Another point on immigration

Doesn’t the immigration debate also illustrate the fallacy of any argument for a legally mandated minimum wage? If you happen to live in a state with a minimum wage law—like Virginia, my home state, where the minimum wage is $5.15—and with illegals making up a good part of the lower echelons of the labor force, what then is the real minimum wage? It’s whatever you'll settle for, if you're looking for work. If you pick up three hombres from the 7-11 in Herndon and they agree to shovel that mulch for you today, all day, rain or shine, for five bucks each, cash, haven’t you effectively punctured the minimum wage? Forget the legality of it for a minute (believe me, your landscaper has). Let’s just talk economics. If those three dudes score their five bucks’ wage and do a good ten hour day, they pocket 50 bucks. No taxes, no stupid FICA or FISA. 50 good hard bucks, not the 35 or whatever it would work out to be under a legal arrangement. And what if you can find another three who'll do it for four bucks an hour? Sounds to me like you've got a deal. Map that argument back to the underemployed segments of the population most often seen in large cities. I’d say that quite a few native born citizens are being priced out of the entry-level market in this economy. I would think that the unions and some other groups would be going apeshit about that.

Immigration Part 2: Taking Care of the Existing Problem

I confess that I'm at a loss for words, an odd situation for me. Not that I lack an opinion, but I seem to be having a spot of trouble articulating it. Let's try again, and see if what we can come up with.

Closing the southern border (and keeping it closed) will be a long painful process, but I suspect it’ll be the easier of the two tasks. The central question, after we secure the border, will be, what do we do with all the illegal aliens who are already here?

The short and correct answer is, send them home. That’s far easier said than done, but I don’t see how we can justly embark on any other course of action. Amnesty is out of the question; that’s a surrender to widespread crime (and worse) and invitation to more. Amnesty is moral weakness.

We need a plan that removes the incentives that bring these people here illegally, without dissuading legal immigration. We need to figure out how to get them to go home, or failing that, how to force them to go home. I think a plan to punish those who knowlingly hire illegals (first by fines and loss of licenses and permits) would be a good start. Perhaps instituting a guest worker program right now, that would bring substantial numbers of legal aliens, would create a simultaneous incentive to hire them and not hire the illegals. "Contractor X gets a [fill in the blank with tax break, etc] for hiring ten legal card-carrying guest workers, while his competitor gets fined $1000 for each illegal he hired and he loses his business license for a year."

And we also need to start a program that invites the, uhhh, disadvantaged youth in this country to fill some of these jobs. NOT to sentence them to a life of manual labor or minimum-wage jobs, but to show what millions of illegals already figured out: that crappy jobs are better than no jobs, that every little bit of cash that you bring to your families and communities goes a long way, that there's a dignity to a job well done that is its own reward, and finally that these jobs open up vast new horizons, opportunities you can't imagine until you see them for yourself.

Any scheme that would put the enforcement in the hands of illegals themselves is ridiculous. Hello, Congress?? What makes think that people whose status is essentially illegal right now would say, "Aww, what the hell, we'll turn ourselves in and do whatever they tell us to do. It's been a good [2 or 5 or 10] years, but i'm ready to head back to that village in Oaxaca, where life sucks on a good day."

Start with something simple and enforceable, and pursue it relentlessly. It will take time, but it'll be worth the effort.

A Bleating Ewe, Raising Little Sheep

This lady is a f***ing idiot. I'm not sure I have the time or patience to post every bit of invective that article deserves.

Go ahead and try to breed little eunuchs, lady. I can only hope that they'll take the right lessons from real men (where the hell is your husband in all this?) at some point in their lives to grow into citizens, not subjects. She ought to be encouraging the sort of boyhood play that pits a good guy against a bad guy, where the bad guy loses and the innocents are protected. That's the way to channel the aggression.

(HT to Countertop.)

jpp

Crickets Chirping

No response from the Quaker Idiot Squads. (See below.)

