Yesterday was quite a day on the job-site. A guy came in to tear up the old linoleum and prepare the sub-floor for new flooring today. This man - an immigrant with little English - was working when I got there at 10am, and left when I did at 6pm. He never rested that I saw, and his work was back-breaking. That old floor was stuck down with old-school mastic that had to be scraped off the hard way, by hand. I took a couple opportunities to praise him Man, you are a HARD worker, and such comments, while I passed doing my own tasks. Anybody who know me, knows the abiding respect I have for immigrants. and when the two of us smiled and waved as we left that job, there was a look not unlike love that passed between us. You want to know a person? Work along-side him doing physical labor in 90 degree heat. We have a terrible problem with immigration. Its been clear for decades that neither party has the political will to make the hard decisions to slow the illegal tide, and to get a good solid system in place. The Republicans are pro small-business, and know that many businesses cannot grow if they dont have access to cheap labor ... so the GOP tends to pay lip-service to the issue while doing nothing. The Democrats are so fearful of being called intolerant, xenophobic or racist, that theyve been paralyzed and will remain so. And because of the nature of the jobs that illegals take on, almost every one of us has been impressed by their work ethic, AND gotten a good deal on some labor at some point. We dont want these people punished ... and we really cant imagine our lives being as good as they are without all the things they do so affordably. (is that a word?) But we cant go on like this. We cant have tens of millions of our labor-force working under-the-table. And their semi-secretive status here makes them easy marks for exploitation. And now we have this Childrens Crusade crisis. There are apparently rumors in Central America that Mr. Obamas executive-order allowing some Dreamers to stay has been mis-interpreted, as a come-one-come-all edict. Obamas move was an act of pure political manipulation (Marco Rubio was on the Romney short-list for VP, and could have hurt the Hispanic vote), but it would not be fair to blame the President for rumors in Honduras and Guatemala. Those kids MUST be transported and repatriated to their home countries. and it has to happen sooner than later. Its sad, and we know that many will have rough and short lives down there, but if we dont get them home fast, hundreds of thousands will soon follow. We have to quit spending billions to treat the symptoms of this problem, and secure the damn border. But we know that that will not stop illegal immigration. A huge number of immigrants are visa over-stays who came in legally and melted into the populace when their time ran out. The only way to end this, is to make the receiving of the benefits of immigration un-available to illegals. And I am NOT referring only to safety-net stuff, but also the work that most immigrants badly want. If an undocumented immigrant cannot get any freebies, and cannot get work, he or she will send word that the dream is over. The dream should not be over, but the fantasies and the attendant nightmares have got to go. We need a robust verification system with fines for violators, and we need a vastly simplified procedure for getting good people in, and keeping bad people out. That is a huge problem. But as a nation birthed and built by immigrants and their off-spring, we need to come together around this issue, and get it done.
Posted on: Thu, 10 Jul 2014 15:17:00 +0000
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