Posted by: Sister Toldjah on March 31, 2006 at 9:34 am
Via Real Clear Politics:
As for as the immigration debate itself, we all know the truth that we suppress and the lies that we voice. Language has been the first casualty of our disingenuousness. “Illegal alien” is a descriptive, not a racist, term. In contrast, “undocumented worker” is deliberately misleading, since in most cases documents were never at issue, and not all aliens are workers. “Racism” has nothing to do with a failed system that appalls Asian- and African-Americans alike, as well as bewilders frustrated and patient Koreans, Punjabis, Africans, and Filipinos who did not cut ahead in the long legal immigration line. “Nativist” means nothing when Americans presently welcome in more legal immigrants that any other nation on earth.
Yes, illegal immigration provides a valuable source of cheap labor. But such jobs are not just those Americans will never take, but comprise work that they won’t seek out at such cheap wages. Where compensation rises, citizen workers will follow.
Yes, most aliens work hard, but a small minority of them do not, and find themselves involved in criminal activity. And given the large pool of illegal immigrants from Mexico, that small minority can still reach several thousands–such as the nearly 15,000 aliens currently locked up in the California penal system alone, at a cost of a half-billion public dollars a year.
Yes, immigrants contribute more than receive–but mostly when they are young, single, and hale. As they age, become ill, marry, and have children, those without education, English, and legality naturally draw on entitlements for a semblance of parity with American citizens otherwise impossible for such minimum wage earners.
So what fails and what works? Bilingual education in our schools, multicultural romance about a mythical Aztlan in our universities, guest worker programs that institutionalize helot status, salad-bowl separatism, and millions who cross the border illegally, all have contributed to the present disaster. But as we see with second- and third-generation model Mexican-American citizens, English immersion, acceptance of an American identity, integration, intermarriage and assimilation, legal and monitored immigration in the thousands from Mexico–all that guarantees immigrants success and energizes us the host.
Americans recoil at the volatile ethnic enclaves in France and the Netherlands–and can understand how such tribalism could quickly escalate to sectarian violence in Iraq, the Balkans, and Rwanda. Unless we curb the present influx, return to the melting pot, and salvage a legal remedy from the present illegal disaster, what we saw this week may only be the beginning of something far more dangerous from both sides of this avoidable crisis.
Read the whole thing.
PM Update: Things got nasty today at one Arizona high school. (Hat tip: Leaning Straight Up)
Related Toldjah So posts:
Only Victor Davis Hanson would have thought to compare a guest worker program to recreating the helot class. That’s why he’s one of my favorite writers.
That was perhaps the most racist piece of tripe that I have ever read and I’ve read alot of racist tripe. “Undocumented workers” is a “descriptive”, it describes the people who are being employed by the corporations and business owners and have no right to work, because they have no papers. The business owners and CEO’s hire these workers “without papers”, for less money and fewer benifits than American workers would get. The owners stuff the savings into their own pockets with their money stained fingers. “Nativists” are the opposite of Seilliere, they are more like Chirac or Tancredo. These folks are also known as xenophobes, like Real Clear Politics, is. Peace
steve(FN), I agree you read a lot of tripe, but then you post it here under your name.
The correct and legal term is ILLEGAL ALIEN. If you are in this country without a visa and you are not a citizen of this country, you are an ILLEGAL ALIEN.
Theodore Roosevelt saw some of the problems with immigration along time ago should we heed his warning or continue down the path we are on?
There is no room in this country for hyphenated Americanism. The one absolutely certain way of bringing this nation to ruin, of preventing all possibility of its continuing to be a nation at all, would be to permit it to become a tangle of squabbling nationalities.
– Theodore Roosevelt, speech before the Knights of Columbus at New York (1915)
One of the problems with immigration now is peoples are creating their old country culture in our country they are not assimilating. This very well could be blamed on the illegal immigration into the United States these people are being protected in these communities. Hispanics have created areas where English is not spoken signs are in Spanish it’s another country in a country also ATM’s businesses automated phones all ask if you want Spanish or English. That should not even be a question it should be English period. An American is not one specific color or one specific race or one specific religion. An American is a potpourri of many different peoples from every corner of this earth and we all have one thing in common we are Americans.
Every immigrant who comes here should be required within five years to learn English or leave the country.
