Crossing “mojado,” wet or illegally, has become more expensive and more dangerous, particularly with drug cartels dominating the border. At the same time, educational and employment opportunities have greatly expanded in Mexico.
Per capita gross domestic product and family income have each jumped more than 45 percent since 2000, according to one prominent economist, Roberto Newell. Despite all the depictions of Mexico as “nearly a failed state,” he argued, “the conventional wisdom is wrong.”The economic gains cannot be denied. More jobs and more post-secondary education is a good thing for Mexico and the US. If Mexico could ever get up to near the standards of Canada and the US, border enforcement and illegal immigration would fade as a pressing issue.
Illegal immigration issues and the criminality surrounding them clouds the fact that Mexicans are good people, more “like us” than not. We share a Christian heritage and an entrepreneurial spirit. Like us, the lazy ones are prone to take advantage of social services, but also like us, many more work and scrimp and save to make a better life for themselves. Bringing immigrants out of the shadows of illegality will solve much of the dysfunction and language problems, resulting in a more welcoming America and removing the perceived stigma of being Hispanic.
Enforcement Works
“illegal life in the United States became harder. Laws restricting illegal immigrants’ rights or making it tougher for employers to hire them have passed in more than a dozen states since 2006. The same word-of-mouth networks that used to draw people north are now advising against the journey. “Without papers all you’re thinking about is, when are the police going to stop you or what other risks are you going to face,” said Andrés Orozco.”
If the US really got a handle on the illegal immigration problem, closing the borders and punishing those greedy human rights abusers who hire illegal workers, the situation would rapidly improve for newly-arrived legal Hispanic immigrants. No longer under a cloud of suspicion, integration into the American patchwork would be much easier.
For a thoughtful treatment of the issue, see Michael Barone - New Reality Emerging
29 comments:
What an excellent post, SF. YOu are so right about Hispanics and what good people they are.
Yes, here in LA, we have BIG problems with gun running, etc. (cars getting stopped for speeding and cops finding guns and ammo inside..how many aren't being stopped for speeding!??) and gangs, but those I meet in the service industry are SO sweet and kind. My pastor's wife is from Puebla, MX, and is more politically Conservative than I am..her whole family hates illegal immigration far more than we do, too.
Your conclusion is an excellent one..thanks.
Through two marriages, I have been bound to Hispanics for 46 years. But, that doesn't mean I want them entering the US illegally. That is a very interesting article and let's hope that "the new emerging reality" holds-up. It would be good for Mexico and for America.
I think you both are expressing a common sentiment. Americans do not hate Hispanics, we hate the fact that our government has lost control of our immigration process.
Interesting article by Barone -- especially the portion about the birth rate in Mexico.
I work for a company that has a sister plant in Mexico and employees of both travel back and from depending on need such as training or technical assistance.
The Mexican Nationals that have been to my plant are just as you describe Silver have all said they have no desire at all to relocate in the U.S. although these same people I would welcome as a neighbor should they choose to.
I receive emails at work updating us on new hires at our Mexican facility and the education attributed to these folks is par excellence to be sure.
I believe Barone is right on target.
Great article sir. If we could fix the border situation, we could adress some of the other issues, like the immigration process. One criticism is that the legal process is backward and inefficient. Getting good folks in legally is a benefit to us all.
PART ONE
Landmarks in Immigration History
http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/historyonline/immigration_chron.cfm
1795
Naturalization Act restricts citizenship to "free white persons" who reside in the United States for five years and renounce their allegiance to their former country.
1798
The Alien and Sedition Acts permit the President to deport any foreigner deemed to be dangerous. A revised Naturalization Act imposes a 14-year residency requirement for prospective citizens.
1802
Congress reduce the residency requirement for citizenship to five years.
1808
The importation of slaves into the United States is prohibited.
1831
Pennsylvania permits bilingual instruction in English and German in its public schools.
1840s
Irish Potato Famine; crop failures in Germany; the onset of industrialization; and failed European revolutions begin a period of mass immigration.
1848
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, concluding the Mexican War, extends citizenship to approximately 80,000 Mexican residents of the Southwest.
1849
California Gold Rush spurs immigration from China.
