Who IS this guy?!

'Niceguy' Eddie

Political Talk Show Host and Internet Radio Personality. My show, In My Humble Opinion, aired on RainbowRadio from 2015-2017, and has returned for 2021! Feel free to contact me at niceguy9418@usa.com. You can also friend me on Facebook.

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Thursday, April 29, 2010

Immigration Reform

Before I get into immigration reform, I just want to reference THIS PIECE from MMFA. It should dispel the idea, once and for all, that crime increase when the number of "illegals" does.  Make sure any Right-Winger who argues along those get s a good hard dose of the facts first!

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There are three basic reason to want immigration reform, if you're already an American Citizen: (1) Racism, Xenophobia and Religious Bigotry.  (2) Concerns about jobs.  Someone may also say, "and resources" but I'll explain why that's nonsense. (3) Concerns about security.

I shouldn't have to explain the bigotry angle, especially in light of my last two posts.  And it's not just Mexicans either.  How about those Muslims?  I've actually heard people say we shouldn't give them student visas!  In the words of Gorobei Katayama, "Are you kidding me?" How else do you expect the Middle East to progress and modernize and (dare we say it?) WESTERNIZE if they're young people are not given an opportunity to see first hand what the West and Modern Life has to offer?   But bigotry is not a motivation most people are willing to admit to.  So let;s give them the benefit of the doubt for now and I'll show you why this IS in fact the primary motivation.

The second reason is JOBS, and more specifically WAGES.  Now this is the one area where elements of the Left actually get on board.  Unions and Labor advocates would rather see these jobs pay higher, and go to American labor.  But the Left's opposition to immigration reform is relatively modest compared to the full-on rant-like fear mongering of the Right.  Which is funny, because it seems that this is about the only argument the Right EVER makes in favor of American Labor. Remember: Thea re the people who hate union, fight minimum age increase, outsource jobs to china, put profit ahead of safety (Massey, I'm looking at YOU!)  It seems the only time they give a shit about American Labor is when a Mexican comes looking for an opportunity to work hard, send his kids to school and make a better life for his family.  Seeing as how every WHITE person's family did that at one point, I'd say this is, at best, despicably hypocritical and at worst... well... see reason number one.

As for them 'draining our resources'?  Look: This cheap labor?  It IS a resource.  It's a resource that every single one of us benefits from.  Sure... we could force the farm owner to pay market wages for American Labor.  They'd pay several; times as much and it would certainly cut into their profits, even as it made the bulk of our produce skyrocket in price!  Would more Americans be employed?  Maybe.  And that can be good.  But does it really HELP if everything costs more and the industry that feeds us is no longer profitable?  Those people put food on your table.  You think you do, because you PAY for it? Cry me a river.  Without them there wouldn't be enough food to BUY.  At least until those good ol' market forces kicked in and drive the price high enough to justify the production and increase the supply.  And THEN you'd be complaining about how much it cost!  So rather than bitching about your kid sitting next a Mexican in the classroom (see reason #1) maybe you should try THANKING those people who busted their asses, getting paid shit, with no benefits, for helping YOU make a better life for YOURSELF.

Now the final reason might be the most principled one.  In a post 9/11 world (doesn't it seem like every Right-Wing argument starts out that way?) we can't risk having a loosey-goosey border because a terrorist could sneak in and steal our cheese.  Now... I can get behind that REASONING... But as most of you have figured out by now, I have kin of an upside-down way of looking at things and I draw a completely different conclusion from it. I say, "Let them [pretty much]  ALL in."  Here's why:

Consider what you need for security, especially knowing that we're talking about people who can just WALK here.  You need to know WHO they are, WHERE they are and you need the ability to do a BACKGROUND CHECK to look for... Terrorists, yes,  but also Drug Dealers, Fugitives, Bandidtos, etc... (Yeah, I'm kidding about the Bandidtos.)  And in order to GET this information, you need people to be WILLING to give it.  And if you keep telling people, "No, you can't come in" and "If we find you we'll you to jail or back to Mexico" then they have no reason to comply.  Especially since it's so hard to keep track of them  anyway!  So thank about the result of having a system that tries to keep people out (IOW: Panders to reason #1): In doing so, you INCREASE the opportunity for a terrorist to sneak in and hide amongst the millions of undocumented folks.

So what would I do?  Simple.  I let anyone in who passed a simple background check, provided they registered and kept us informed of their address.  I'd let them work, they'd pay taxes (as almost all do anyway) and Id let them make a life for themselves.  They can't vote, until they're citizens, but that's their choice.  As long as they obey the law?  I'd leave them be.

Who would I keep out?  Only convicted criminals, wonted men, people of the FBI's terror list, etc... Now, you might think that THESE people wouldn't bother to register.  Well, yeah, they probably wouldn't.  But if you have someone here, who's NOT in your database, who you CAN'T confirm the status off, they'd pretty much STAND OUT, at least as compared to now, where they're one of MILLIONS.  And under a system that GIVES THEM what they want, rather than tries to DENY THEM, I 9and most people) would have a lot less sympathy for those who break the rules. And hey: If every legitimate migrant worker is registered, you can bet far more confidently that the one dude that ISN'T really does have something to hide.  In any case, it would make the authorities jobs a LOT easier, if for no other reason than they have about 0.1% of their current caseload,, and THAT would make us more secure.

