Dear Mexican: There are many who give lip service to border security. You may or may not be one of them. You may be an open-borders advocate. But for the moment, put on your secure-borders hat and tell us how you would secure the borders if your job depended on its success.
Is it possible to secure the borders if we abandon internal enforcement and grant yet another amnesty?
Wally Wallbanger
Dear Gabacho: Your question assumes there’s a need to secure borders, when if we legalize drugs and people, our “problem” vanishes; after that, we can concentrate on preventing actual threats from entering this country instead of perceived ones.
But I’ll play your juego: How would I secure American borders? Easy: American jobs for Americans only. Create an insular, xenophobic economy that keeps away all foreign labor and wants nothing to do with foreign investors. In other words, adopt the Mexican model—and look how far that got them.
I was recently having a heated discussion with a Republican friend of mine about illegal immigration. She seemed to think that it’s fairly easy for Mexicans to immigrate legally to the United States. (“Basically, it’s just a background check and a history test,” she said.) If this is the case, why do so many Mexicans immigrate illegally? My Republican friend thinks they just don’t want to pay taxes, and they want to get all of our social services for free. I think the issue is more complex than that, but I didn’t really know what to say in response. Any thoughts?
A Curious Democrat
Dear Gabacho: Your friend is proof of how tontos Republicans are when it comes to the issue of immigration.
If migrating legally to the United States was as easy as your amiga insists, you think Mexicans would pay thousands of dollars in smuggling fees and subject themselves to the terrorizing whims of coyotes, if the legal way simply set you back, after attorney fees and everything, a couple thousand dollars?
If illegal immigrants didn’t want to pay taxes, then why do so many assume fake Social Security numbers, which ensure that payroll and Social Security taxes get pulled—the latter of which they’ll never get back? If illegal Mexis wanted to live high on the government queso, then why do you see so many of them selling flowers and strawberries on street corners?
Tell your amiga that legal immigration takes years—years that poor people can’t afford to waste in poverty when a risky trip will do the trick, and that she needs to become libertarian and learn true conservative principles instead of the snake-oil pendejadas currently offered by her party.
GOOD MEXICAN OF THE WEEK!
Los Tigres del Norte need no real introduction, but this one’s for the gabachos: Imagine the Beatles combined with the Rolling Stones, mix in some Clash and Bill Monroe, and you still won’t come close to describing the influence, innovative technique and all-around talent these masters of the conjunto norteño genre (the Mexican music with accordions, not the one with tubas) have had for more than 40 years.
Their latest album, MTV Unplugged: Los Tigres del Norte and Friends, has the group performing some of their masterpieces and even features a duet with Rage Against the Machine frontman Zack de la Rocha. Do yourself a favor, and buy this album as a primer—then work backward through a catalogue that would make Bob Dylan seem as prolific as Blind Faith.
This article appears in Jun 9-15, 2011.
Dear Mexican, Your argument that it’s too expensive and time consuming for Mexicans to legally immigrate to the U.S. has no basis in logic or fact. According to your logic, Mexicans can’t afford to pay “a couple thousand dollars,” and wait for what could be years to migrate legally, but they are perfectly willing and apparently able to pay “thousands of dollars in smuggling fees and subject themselves to the terrorizing whims of coyotes.” This makes no sense. So, let’s see if I’ve got this right. Because they can’t afford to “waste years in poverty” or pay what is required to immigrate legally, you think it’s alright to break our laws and even steal someone Else’s identity which enables them to work here illegally, and possibly obtain government benefits because the conditions in their own country are just too inhumane. In addition, you think, “American jobs for Americans only is creating “an insular, xenophobic economy that keeps away all foreign labor” some how equates to wanting “nothing to do with foreign investors.” Well, this is what I think. You sir, and others of your ilk are the very same people who seek open borders and a one world government, and are attempting to destroy this country by turning it into a third-world Marxist, Socialist, Communist, Banana-Republic. Therefore, I feel I must warn you. It will be a cold day in Hell before real Americans let you and your Marxist, Socialist, Progressive, Democrats get away with destroying this country. Oh, and by the way, I am a Libertarian.
When you’re struggling to simply survive, “waiting for years” isn’t a concept you can live with; you’re forced to take risks. Your motivation isn’t to break laws or steal an identity; you just want to eat and possibly have a roof of some kind over your head. Think HUMAN, human needs. Would you consider what’s legal or illegal if you’re down to it and the only hope for you, you feel, is across from you on the other side of a fence?
What happened to green cards? And permission to be here legally. You gringos evidently don’t remember this region was mexico before you were here and the redcoats brought you here. I guess the Palin effect has stayed in your white brains. Just because you republicans want to stay rich and let the mexican ladies clean and cook for you to stay rich is not the answer to all this. I really don’t understand your way of thinking buying all the crap you buy from China and letting Wal-Marts and the rest of the country sell it to us is the correct thing to do either. Americans need jobs now and we have to stop buying from China and other countries selling that crap to us at higher prices. I thought the days of slavery were gone but according to our government it isn’t. A proud Mexicano that votes and was born here legally being my father was from Sicily and mother in Arizona asks all you bias and prejudice people…..Where did you come from?
Ernie if your mother is from here and your father is Italian how are you a Mexican. My father and grandfather we’re from Germany. My fathers grandmother is from Mexico and his father was from Spain. I’m from the US and call myself American. I lived in MX for 2 years so I think I undrestand better than most that both sides of this argument is irrelevant. 1- can’t close the borders wouldn’t work can’t be done. need the labor. an equilibrium is created for wages earned. If an American won’t work for x and imigrant will that American has choices the imigrant does not. The American can be trained to do something else. 2- we are not one world. the problems of other countries can not be solely owned by us. the global recession has reduced the number of imigrants travelling north in fact when I left MX migrants who came home for Christmas and did not return north was a big story. 3- local government (not pima county) has chosen to decrease the volume of migrants with its jurisdiction mainly do to economy. This pendulom will shift back at the end of the recession or when unemployment retreats to 2003 levels. Big picture SO WHAT. My migrant (if you can call them that) friends aren’t really afraid of the new legistlation they have insurance they are working. They told me if they are unable to continue working they will hed back to MX. I’m a libertarrian which means I think both sides are crazy.
I hope some of you folks realize that no one can take your rants seriously as long as you continue to write like a fourth grader who got held back because of his inability to master punctuation and spelling. People, please!
What is the basis of so much poverty that would cause such illegal immigration? Surely, Mexico with it’s rich ocean borders and other resources, could produce a population that would try to stay in the country and improve it. If it’s solely politics.. why? By sheer numbers, Mexicans could vote in honest government or otherwise revolutionize government.