1850s
Know Nothing political party unsuccessfully seeks to increase restrictions on naturalization.
1854
Chinese immigrants are prohibited from testifying against whites in California courts.
1870
Naturalization Act limits American citizenship to "white persons and persons of African descent," barring Asians from U.S. citizenship.
(CONTINUED)
Submitted by FreeThinke
PART TWO
Landmarks in Immigration History
http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/historyonline/immigration_chron.cfm
1882
Chinese Exclusion Act restricts Chinese immigration.
Immigration Act of levies a tax of 50 cents per immigrant and makes several categories of immigrants ineligible to enter the United States, including "lunatics" and people likely to become public charges.
1885
Alien Contract Labor Law bars prohibited any company or individual from bringing foreigners into the United States under contract to perform labor here. The only exceptions are those who were brought to do domestic service and skilled workmen who should be needed here to help establish some new trade or industry.
1891
Congress makes polygamists, "persons suffering from a loathsome or a dangerous contagious disease," and those convicted of "a misdemeanor involving moral turpitude" ineligible for immigration. The act establishes the Bureau of Immigration within the Treasury Department.
1892
Ellis Island opens; serves as processing center for 12 million immigrants over the next 30 years.
1901
After President William McKinley is assassinated by a Polish anarchist, Congress enacts the Anarchist Exclusion Act, which allows immigrants to be excluded on the basis of their political opinions.
1907
Expatriation Act declares that an American woman who marries a foreign national loses her citizenship.
Under the Gentleman's Agreement with Japan, the United States agrees not to restrict Japanese immigration in exchange for Japan's promise not to issue passports to Japanese laborers for travel to the continental United States. Japanese laborer are permitted to go to Hawaii, but are barred by executive order from migrating from Hawaii to the mainland.
(CONTINUED)
Submitted by FreeThinke
PART THREE
Landmarks in Immigration History
http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/historyonline/immigration_chron.cfm
1913
California's Alien Land Law prohibits "aliens ineligible for citizenship" (Chinese and Japanese) from owning property in the state. It provides the model for Similar acts in other states.
1917
Congress enacts a literacy requirement for immigrants over President Woodrow Wilson's veto. The law requires immigrants to be able to read 40 words in some language. The law also specifies that immigration is prohibited from Asia, except from Japan and the Philippines.
1921
Quota Act limits annual European immigration to 3 percent of the number of a nationality group in the United States in 1910.
1922
Cable Act partially repeals the Expatriation Act, but declares that an American woman who marries an Asian still loses her citizenship.
1923
In the landmark case of United States v. Bhaghat Singh Thind, the Supreme Court rules that Indians from the Asian subcontinent could not become naturalized U.S. citizens.
1924
The Johnson-Reed Act limits annual European immigration to 2 percent of the number of nationality group in the United States in 1890.
Oriental Exclusion Act prohibits most immigration from Asia, including foreign-born wives and children of U.S. citizens of Chinese ancestry.
1934
The Tydings-McDuffie Act, which provided for independence for the Philippines on July 4, 1946, strips Filipinos of their status as U.S. nationals and severely restricted Filipino immigration by establishing an annual immigration quota of 50.
1940
The Alien Registration Act requires the registration and fingerprinting of all aliens in the United States over the age of 14. The act classifies Korean immigrants as subjects of Japan.
1942
Filipinos are reclassified as U.S. citizens, making it possible for them to register for the military.
Executive Order 9066 authorizes the military to evacuate 112,000 Japanese Americans from the Pacific coast and placed them in ten internment camps.
1943
The Chinese Exclusion Act is repealed. By the end of the 1940s, all restrictions on Asians acquiring U.S. citizenship are abolished.
Congress creates the Bracero Program a guest worker program bringing temporary agricultural workers into the United States from Mexico. The program ended in 1964.
1944
In the case of United States v. Korematsu, the Supreme Court upholds the internment of Japanese Americans as constitutional.
1945
The War Brides Act allows foreign-born wives of U.S. citizens who had served in the U.S. armed forces to enter the United States.
1946
Fiancés of American soldiers were allowed to enter the United States.