A Question re Abdul Rahman

After reading a post at Michelle Malkin's site, I just sent a note to Christian Peacemaker Teams. Here is the text of that note:

To whom it may concern:

I looked over your site today, thinking I'd find some sort of reference to Abdul Rahman, our brother in Christ who has just escaped from Afghanistan with his life after proclaiming his conversion. I found nothing on the front page, no references on the side menus, and nothing on the urgent action page. (Not even an expired notice, like the one from 18 Dec 05 about providing support for the Democratic rebuttal to the President.)

May I ask why? It would seem to me that you would have deployed a squad immediately to form a human shield around this poor man, whose only crime is no crime. It would seem to me that that would be something right up your alley.

I challenge you to take on the case of others like Rahman throughout the world, committed believing Christians whose lives are in danger. Go protect them, go protest against their governments.

I suspect, however, that this challenge will go unanswered. It's up to you.

John Piedmont
Major, USMCR
Roman Catholic
Proud to bear arms and protect the constitution
http://rule308.blogspot.com

I don't think I'll get much of a reaction, we'll see. But if the CPT really wanted to "get in the way," as they call it, they'd be in Kabul yesterday swinging a 9-iron, or in their case an olive branch. My guess is that there's no anti-American hay to be made out of brother Rahman.

Immigration Part 1: Close the Border

Generally speaking, I fall into the law-and-order, head-cracking, enforcement side of the current immigration debate. My advice is to close the border first, then address the problem of those who are already here. But first things first: stop the illegal flow of people and (contraband) across the southern border of this country. That’s more than an immigration issue, that’s a national security issue.

Elements of the National Guard should be deployed immediately to the southern border, and task-organized to support the activities of the Border Patrol. The Guard can supply the mobility, command and control, manpower and the firepower to defend the border while the Border Patrol (with other Federal agencies) enforces the law. Those Guard units must come from every state, not just CA, AZ, NM and TX. This is a national issue, and it needs to be addressed by units from across the Union.

With the Guard on the border we should expect some shooting. We should expect a lot of shooting. Each time a Border Patrolman gets shot at, from either side of the border, the shooter should be identified and engaged on the spot by steady volumes of disciplined, aimed small-arms fire. Shooters inside the border should be fixed in position, maneuvered against, and eliminated. Not arrested (unless he surrenders), but eliminated. Rules of engagement need to be written that reflect the reality of the situation: any armed person inside the borders of this country who is not a citizen is by definition a hostile. Someone who is firing at agents of the US Government in the prosecution of their duties is attacking the sovereignty of this nation, and should be dealt with accordingly.

Implicit in this plan is recognition that we are facing not waves of tired, poor, huddled masses yearning to be Americans, but tired, poor, huddled masses yearning to take over a large swathe of this country and assert the primacy of their culture. In normal language, that’s called an invasion. Their culture, quietly spelled M-e-x-i-c-a-n, is not superior or even roughly equivalent to ours. Mexican society is a mess; their laws are nonsense, the government is corrupt and inept. Organized political violence is commonplace. Also, much of the “migration” seems to have a distinct Marxist slant—the absolute last thing we need. They speak of taking back “their land,” of re-establishing a mythical Aztlan. Although in one sense laughable, that threat and the mindset behind it should be taken seriously. The southern border states are completely and wholly part of the United States. We don’t want to import (or allow the invasion of) an alien hostile culture on our soil.

At the same time we should openly and forcefully protect legitimate commerce across the southern border. Those with entry papers should be shown in with minimal delay, and sent on their way with a polite reminder that their stays are limited. Reward and encourage those who are playing by the rules.

The problem on the southern border won’t be solved quickly. It formed over time, and only after a lengthy period of hard work diligent enforcement will it be resolved. In the interest of our nation and our culture, we must close the southern border and keep it closed, until we get a hande on the problem and the other side gets its own house in order.

(Good article on this subject today in NRO.)