so far as I know, only communism and Americanism have tried to eradicate religion. - Fred Reed
On Mar 5, 12:26 pm, MJ <[email protected]> wrote: > The Illegals: Another Angleby Fred Reed > From many Americans, though from fewer who have any idea what they are > talking about, you could get the idea that illegal immigrants are brown > sludge, the lazy and shiftless, the least intelligent of their countries, > those unable or unwilling to make a living at home, who therefore go the the > US to live on welfare. A certain paucity of logic informs much of this. If > they come to live on welfare, how do they take the jobs of Americans, a crime > of which they are regularly accused? But I note this only in passing. I do > not mean to suggest that logic or knowledge have a place in politics. > The fact is that the illegals come to work, and do, well and hard, which is > why conservative patriotic businessman block attempts to restrict immigration. > Which would be easy to do. Again, they come to work. Don't hire them, and > they won't come. Illegals don't take jobs from Americans. Americans give them > the jobs. > But, whatever you think of the Latin hordes, it may be interesting to know a > little about them. Let's wing it. > Consider a man of twenty living in the slums of , say, Tegucigalpa with his > wife and two small children. The local economy is a disaster. He can barely > feed his kids, much less send them to school. “Barely feed them” is not a > concept many Americans understand. It means that their stomachs hurt, that > their physical development is threatened, that they cry and ask for food. Any > parent who doesn't do anything possible to feed them, to include robbing > banks, is irresponsible. Ask yourself what you would do. > So Pablo and Maria talk it over, and decide that the only way out is for him > to go to the US, work, send money home and, just possibly, eventually bring > the family to America. There are good reasons why Americans might not approve > his plan. From Pablo's point of view, watching his kids starve, it is the > only plan. > Getting from Honduras to San Francisco or South Carolina is dangerous, very > dangerous. Crossing the Guat border means braving the Mexican police, who are > brutal and corrupt. Typically the migrants go north through Mexico by riding > on the roofs of cargo trains. It is not for the weak. On the trains they are > subject to attacks by gangs, as for example Mara Salvatrucha, products of > Reagan's romantic meddling of El Salvador. The “Mara” is from “marabunta,” a > swarm of army ants. The Maras are savage, sadistic, and live by robbing > migrants of the money they have saved for the coyote, often beating them into > cripples and raping the women. I would much rather do a tour on the ground in > Afghanistan than ride those trains. It is safer. In Afghanistan you eat, do > not have to drink from filthy pools beside the tracks, and do not spend > nights on top of a box car in jeans and tea shirt during a sleet storm. Call > the migrants anything you like, but leave out “gutless.” > Women also make this trip, for the same reason: to send money home for their > kids. Don't, please, tell me about oppressed co-eds at Dartmouth. > So Pablo, perhaps months later, gets to Laredo. Let us say that he started > out with $2000 US, which is roughly what a coyote costs, and has managed not > to be robbed of it. If he has it, it was probably put together by his > extended family by forgoing shoes, food, what have you. He now finds himself > in a city that preys on people like Pablo. He has little idea what he is > doing. Twenty years in a slum in Teguce doesn't make you wise in the ways of > the Mexican-American frontier. The police will rob him, perhaps torturing him > to find out where he has stashed the money, if indeed he has any, and send > him back to Honduras. Nasty gangs will do the same, except for deporting him. > Migrants drown trying to swim the Rio Bravo. > Several ways exist of crossing into the US. You can find a desert crossing > poorly guarded and hope not to be killed by rattlesnakes or get lost and die > of thirst. In the Mexican press I have read of tunnels thorough which 150 > illegals pass per night. At $2k each, that's $300,000 a night in a great tax > bracket. Or a coyote can get you across and, if he doesn't just take your > money and disappear, he may put you into a van, and off you go. Bingo. > Once away from the border, things get easier for Pablo. He may work a few > days to get bus fare to Raleigh-Durham, where he has a friend. With the > friend's help, he gets a job in construction. Here the American national > hypocrisy works to his advantage. The construction firm of course knows > perfectly well that Pablo is undocumented. Companies love illegals. It means > that they can pay him dirt, no benefits, no Social Security, and he can't > complain without getting deported. In any contest between money and > patriotism, money wins. American immigration officials catch just enough > Pablos to keep the rest intimidated, but not enough to reduce the supply of > cheap labor. It is a sweetheart deal for businessmen. > Pablo may or may not be a model uncitizen, may drink too much, may use > drugs,or go into crime. Or he may not. He is very likely to send money, > substantial amounts of it, back to Tegucigalpa. In Jalisco, where I live in > Mexico, remittances from migrants are a crucial part of the economy. Pablo > also is not unlikely to begin planning to bring his family to the US. > Family values. Putting his life on the line for his children. The work ethic. > All that. > Is massive immigration good for the US? I doubt it. Are all the illegals > wonderful people? No. In the long run will there be a happy ending? I don't > know; to date there hasn't been. > Yet men and women who will claw and save for a coyote, and ride that godawful > train, at dead serious risk of being raped, robbed, tortured and beaten into > medical curiosities left beside the tracks, who will cross into a hostile > country whose language they do not know, and live in constant fear of being > caught, all to feed their families and just maybe give them a better life in > a better place – I think they deserve other than utter > contempt.www.fredoneverything.com -- Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum * Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/ * It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls. * Read the latest breaking news, and more.