The Luce-Cellar Act extends the right to become naturalized citizens to Filipinos and Asian Indians. The immigration quota is 100 people a year.
1948
The Displaced Persons Act permits Europeans displaced by the war to enter the United States outside of immigration quotas.
1950
The Internal Security Act, passed over President Harry Truman's veto, bars admission to any foreigner who is a Communist or who might engage in activities "which would be prejudicial to the public interest, or would endanger the welfare or safety of the United States."
1952
McCarran Walter Immigration Act, passed over President Harry Truman's veto, affirms the national-origins quota system of 1924 and limits total annual immigration to one-sixth of one percent of the population of the continental United States in 1920. The act exempts spouses and children of U.S. citizens and people born in the Western Hemisphere from the quota.
(CONTINUED)
Submitted by FreeThinke
PART FOUR
Landmarks in Immigration History
http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/historyonline/immigration_chron.cfm
1953
Refugee Relief Act extends refugee status to non-Europeans.
1954
Operation Wetback forces the return of undocumented workers to Mexico.
1965
Immigration and Nationality Act repeals the national origins quota system and gives priority to family reunification.
1980
Refugee Act, enacted in response to the boat people fleeing Vietnam, grants asylum to politically oppressed refugees.
1986
The Immigration Reform and Control Act gives amnesty to approximately three million undocumented residents and provides punishments for employers who hire undocumented workers.
1988
The Redress Act provides $20,000 compensation to survivors of the World War II internment of Japanese and Japanese Americans.
1990
The Immigration Act of 1990 increases the number of immigrants allowed into the United States each year to 700,000.
1995
California voters enact Proposition 187, later declared unconstitutional, which prohibits providing of public educational, welfare, and health services to undocumented aliens.
1996
The Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act strengthens border enforcement and makes it more difficult to gain asylum. The law establishes income requirements for sponsors of legal immigrants.
The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act, Congress makes citizenship a condition of eligibility for public benefits for most immigrants.
1997
Congress restores benefits for some elderly and indigent immigrants who had previously received them.
1998
The Agricultural Research, Extension, and Education Reform Act and the the Noncitizen Benefit Clarification and Other Technical Amendments Act restore additional public benefits to some immigrants.
The American Competitiveness and Work force Improvement Act increases the number of skilled temporary foreign workers U.S. employers are allowed to bring into the country.
Submitted by FreeThinke
Great post, Kurt. I think your last paragraph really sums it up. First and foremost, the border needs to be secure. That would go a long way towards resolving the situation and once it is accomplished, the rest would come much easier.
Here's John Lennon's implicit view of our immigration laws and the sentiments behind them:
IMAGINE
Imagine there's no Heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today
Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace
You may say that I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one
Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world
You may say that I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one
This is the faux-idealistic view of those who've been plotting and scheming for over a century to establish One World Government.
It sounds so sweet, so kind, so generous, so noble, so --- so --- pusillanimous, doesn't it?
What's WRONG with a borderless world where no official divisions between people are permitted to exist -- where everything belongs to everybody -- where nothing belongs to anybody -- where the limitless possibilities of anarchy hold sway -- where non-allegiance to anything but gentle, mindless pleasure devoid of the pressures that attend ambition and competition reigns supreme?
All men are my brothers and all women my sisters. what could POSSIBLY be wrong with that?
It's BEAUTIFUL --- isn't it?
~ FreeThinke
SOMETHING ELSE TO CONSIDER
Squatter's Rights are a laymen's term for something called adverse possession in the legal world. And, indeed, one can lose their property through adverse possession, though it is an ancient law and not something that occurs often in today's world. The doctrine of adverse possession is one that discouraged disuse of property, thus, if property was abandoned, and someone else "squatted" on it for a number of years, the squatter could gain control over the land.
Under the law of adverse possession, however, it's not as easy as just pitching a tent on a piece of land and after a certain period of time has passed claiming that it is yours. Through adverse possession, someone must be on the land for a period of five to fifteen years, depending on the state. During that time, the person must hold the property hostile to the owner's rights - in other words, the person couldn't be there under the permission of the owner. The possession must also be open and notorious, i.e. the possessor is saying to the world, "This land is mine!" The possessor must also be holding the land exclusively for him or her self, and not for someone else.