– Theodore Roosevelt, Kansas City Star (April 27, 1918)
I believe this should be a law and also tests on American History and how our Government works this would help in the assimilation process. We need to build a wall between Mexico and the United States because we can not count on the Government of Mexico to help with the problem of illegal immigration and those here illegally should be deported. This country has been open to immigration come one come all but come here legally that is all we ask. This problem is ours and ours alone and not only immigration problems but also terrorists possibility of access to this country through the Mexican American border. Who would care if the Mexican flag was waved on Cinco De Mayo I believe it is done now anyway but respect the flag of the United States and it flies above any other flag in this country period.
Cavalier, I agree, but it should be a careful comparison. The Spartans declared war on the Helots each year, after all, and their ‘right of passage’ was certainly uncomfortable to any Helots who happened to be in the local area. I’m sure he wasn’t trying to suggest anything, or at least I’m mostly sure.
Steve, sometimes I wonder if you actually think of what you write yourself or just run it through a random sentence generator into which you’ve applied certain key words. Illegal Alien is the correct term. Native-born can be “undocumented workers” the same as illegal aliens can. Many criminals, in fact, actually do so because their record can be bad enough to keep them from getting ‘documented’ jobs anyway. However, the problem isn’t “undocumented workers“, the problem is illegal aliens. I’ll not even bother with your illogical and unfounded assertion that anyone who is against illegal immigration is immediately a ‘xenophobe’, but I will say it removes what little credibility you had.
I agree with Jim completely on the language issue. We are not like Canada, having two seperate national languages. If private firms and business want to be multilingual, that’s fine (they are trying to make oney, after all), but not a single Government service or institution should ever do such a thing. The government serves its citizens. Its citizens are required to speak the national language. Logically, if one can not speak the native language, one is not a citizen, and such services should not have to make extra effort.
I also agree with the assessment of the Mexican government. It will make no effort whatsoever to deal with its corruption problems when it can just send people here. The fact that it helped produce guides for people wishing to sneak into the US speaks volumes about its willingnes to work with us to solve the problem anyway. It is seeking to make our problem worse, simply because it alleviates one of the biggest side-effects of it’s flawed and incompetant nature. Then taking into account the possibility of terrorists waltzing right in too… well, there are plenty of ways, certainly, but the government could at least try to make them expend some effort.
Every time someone opens thier mouth and says UNDOCUMENTED WORKERS, it is keyword for ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT in the US.
Let me reiterate:
UNDOCUMENTED WORKER = ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT
Now reead through all articles and speech and replace undocumented with illegal and you will get a different picture I would assume.
PC strikes again.
Thanks Tyrmadris for expanding on my earlier comments I just think of my Great Grandparents who came here legally and were very proud to call themselves Americans.
Sanity and Tyrmadris how about if the politically correct crowd wants to call Illegal Aliens Undocumented Workers then how about calling welfare recipients Documented Non-Workers?
What part of ILLEGAL do people not understand? They are in this country illegally and should have no rights except to GO BACK! Their remarks about Los Angeles and southern California belonging to them is bull____. They lost the Spanish Ameerican War. Go Back to Mexico or wherever. Apply for a green card and wait your turn.
Anybody know what a WOP is? “Native-Americans”,(not to be confused with Indians who we killed off), are not now, nor have they ever been required to have “papers” to get a job. But, lets stop blaming the victims and let’s start placing the blame where it belongs: on those that hire illegal aliens. The apologists for the CEO’s and owners want undocumented workers to be criminalized because they want a better life, when they should be fining and jailing those people who exploit and victimze all workers, including Americans, by hiring workers without papers. Peace
they are not victim steve, they are illegal immigrants.
They bypass our security and laws to come into this country, they are not victims.
As for companies that employee illegals, I whole heartedly agree, fine the hell outta them, jail them, make it so costly to hire illegals that they will stop.
and the stupidity of the day goes to…..
The National Association of Hispanic Journalists is using the recent spate of immigration protests to remind their media bosses that it’s very insensitive — and inaccurate? — to describe undocumented immigrants as “illegal aliens.”
Link
Suits me just fine, Jim. Documented Non-Worker is a fine and accurate designator. I believe it would work quite well, especially since those who are gaming the system would naturally be offended by it, while those who are relying on it temporarily can honestly admit that it is accurate as they continue to search for a job.
Sometimes people are quite easily defined by their reactions.
