Sen(seless)brenner
Here on one page is everything that's dead wrong with the Sensenbrenner-King immigration enforcement bill now moving through House approval.
I can't remember the last time I've seen such a senseless, demagogic and counter-productive measure.
The more you care about controlling the borders and rationalizing and regulating immigration, the more you should oppose this bill which will do neither.
This isnt about being tough on illegals. It's about being willfully stupid.
Here, by contrast is what authentic, comprehensive immigration reform looks like -- reform backed by both intelligent conservative Republicans and intelligent liberal Democrats. This real reform measure aims at solving problems, rather than cheaply stirring emotions.
December 16th, 2005 at 2:42 am
It’s always amusing to watch lefties act as shills for greedy business interests with their insatiable appetite for cheap labor. Those who want facts on the immigration crisis should check out Randall Parker’s ParaPundit. It has none of the nativist inclinations of Vdare.com.
December 16th, 2005 at 6:38 am
Leftites want cheap labor? Ooh boy.
December 16th, 2005 at 7:03 am
I think folks are overlooking the intention behind bashing and criminalizing immigrants, to wit: it makes illegal immigrants even more helpless than they are, and thereby even more brutally exploitable than they are now.
If “steve” thinks Sensenbrenner’s bill will reduce the number of illegals, he is mistaken.
Anti-immigrant law will do the opposite of deterring illegal immigration. It will be a boon to importers of the illegals. Contractors and “coyotes” are assured of a boom business importing immigrants made so much more desirable because of their abject helplessness once here.
Such laws are not stupidity, they are evil and intended.
December 16th, 2005 at 1:17 pm
Marc…. Thanks for flagging the issue. I haven’t been tracking this odious, punitive, deeply—as you say—counterproductive—piece of flotsom. Please tell me it hasn’t gained traction.
December 16th, 2005 at 1:43 pm
and against their employers too, since those laws would never be enforced against the employers anyhow!
December 16th, 2005 at 1:48 pm
Lefties are in basic denial of basic economics.
Wages depend on supply and demand. Too much supply (illegal workers) and you have lots of workers chasing the same demand for labor. Result? Lower and lower wages. You want to trace the decline in the US wages?
Look no further than illegal immigration. Increased illegal immigration correlates nicely with real wages falling. But oh no let’s have Uber-PC.
Something HAS to be done. That means yes penalizing immigrants who break the law; and employers as well. It has to be done. Otherwise you condemn US citizens to being underpriced by people willing to work in appalling conditions for almost not money. YES this means making the economic incentive negative for illegal immigrants as well as employers. People respond to incentives.
The same people who cry about outsourcing celebrate illegal immigration. It’s the same thing, an attempt to cheapen labor rates.
Yes Lefties (mostly wealthy Malibu millionaires) want cheaper maids and housekeepers and such. Hence their support for illegal immigration. How many Clinton appointees had “nanny problems?”
Bottom line: unless we stop illegal immigration and push illegal immigrants out we are looking at inevitably simply annexing Mexico. We can’t afford to employ 40 million Mexicans unable to find work in their home country.
December 16th, 2005 at 2:38 pm
Jim, can you refer me to any period in American history when anti-immigrant laws were used to systematically go after the employers of ‘illegal’ workers? I can’t think of any, nor can I think of a good reason the INS would do so. Institutionally it needs to justify its budgets, right? WHat better way than to present stats to congress and the president that they are making big arrests? Going after employers who have resources to fight the INS is a waste of time from that vantage.
From the vantage of employers of ‘illegals’, it’s also desirable to have strict anti-immigrant laws to frighten ‘illegal’ workers into a state of non-resistance in the workplace.
It’s interesting that you run away from this reality.
March 10th, 2006 at 3:23 pm
From the perspective of someone who works with both working class American citizens seeking employment and illegal immigrants, I have to vigorously disagree with the post of Jim Rockford. If you want to correlate the decline of American wages to something, you should look at outsourcing, tax cuts for greedy companies that they don’t pass on to their employees in the form of pay raises, and the lack of benefits (eg, health insurance, paid leave, retirement plans) for so many working individuals across career areas… for starters!
