It used to be that the fight over illegal immigration was limited to a few border states. No more. A hot issue here in Fairfax County, VA is whether or not to build a shelter/hiring center in the town of Herndon for so-called day laborers, most of whom are illegals.
On the one hand, since dozens of men can be waiting around, trying to get hired, this causes a public nuisance, and a shelter would be a humanitarian service to both the men, and the neighbors of the usual congregating places. On the other hand, in the words of Republican gubernatorial candidate Jerry Kilgore, “Will we reward illegal behavior with hard-earned dollars from law-abiding citizens? I say the answer to this question should be an easy one: No.”
Clearly, the local authorities are forced to deal with what the Feds don’t want to touch, and any move by anyone is going to look bad. Kilgore sounds forthright, but nothing he said will solve the immediate problem of the public nuisance, which can get nasty (although this has not yet happened in Herndon). Townspeople complain about the illegals hanging out, but townspeople are also hiring the men—to do the work “Americans don’t want to do,” or maybe that should read “…don’t want to do for the wage offered.”
Besides, not only do the Feds not care about illegal immigration, there is a powerful slave labor lobby giving plenty of dollars to politicians of both parties. The lobby consists of government supported health care organizations, banks (that make bucks from cumbersome money orders), the hospitality industry, and public education. Thus, a private individual can ask himself, “If the Feds don’t care, why shouldn’t I hire one of these guys to work in my yard?”
True, it’s only a small leap from that sentiment to businesses hiring illegals, but consider: The government expects business to police itself and not employ illegals. Isn’t this like gelding the IRS, and still expecting full compliance with the tax laws? What makes the government’s hands-off attitude on illegal immigration even worse is that for all its lip service to civil rights, there is little question that a hired illegal has scant hope of enforcing any sort of workers’ rights, if his employer chooses to violate them.
So far, we have only been talking about the employment issues, However, in a post 9/11 world, porous borders can yield far more dangerous consequences.
Some authorities insist that there are ALREADY tactical nuclear devices in this country, in the hands of terrorist cells. Setting that aside for a moment, what’s the point of having intense airport security if we don’t care about the offenders getting into the country in the first place?
Finally, we are going to have to decide just how pluralistic we want our country to be. No matter how demagogues of all stripes would try to change your perception of the obvious, America was founded on Euro-Christian principles. The “Melting Pot” only worked since the vast majority of immigrants had ties to these principles.
The “Salad Bowl,” now advocated by moronic diversity extremists, exists only to the extent that the culture of the newest immigrants is incompatible with mainstream America. Few doubt that there are plenty of terrorists in this Salad Bowl, but exactly what are our leaders doing about all this?
Just another example of how we the people are, in the words of the late Richard Fariña, the prey of a foul command.