Switcheroo: Immigration.
My Personal Bullshit Detector (PBS, heh) is a technique I like to call "The Old Switcheroo." Remember the Arrow shirt commercial with the sexy lady who gets a phone call from her husband? She's at home during the day, wearing his shirt, and cooing, "I was just thinking about you." Now flip the sexes. He's at home wearing her blouse when she calls. So, was this a sexist commercial? Yep.
I'm not sure where I stand on immigration. Carlos Mencia, a crazy ass comedian like the Latino Lewis Black, makes a lot of sense when he says if we get rid of illegal aliens the country falls apart. But does that make our policies right or wrong?
Here's a letter you may have seen making its rounds, describing a fictional trip to Mexico and what the visitor from the United States expects. An excerpt:
11. I plan to fly the U.S. flag from my housetop, put flag decals on my car, and have a gigantic celebration on July 4th. I do not want any complaints or negative comments from the locals.Switcheroo says this letter proves our immigration policies are wrong. I'm still not sure what we should do about it.
12. I would also like to have a nice job without paying any taxes, and don't enforce any labor laws or tax laws.
13. Please tell all the people in the country to be extremely nice and never say a critical word about me, or about the strain I might place on the economy. I know this is an easy request because you already do all these things for all the people who come to the U.S. from Mexico.
11 comments:
The switcheroo makes a strong point. I have no problem with all these immigrants. I say the more, the merrier, but they need to convert into citizens.
How do we accomplish this? Can we do this delicately? Ay, there's the rub.
It's not that our immigration policies are wrong. They're fine (at least the laws that permit naturalization). The problem is that the illegals think that they can circumnavigate those policies. Because they walked through the desert, climbed a fence, or crawled through a tunnel and worked for a month washing dishes in a restaurant they should be granted citizenship. WTF?
I heard a report the other day stating what percentage of certain occupations were illegals and it was numbers like "one quarter", "one third", etc. In short, it was in the millions. And not a single one pays taxes.
I'm sick of it. If you want to be treated like a citizen, go through the proper steps and then pay like the rest of us.
I have to agree. Not following the proper way to be a citizen and then marching in OUR streets with thier flags in protest angers me as an american. I can't believe so many as so apathetic to people breaking the law.
The employers who hire these immigrants at dirt-cheap salaries should also be at fault. If these jobs were not available, the immigrants wouldn't come here in the first place.
Completely. These Employers should be facing fines and maybe even jail time.
Just to play devil's advocate a little here, keep in mind that illegal immigrants, at least a majority of them, are ignorant of the way of things. Many would be willing to pay taxes and be a full-fledged member of American society, but are ignorant of the ways of going about doing so.
Also, with the way the American government works, you have to actually do something that gives you jail time in order to become an American citizan, or you may have to pay thousands if not tens of thousands of dollars in back taxes once they find you.
This isn't to say that immigrants are dumb, far from it, just that they're ignorant of the way things work here, and because they're generally viewed as non-entities, no one bothers to explain anything to them unless they want them to work for 2 bucks an hour.
The employers who con these unfortunate souls into working for them for no money, only to get deported as thanks for doing jobs no one else wants to do, are the ones that are the real shady characters here. They are saving thousands of dollars by employing illegal immigrants and once they're found to be illegal, they cut them loose to fend for themselves. Because the businessmen have money to defend themselves, and the immigrant does not, the immigrant takes most of the blow.
Don't get me wrong, ignorance of a rule is no excuse for not following said rule. However, illegal immigration and the inherent problems isn't necessarily the fault of the immigrants themselves.
And, by the way, illegal immigration was the Policy resolution in my one year of debate. So I'm ready to rumble. :P
Odd, my long immigration comment didn't seem to appear. Fortunately, I still have it:
I actually think that numbers 11 and 12 (which you quoted) are two of the worse arguments presented.
11. I don't see this as any different from Irish hanging out Irish flags and celebrating on St. Patrick's day, or Italians and Columbus day. I know plenty of Israelis that hang out an Israeli flag and celebrate on Israeli independence day. It's about recognizing one's heritage, not spurning the country you live in (obviously the immigrants would rather be here than there).
12. Given the jobs most immigrants work in and the money they make, if they did pay taxes, they would receive all of it back on April 15. And there are many who do pay taxes (through Individual Taxpayer Identification numbers of false social security numbers). There's something like $400 billion in taxes paid to social security by illegal immigrants who can never claim the funds. And lack of enforcement of labor laws is bad for the immigrant - I'm not sure why it is intimating they would want that.