In most cases, adverse possession is not of entire areas of land. Rather, adverse possession is usually where a neighbor is using an piece of someone else's property for a garden or something similar for a period of years. After the statutory period has passed, that piece of land becomes the property of the possessor. This case would not apply to a landlord tenant relationship, even if the tenant stopped paying rent, because the tenant entered the property with permission of the owner-landlord.
Submitted by Freethinke
I firmly believe that if our borders were secure we wouldn't have to be concerned about the Mexican drug cartel or any militant groups trying to cross over. Illegals wanting citizenship would be forced to follow U.S. guidelines to work and live here legally.
How does anyone propose we secure our borders? They've never been secured in the past. The situation that so concerns us now is nothing new. People have been more or less freely crossing our southern border since before we became a nation.
What possible way could we stop it other than build The Great Wall of America lined with acres of barbed wire, broken glass, vicious dogs, land mines, and then station hundreds of thousands of soldiers in prison-like towers armed with machine guns every one-hundred to two-hundred feet ordered to shoot on sight anything that moved towards the USA?
Ronald Reagan said, "Mr. Gorbachev, TEAR DOWN THIS WALL," and the world changed overnight. Do we really want to put ourselves in a position where The Head of the UN Human Rights Commission is moved to speak into the International Media Megaphone, and order our president -- whoever that may be -- to "TEAR DOWN THAT WALL?"
In practical reality the idea of closing the border is ridiculous. I doubt if it could be done without turning ourselves into a violent, monstrously oppressive, hate-filled force focused on one issue relatively unimportant in the great scheme of things.
The entire history of US Immigration Law has been fraught with xenophobia and race-based injustice. It has consisted of one bad and badly-motivated law after another. Bad laws do not deserve our respect and should not be obeyed. Didn't we just have a discussion, albeit based on that premise in another context, just the other day?
By all means SHOOT VIOLENT CRIMINALS caught red-handed DOWN in the STREETS like the rabid dogs they are, but for CHRIST'S sake leave peaceful, decent, hardworking people who are doing no harm whatsoever -- and a great deal to HELP -- the HELL alone.
~ FreeThinke
Silver, great post.
Yes, border enforcement does have an effect, and yes, enforcement has been stepped up in recent years.
Also, however, remember that our economy recently shrunk, and so there were fewer jobs for migrant workers.
Also, please remember that Mexico holds a foreign debt that is 1/5th it's GDP, and if you ask me, it's by no coincidence that 1/5th os it's population in is serious poverty.
Also also, Mexico has very serious problems with the war on drugs, and it's corrupting tenticles that reach into government.
I love Mexicans, their food, their music, their classy, profound personalities, but I'm sorry - I wouldn't want to live in Mexico.
I don't think Mexico's problems are internally structural, though. I suspect that foreign influence is the only real obstacle to Mexico's "promise."
JMJ
"but those I meet in the service industry are SO sweet and kind."
-------
Another classic from the queen of the ladies who lunch. Those Hispanics are great if they know their place, in the service industry.
Well, until we have a system which can grant legal residence to immigrants who work, this is going to be an ongoing problem. Of course, unless the economy gets even worse and business doesn't need to hire even illegals.
I'd love to know who FreeThinke should be endowed with the right to "SHOOT VIOLENT CRIMINALS caught red-handed DOWN in the STREETS like the rabid dogs they are..." ...Oh, that's right! Everyone!
FreeThinke, we already live in a civilization that allows for that.
Find something pertinent to think about.
JMJ
Jersey,
You're one big laugh riot -- you're so predictable.
I put that in there -- after posting thousands and thousands of highly pertinent information -- because I just knew you would pick it out, and try to make an issue out of it.
GOTCHA!
Be good. Be well. Be kind. Be sane. Be happy.
"God loves you -- and so do I."
~ FreeThinke
Ducky,
The reason most of the Mexicans and Guatemalans who have swarmed in here do a lot of very hard often dirty work willingly, cheerfully and gratefully -- and believe me they do -- is because they have not been spoiled rotten by Unionism, the Welfare State, and Political Correctness.
