Immigration and Justice

May 17, 2007, 4:19 pm; posted by
Filed under Articles, Steve  | No Comments

I have always been focused on justice. I was quite concerned in my youth that fairness was not being upheld, to the point of complaining vocally if a younger sibling was allowed to bend the rules in softball to get on base safely. It wasn’t really about who won — at least not once I got past age 10 or so — it was about what was right and just. Or more correctly, what I thought was right, frequently not quite the same thing.

And this brings us to the President’s remarks today (emphasis mine):

The bipartisan solution the senators agreed to today requires us to meet important goals in addressing border security and enhancing interior and worksite enforcement. Once those goals are met, the plan would create a temporary worker program to address the needs of our growing economy and take pressure off the border by allowing workers to come to this country for a short period of time and fill jobs Americans are not doing.

This sort of blatant, unjust lie infuriates me! Jobs Americans are not doing? What on earth is the President talking about? I’ve watched Dirty Jobs enough to know that Americans are perfectly willing to do almost anything for a living — we collect bat guano, clean septic tanks, turn roadkill into sculpture, and crawl into the bowels of coal mines. I would much rather clean buildings, cook dinner, watch children, and pick grapes than do any of those four things. So what’s really going on here?

Now I know people who support amnesty for illegal immigrants, and they usually have a strong sense of justice as well. They will tell me it’s not fair for this tremendously rich nation to benefit from the hard work of these generally good and decent people, while denying them an opportunity to truly become part of our society.

Well guess what? I couldn’t possibly agree more. I think it’s terrible that the United States has effectively shifted the burden of some of its most menial and physical (but frequently necessary) jobs to a group that isn’t represented in our government and isn’t as well-protected by our laws.

But pay close attention to this point — THIS ONLY MAKES IT WORSE!

Repeating the lie that there are jobs “Americans won’t do,” and using it to create an amnesty program, doesn’t benefit the illegal immigrants currently doing those jobs — it only helps the large corporations, well-off ranchers, and rich couples who are all too willing to pay these people a wage made artificially low by unfair competition!

If there is really a job that “Americans won’t do,” there’s an easy solution: OFFER MORE MONEY TO DO THAT JOB. You better believe the guano collectors of the world are making more than $10 an hour. Let’s stop thinking about these as jobs that need to be filled by illegal immigrants who are willing to accept the offered pittance, and start treating the problem from the side of the business. Whether that means increased mechanization or increased pay, we should provide something beyond the thinly veiled condescension of amnesty and the promise of continued slavery at a dead-end job!

That is unjust.

We have people — intelligent, well-educated scientists and doctors — who would love to come to this country to live and work, from countries like India. But instead of changing our immigration policy to bring in more of those high achievers, who would compete for white-collar jobs and force our educational system to improve, we’ve decided to give our official blessing to workers who provide a far lower benefit to society, compete with native low-skilled workers with few other options, and exhibit disregard for the laws and sovereignty of our nation.

Maybe I’ve been wrong before, but I’m pretty sure that’s not fair.


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