Some of the other points are chicken and egg issues. While it is wrong to demand that bureaucrats and forms be in Spanish, most of the time it is done because it makes sense - if you want people to follow the rules and procedures, they are far more likely to do so if those things are in a language they understand. This is also why it makes sense to have cops who speak Spanish in areas with a large population whose first language is Spanish. It isn't like there is a campaign to force Spanish as an official language of the US or prevent their children from learning and speaking English.
Anyway, I'm rambling because I think these issues are too often misunderstood. If the US is serious about curbing illegal immigration, they need to decrease the incentive for illegal immigrants to come here. This means cracking down on businesses that hire illegals (and especially those that hire them for miniscule wages). That is the only way to do anything about illegal immigration. Attempting to further criminalize illegal immigrants will just alienate people (and, so politicans care, voters). I don't know much about economics, but I suspect the US economy would take a pretty big hit if the government solely tried to eliminate job opportunities for illegal immigrants. I think a clearer path to citizenship is probably the best option for immigration reform.
As to the switcheroo, I always thought doing it for that commercial showed that society had a sexist double-standard, not that the commercial was sexist. I'm not sure how that applies to the immigration switcheroo.
I'm with Jason. The employers are the ultimate enablers. We'll see more crackdowns and hopefully stiffer fines and other punishments given to the employers.
Of course, my neighbor would be pissed if a lot of immigrants were deported. He depends on him for a lot of his yard work and exterior house work.
Switcheroo needs to be done for the people who hire illegals that everyone states are the real culprit.
I have a friend who owns his own roofing business, a straight up guy with the standard "wife and kids".
He started the business a few years ago. His first workers were the "citizens". They were chronic no shows, booze/drugs on the job, messy, took forever to finish a job and were EXPENSIVE. These guys don't represent all "citizen" construction workers, but to my friend it was the norm.
2 years ago he was approached by a guy, a legal immigrant, who had been a citizen for 15 years. This guy turned out to be the "pimp" for hispanic workers. The guy made his offer which was cheap, reliable labor available whenever he needed it. My friend being a struggling self-employed person with kids of course took the offer.
He now has a "crew" of about 10 "illegals" that he pays thru his "pimp", who is on legit payroll. The "illegals" are the best workers he's ever had. Reliable, loyal and hardworking. An average size roof is done in ONE day. No drugs/booze, they are polite and just want to work. These guys don't represent all "illegal" construction workers, but to my friend they are the norm.
And here is the big whammy, since he can now get jobs done faster and cheaper, he is now more competitive in the market, therefore he has acquired more business. He has passed this on to his "illegals", these guys are now making on average $250-$350 per job. Normally 1-2 days to finish. Some of the most demanding labor you'll ever do but these guys are the happiest group you'll meet, all they want to do is finish up work and go kick the soccer ball around.
Keep in mind that he doesn't give them insurance or 401k, of course his "citizen" construction workers don't get this either.
This may be a exception, I don't know, but it seems to be pretty common.
If you were my friend what would you do to save your business/family?
How could any businessman (small or large) resist a deal like that? Thanks for sharing that, David. This is a complicated issue, with roots that go deeply into all parts of our society.
Generally speaking, employers who hire illegal immigrants are not necessarily taking advantage of said immigrants, and the workers are, in general, less jaded.
But that doesn't correct any of America's issues with it. Setting aside the lazy American societal issues, they're still taking jobs that should rightfully be citizens' jobs. Now, it's tough luck that the guys he hired were tools, I agree. But illegal immigrants should not be given those jobs, though largely out of principle.
There are lots of statistics stating how much it hurts the economy, when the fact is that illegal immigrants are generally outside of statistical boundaries. They don't pay taxes, they don't participate in censuses or polls, and they don't vote. They just do their job and kick around soccer balls. Their impact on the economy is impossible to nail down, one way or the other.
But, I think the underlying problem of employers preferring a hard-working illegal immigrant to a lazy American citizen, even for the same pay, is something that needs solving more than anything.
That being said, I have worked with a lot of foreigners of various countries lately, and, by percentage, the Americans have been far more trustworthy and hard-working. But then, the boss is also foreign, which probably contributes. When you have trouble communicating with the boss, all you can do is work to prove you're appropriate, so you bust your ass.
It is a tricky issue, and I know most of the country agrees that our current regime is not terrific at "tricky issues."
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