I agree with James as well. The Spanish-American War’s initial hostilities didn’t quite settle it, but the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo certainly did. Mexico ceded that territory well over a century and a half ago. Their ‘ancestors’ were not even native to that region, because the US didn’t kick them out nor deport them. The people who lived in that area back in the day have legal descendants there now. It also bears pointing out that most of the place was a veritable wasteland until Americans started moving in and irrigating the land. So even if these illegal immigrants could claim ancestry from the ancient tribes (laughable), one could easily point out how the propserity of the place is due to everyone else’s hard labor back in the day. So good of them to show up over a century later when it’s a paradise compared to their current hole and then claim ownership of the place. Yeah, that’ll fly.
Good to see you came back, Steve, and your latter point is certainly a good one. Pray tell, though, which “Indians” did we kill off exactly? You can still find original Native American descendants there. For that matter, last time I checked, I hadn’t killed any Native Americans, so don’t bother including “us” in with your suggestions.
While I’m on it, I had to fork over quite the pile of papers for my current job, including birth records, medical records, SSN card, and driver’s license. So don’t go on about ‘native-borns’ not having to show documents.
Nobody wants illegal aliens criminialized because they want a better life. No, they’re criminals to begin with (although, personally, I believe they are not, since they are not citizens, but I digress). And most people are upset not because they want better lives, but because they want everyone else who has to follow the rules to give it to them, no questions asked. After all, those who want better lives the right way are called legal aliens and are usually on their way to being citizens.
The only ‘victims’ are those who are having to pay for those who are getting benefits they are not entitled to. That’s us.
I agree about the companies, though. They who willingly and purposefully exploit illegal aliens should be fined to the point where it ceases to become profitable. In fact, it should become extremely unprofitable. That would help alleviate a little of the problem.
Tyrmadris, jailing a few CEO’s would solve the problem, because they are the one’s “gaming” the system. They are called corrupt, greedy, capitalists or Republicans. “We the people”, are all in this together, past and present, so progress toward the future, don’t relive the sins of the past. Like killing the Indians as part of our “manifest destiny”. Peace
Just a thought Steve….I don’t have any ‘official sources’ to site on this one mind you…just personal experience….but the term “CEOs” leads one to think that it is ig business that is employing the majority of the illegals. This is not the case, or at least in my experience it’s not. It’s the small business owners and farmers that do most of the hiring. Good luck collecting fines from those guys. They hardley make any money as it is….hence the need to hire cheap labor.
“This is a nation of laws”, so sayeth Nero. If that is the case then these “businessmen” are lawbreakers and should be punished. Nero, doesn’t want that, which is why he wants a guest worker program. The point is that these undocumented workers are the victims of corrupt and greedy CEO’s or businessmen who are breaking the law. The real victims are the Americans who are denied higher wages and better benifits because of the actions of businessmen or CEO’s who break the law. Peace
steve get a clue.
buy a clue, hell if you don’t have hte money i will chip in to BUY you the damn clue.
it is small businesses that are hiring illegals, not big businesses. There is no ceo in small operations like tree cutters, or farmers, growers, planters, pickers, herders, lawn maintenance…ect.
That is the place that these small businesses are getting illegals. I don’t see limosines driving up and picking up illegals, I see small truck or cars that pick them up for odd jobs, or for places like the above.
Get your facts straight before you open your mouth steve.
You are correct on one thing, the punishment for hiring illegals needs ot be stiff enough so that companies nad businesses will not use them.
But it can’t stop there, it is only the tip of the iceberg, there is too much more that needs to be done.
We need to majorly increase our border patrols and personnel that are in the INS and support teams of the INS. Portions of those teams are like 2,ooo people who have to go through millions of documents.
We need to make a system that suport tthe businesses and make it so it is required to lawfully check all documents used for hiring, so illegal documents used by illegals will no longer be of use.
We need to untie the hands of the police, and let them work hand and hand with INS so that when they arrest illegal imigrant gang members they can deport them, and if they come back into the US they can have a mandatory 20 year life sentence in Prison.
Amnesty has been tried before, and it failed miserably. Mainly because Congress fails to uphold the Laws it creates.
We need to stop with the moronic racists crap and start protecting our borders. Get a grip! Realize that we have already caught Hezbollah illegal terrorists that have enetred into the US by means of Mexico just recently. We have found that we have MISSED other terrorists that have come in already.
WHEN WILL PEOPLE START TAKING THIS SHIT SERIOUSLY?
Will it finally dawn on Congress and the rest of the idiots that try and make this some racists issue when Congress is blow up? (Thanks to idiots like the Democrat McKinney, security will be cowed into dismissing or letting someone just walk by the protections in place)