It’s about time the Bush administration and Republicans stood up about this illegal immigration issue. These illegal aliens have been taking our jobs for far too long. There’s this job mowing lawns for less than minimum wage that I’ve had my eye on for a while, and Janet’s really been wanting to wipe someone’s grandmother’s ass for six dollars an hour, and we just haven’t been able to do it because of all these damn Mexicans sneaking over the border and grabbing them out from under us.
A letter from a listener was read on NPR the other day, talking about how illegal immigrants are taking away entry-level jobs from kids getting out of college. Bravo, sir! Never have truer words been spoken! There is absolutely nothing more that college students want to do after graduation than stand on the highway selling flowers and oranges. Yet, all I see are these hispanic families doing it, and whenever I ask them for college degrees and proof of citizenship when I’m considering making a purchase, why, they barely even speak enough English to understand what I’m asking for! There are plenty of other spots on these roads for our young men and women to stand, selling flowers and oranges of their own, but this whole illegal immigration thing has just taken away all their motivation and initiative. It’s destroying the morale of our workforce. How are they ever going to pay off their student loans if they can’t get sub-minimum-wage jobs doing humiliating things? And how is our economy ever going to thrive if illegal aliens are coming in and taking these horrible jobs away from legal American workers?
And this has absolutely nothing to do, by the way, with poor economic strategies that force people who are overqualified to take jobs that are far beneath them, or that force college graduates to take temp jobs doing data entry, thus forcing the people who are actually qualified for those jobs or who lack the education to do anything better into unemployment because people with better qualifications are having to settle for the shitty jobs that they could have. Why, that’s just ludicrous!
As is the idea that it’s somehow a “bad thing” with “a negative impact on our economy” that “harms our workforce” to allow companies to outsource labor to countries with lower standards of living, where the people there are willing to work for a tiny fraction of what the average American would need merely to survive, let alone prosper. Who came up with that stupid argument? And even if it were true, I mean, the neoconservatives’ theory (which I also heard from a caller on NPR a couple weeks ago) is right: American workers should stop whining about these petty things like being able to afford houses and medicine and education for their children, and should compete with workers overseas. Want to keep your job? Vote to decrease the minimum wage in this country! Offer to work for fifty cents less an hour than them! It’s the Income Limbo: How low can you go, America?
But, no, that’s not the problem either. Nor are tax returns that mostly benefit the rich while starving the government of money it needs for things like, say, making sure our troops have adequate equipment and support. It’s all Mexicans sneaking over our borders and taking away jobs that nobody else is really willing to do, for disgustingly little pay. Duhh! Oh, and while we’re on the subject, it’s absolutely fine for American employers to take advantage of illegal immigrants by making them work for very little pay with horrible hours and abusive and nasty conditions since there’s no legal recourse available to them to do anything about it. It’s only bad that illegal immigrants are coming here. There’s nothing wrong with taking advantage of them, because, y’know, Capitalism rocks and there should be no regulation at all on business, and employers should be applauded for taking advantage of these money-saving opportunities available to them, and all of that.
So we all need to just listen to the Republicans on this, because they have the answers. Just like with Iraq. And Katrina. And Rita. And Terri Schiavo. And the economy. And Iran. And North Korea. And actually finding Osama Bin Laden. And sweatshops and forced prostitution and abortions in Saipan. And gay marriage. And…
If there weren’t 70,000 illegal immigrants willing to do the job for $2 a day, mowing a lawn and wiping someone’s ass would earn a LOT more money than it currently does.
People might be willing to do them, but not for the very low pay that mexican workers are willing to do it for.
Well the problem isn’t that they’re in the country “doing the jobs american’s don’t want to do.” The problem is that they’re living here tax free. Since we don’t even know they’re here or who they are, they’re running around enjoying our freedom without our taxes. If these… what was the number? asston of immigrants were paying taxes, I wouldn’t give a shit about their being here.
There are roughly 7 billionb people in the world, and 300 million live in The United States. Therefore there are 6.7 billion people that want to live/move to/become a citizen of the United States. Where do you draw the line?
@ wattly: The problem there is obviously with the way the law is executed. The law reacts to an illegal working at $2 with ‘shame on you’ to both parties, which is patently absurd, considering how ridiculously unbalanced their situations are.
@ joey: Actually, legal aliens are required to get tax identification numbers or something like that; they pay taxes the same as American citizens, but are not entitled to the rights of them. Reminds me of something. Happened in the 18th century. Perhaps you recall it.
As for illegals not paying taxes – I’d say that’s more a problem with declaring people illegal residents of the country, really. Hell, someone wants to come here and work, I have no damn problem with that at all.
@ c.s.: Maybe they should have drawn it before whoever spawned you. Although I don’t know, maybe Sween is a Mohawk name or something.
T CS: Are we to believe that everyone in the entire world desires to live in the United States? Why don’t we have a lot more people here, then? There are hundreds of thousands of Europeans who could probably make it here with less trouble than the average Mexican immigrant. And how about those Canadians? They should be pouring across the border in droves!
Hee, thank you Alec and Djur. I fully endorse.
Well, both should be punished. One violated our laws, and is illegally in our country. This should not be allowed, and they should be punished. The person who hires them should be punished for giving them an economic reason to be there, as well as for skirting taxes.
The differences between that situation and what happened between the colonies and britain are quite large, I wouldn’t conflate the two.
If they want to come here and work, then can do so through the proper channels, and become legal residents.
Obviously he was way off when he said EVERYONE wants to be here, but I would say the amount of people who want to be here is much larger than what we can take. Do you disagree?
re : to your reply to me ::
I agree. I think we’re on the same page but going about it different ways. We need documentation that they are here, and the admittance policy for this country is total shit and part of the reason that so many of the people that are here are here illegally.
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