they go to the head of the line in front of those deported without having paid taxes.
Strict liability for U.S. violators --make employers pay $10,000 per person caught working illegally for them: you'd soon have the money for the repatriation program. Get caught on two different occasions, you do time and the fine. Three instances, you do Federal time and have all assets stripped.
I don't want to stop immigration, I want to stop exploitation and enforce our laws to increase the standard of living of ALL workers in the United States. People will get hurt in the process, families split up for a time, but don't forget these people -- for all their need and aspirations -- are still criminals, and they know it too. They know the risks and consequences.
posted by Zaphod at Friday, March 09, 2007
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