As for the background check?  Shoot.  They're not applying for security clearance.  It don;t take more than a few days to (1) confirm their identity, (2) Check for warrants and (3) Check for convictions.  Clean sheet? Come on in.  But we can only do those checks if people are WILLING to cooperate.  And there's no reason to expect them to if we make them wait for YEARS, and always tell them NO, and threaten to jail or deport them.  Not when then can just walk around.

If you really want to know the difference between reason 1 and reason 3, just ask yourself : Are we trying to keep out Muslim Terrorists or Migrant Farmhands.  It an both nearly impossible and completely unnecessary to TRULY secure our southern border and let NO ONE in.  Just ain't going to happen, and I don;t know why you'd want to.  Your taxes would go up to pay for it, and your grocery bill would go up because of it.  We only need to know WHO and WHERE people are.  And anyone who;'s NOT a terrorist or a drug-dealer will gladly tell you that, if you're helping them get what they want.


If anyone wants to argue these points, please review your argument against reason #1 before doing so. ;)

5 comments:

  1. Right-wing anti-immigrant sentiment is about racism, and nothing else. The conservatives offer no "solutions" to the "problem"--they can't even identify the problem, other than the fact that there are a lot of brown-looking people with strange accents. Their beef-up-border-"security" approach a few years ago is why the previously migrant workforce, which used to appear only when the crops needed tending then went back home, tends to take up permanent residence here, now; it's a lot more of a hassle to cross the border.

    There are 12- to 14-million "illegal immigrants" in the U.S. If they were all made to disappear tomorrow, to follow the conservative rhetoric to its ultimate conclusion, the U.S. economy would utterly collapse. They pay more in taxes than they consume in services, a fact about which, like the crime numbers, the right lies incessantly.

    That fact that those are lies gets to the heart of the matter. If the stated reasons for why this is a problem are fiction (and they are), and calculated to inflame racist sentiment (they are that, as well), and nothing resembling realistic "solutions" are being offered (and there aren't), the true character of the anti-immigrant rhetoric is revealed: It's an appeal to racism, and absolutely nothing else.

    As for keeping out bandidos and bandidas, if Salma Hayek and Penelope Cruz show up trying to get across the border, I want the border patrol in my country to damn well let them in.

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  2. Uh... YEAH! What HE said!

    LOL

    Thanks for your comment.

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  3. Union between South America and North America could put an end to illegalities. So, why don't you liberals organize some movement in favor of this union which would be like the European Union.

    Personally, I'm not a fan of immigration including those waves of European immigrants who robbed the Indians of their land and built America. (By the way I believe that the reverse might happen - massive emmigration of americans to Europe and other places). I think people should try improve their living within the country they belong to.

    And stop blaming the whites for everything. It's weird to hate one's race as you do.

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  4. One of my favorite MediaMatters posters, Mefirst, argues persuasively for border enforcement. He makes the point that if we don't control immigration, we can't control our population.

    He has been in many thought-provoking discussions of the issue. Here is the first I found, where he gets into it with Roundhouse (another favorite):

    http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/200707060009

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  5. Duta,

    RE an American Union - it would be a nice idea, but the US in particular but Mexico and Canada as well, probably have too strong a National Identity to go much beyond what NAFTA already does. (Which is very little other than to let companies exploit the cheap labor in Central America.

    As for white people? Hey, I LOVE white people! I AM a white person! I MARRIED a white person! My KIDS are white! 99% of my friends are white! I'm not hating on the entire RACE - just those ones (the racists, basically) that let their xenophobia and bigotry get the better of our common collective interests. That's probably a minority of White Americans, but it's a group that still wields of lot of influence. And let me tell you - most of these same white people - those ones that I'm talking about - LOVE Israel, but HATE Jews. (Figure THAT one out!)

    Me? I don't truly hate ANY race or Religion. But there are things that our Government does, just as there are thing that say, China or the Middle East, or Israel, or the Palestinians Authority does that I don't approve of. But I'm not in the business of criticizing OTHER countries and OTEHR races while my own still acts in way that I find unconscionable. I'm starting by "cleaning my OWN house" because I truly believe that the WOST sin is hypocrisy.

    I do agree with you however that it would preferable to make their living conditions better at HOME. That's certainly the BEST solution. And about the only counter to it that I can offer is that no one in power is really talking about it. And believe me when I say that those same people who are so opposed to immigration are not going to support sending Billions of dollars to Mexico to fix the infrastructure down there.

    Craig,

    Very interesting discussion indeed, and it seems that they're touching upon the some of the same ideas that Duta mentioned. (I think they describied it as "Finding and addressing the CAUSES of mass migrations.") And I have to agree that this IS the ideal, long term and by far the most humanitarian solution. It works for EVERYONE. However, try selling the idea of spending billions of dollars in Mexico to those people who support the new AZ immigration law and think that what we REALLY need is a bigger fence. But yeah, very interesting thread.

    I guess I'm being too 'short-term' in my thinking. I'm trying to address the acute symptom, rather than the broader root-cause...

    ...And that's exactly why I love doign this, and talking to y'all! Helps me to realize the limitations of my own philosophy.

    Thanks you both for your comments.

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