Part of my job includes vocational counseling and job placement for individuals who are trying to get off state assistance (similar to welfare) and live independently. These individuals often have criminal records and myriad other factors that make it difficult to hold down a job. In my experience, as bluntly as I can state it: even these folks don’t want the types of jobs that illegal immigrants usually take. They want respectable jobs that they can sustain themselves and their families with, that have benefits and positive long-term prospectives. Now, working with illegal immigrants separately, I cannot think of one I have met that has ever held a job meeting those criteria. They work in kitchens, as housecleaners, as janitors, as street vendors, etc. And with the exception of a few janitors who may be covered by SEIU, they have no benefits, job stability, etc… nothing that makes the job worthwhile or attractive for their American counterparts. Illegal immigrants aren’t stealing jobs from needy Americans… they’re filling essential jobs that no Americans want, because you cannot eke out a decent living in this country working those positions.
Illegal immigrants face more exploitation and danger than nearly any other population in this country, so do not fool yourself into thinking they lead golden lives full of luxury and leisure without any obligation to the welfare of the population amongst which they live. Clearly, if you had taken the time to do some ethnographic study of immigrant issues, including especially the logistics of their employment and lifestyle, you would know that many illegals are paid with checks by their employers. Yes, this requires providing a fake social security number – a crime which immigration reform could easily fix – but the point is that the state and the feds are still getting their fair share of taxes, SS, etc. from these workers, who will never see a penny in return. Which also uncovers another common misconception about illegal immigrants: that they freeload of the state by sucking up social services which they don’t contribute to supporting because they don’t pay taxes. Again, from a firsthand perspective I can tell you this is entirely untrue, at least in the state of Connecticut (where I am employed). Only citizens are eligible for any type of subsidized support, from Food Stamps to state subsidized health insurance to cover medical and psychiatric treatment, to Section-8 housing supports and Head Start. Providing a false security number won’t even get you in the door here, because they are checked and re-checked at the outset. So, you have a large immigrant population who work jobs that no citizen, even the most down-and-out despondent ones, wants to take. They pay taxes which they are not allowed to reap the benefits of, and are forced to live in substandard housing environments and receive substandard medical care (and even only for emergencies, at that), that they utilize at their own risk lest the officials catch onto them.
It is not that Mexicans are unable to find work in their own country; it’s that the average worker – skilled or unskilled – is unable to amass enough savings to lead a decent life. Housing there is inexpensive, as is food, but beyond that everything else is an extravagance that most working and middle class families cannot afford. This is Mexico’s problem, naturally, that it mishandles its revenue and hasn’t made higher education and entrepreneurship more accessible to the general population. But the U.S. is not entirely free of blame for that either, because Mexico spends a huge chunk of its revenue paying off its debt to… you guessed it… the stars and stripes. So maybe at this juncture, annexing Mexico wouldn’t be such a bad move, since we’re already draining it of most of its wealth and giving it the all around short end of the stick on everything from trade deals to legalizing temporary immigration.
May 20th, 2006 at 5:24 am
Homemade wax…
homemade wax, madam tuso, meguires,
zaino car wax…
July 20th, 2006 at 1:57 pm
Descriptions of poker pubs their atmospheresaqb
July 25th, 2006 at 6:27 pm
Descriptions of poker pubs their atmospheresbmm
July 28th, 2006 at 7:17 am
car insurence car insurence
July 30th, 2006 at 2:46 pm
aig auto insurance aig auto insurance
July 31st, 2006 at 2:55 am
halth insurance halth insurance
July 31st, 2006 at 1:18 pm
motercycle insurance motercycle insurance
August 1st, 2006 at 1:13 am
auto insurence auto insurence
August 9th, 2006 at 5:34 am
flagstaff attorney flagstaff attorney
August 10th, 2006 at 1:02 am
workfromhome workfromhome
August 11th, 2006 at 8:22 pm
car insuranc car insuranc
November 24th, 2006 at 8:45 am
inexpensive, as is food, but beyond that everything else is an extravagance that most working and middle class families cannot afford. This is Mexico’s problem, naturally, that it mishandles its revenue and hasn’t made higher education and entrepreneurship more accessible to the general population. But the U.S. is not entirely free of blame for that either, because Mexico spends a huge chunk of its revenue paying
February 22nd, 2007 at 12:55 am
Hi! Nice site!
April 8th, 2009 at 4:03 pm
The quality of the info is what keeps me on this site, thanks!
December 28th, 2009 at 5:05 pm
I found your blog on google and read a few Thanks for the information you mentioned here, I’m looking forward to see your future posts. Cheers !! My blog http://backpacking.blogono.com/