God bless the illegals!
Once they've established themselves as legitimate American citizens, however, their children will soon be just as apathetic, otiose, incurious, obtuse, obese, disrespectful and decadent as the rest of us.
OUR problem is that we have too damned much, and have come to expect -- and arrogantly demand -- that everything be handed to us on a silver platter by a government who bears a more frighteningly close to resemblance to a stereotypical Jewish Mother every day.
And by the way do you honestly believe that "The Ladies Who Lunch" are any less worthy or more obnoxious than "The Trolls Who Quip?"
I don't. It's rather like staging a competition between Shit and Vomit
Cheerio!
~ FreeThinke
I do not hate Hispanics, but I certainly do hate our apathetic approach to the immigration problem - our government didn't lose control, it gave up. Tell me how Russia enforces its (considerably much larger) borders.
Obama wants to be a hero and withdraw troops (and the requisite support infrastructure) from Iraq? Fine, keep those men and machines busy with befending our southern border. I'd suspect that tanks would be a much more effective deterrent than the boondoggle fence initiative.
We don't just roll over and allow immigrants from other nations to saunter in and squat for decades. Why should the immigration process be any less stringent for foreigners who just happen to share our continent?
If America-hating leftards like obama have their way with your economy, it'll actually be less attractive for illegals to go to America.
That's the stupid left for you, they'll always find a way to shoot themselves in the ass.
As far as illegals living in fear of being deported, it's simply not true. I know several people who work in law enforcement. When they arrest an illegal immigrant and contact ICE, Ice tells them to hold them for their crimes or release them. They don't do anything.
Trestin: That happens here too. An illegal immigrant has done at least two hit and runs in Denver, and she's still driving around with impunity like she owns the place, thanks to Denver's sanctuary city policy.
Trestin: That happens here too. An illegal immigrant has done at least two hit and runs in Denver, and she's still driving around with impunity like she owns the place, thanks to Denver's sanctuary city policy.
Rob,
Russia and the former U.S.S.R. have never had to deal with the problem of patrolling their borders to keep people OUT.
Their problem with border control has always been how to keep their own people IN.
Our once-unlimited Freedom of Opportunity has attracted immigrants from all over the world like an electron magnet.
The closer we get, however, to establishing Socialist Tyranny the more repellent -- and hopeless -- our society will become.
By enslaving ourselves in the names of Fairness, Equality and Social Justice, we will automatically solve our illegal immigration problem, because we won't be any better, more attractive or conducive to upward mobility than any place else.
The illegals are working OUTSIDE the infernal SYSTEM in which the rest of us "legitimate" citizens are trapped. Therefore, in a very real sense these illegals have revived -- and now embody -- the questing pioneer, freedom-loving, risk-taking spirit that BUILT this country before it was taken over by The Progressives.
There's something to think about. The assumption that because The Law prohibits it, so it must perforce be bad is arrant nonsense.
More often than not "THE LAW IS AN ASS", because it has been contrived by mere mortals whose motivations are highly questionable and often inimical to human freedom and true progress.
It's all so very simple. If everyone practiced The Golden Rule, there would be no need at all for legislation and litigation.
~ FreeThinke
Yes, illegal immigration has slowed under Obama who has prosecuted more than under Bush
Bd,
If illegal immigration has diminished under Obama, it has to be because Obma's policies are bringing us closer and closer to the Turd World status he longs for us to achieve. As that happens, our country becomes less and less attractive to illegal immigrants because our once-prosperous country now resemble more and more the hellholes from which they sought to escape.
As the USA descends deeper and deeper into Turd World levels, our country become increasingly repellent to those who seek to better themselves.
So Obama is really very brilliant after all. He's deliberately wrecking our economy so we can get rid the the illegals. What a great strategist our illustrious president has turned out to be! We should be so proud of him.
He's destroying us with such DIGNITY and POISE. Surely he must be given a pass, if only because he's so not going out of his way to embarrass the Junior League by acting like a rich man's son with a po' boy's accent.
Barack now he ain' doin' much ob anything dese days 'cept lookin' mighty mighty mighty pissed off,
~ FreeThinke
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