{"id":75,"date":"2006-05-07T14:20:12","date_gmt":"2006-05-07T14:20:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mikepellegrini.com\/wordpress\/?p=33"},"modified":"2006-05-07T14:20:12","modified_gmt":"2006-05-07T14:20:12","slug":"land-of-promise-denied","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mikepellegrini.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/2006\/05\/07\/land-of-promise-denied\/","title":{"rendered":"Land of Promise Denied"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Lady
\n
\n\u201cNot like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
\nWith conquering limbs astride from land to land;
\nHere at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
\nA mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
\nIs the imprisoned lightning, and her name Mother of Exiles.
\nFrom her beacon-hand
\nGlows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
\nThe air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
\n\u201c”Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!”\u201d cries she
\nWith silent lips. \u201cGive me your tired, your poor,
\nYour huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
\nThe wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
\nSend these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
\nI lift my lamp beside the golden door!\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThe New Colossus\u201d by Emma Lazarus<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been watching the whole immigration saga that\u2019s been in the news recently with a lot of interest.<\/p>\n

There have been marches in every city \u2013 with hundreds of thousands of people in Los Angeles and Chicago participating \u2013 all protesting the Republican party\u2019s proposed immigration reform bill. That bill would make it a felony to enter the country illegally.<\/p>\n

Now, the Republican\u2019s proposal to so-called \u201ccriminalize\u201d illegal aliens is on its face, ludicrous at best. It\u2019s like we didn\u2019t already have enough problems with the federal budget, so now the Republicans want to spend millions if not billions locking up illegal aliens \u2013 \u201cpunishing\u201d them for slipping into the country without a visa.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not the very stupidest thing I\u2019ve ever heard of, but it\u2019s close.<\/p>\n


\nBy current estimates, there are between 7 and 12 million illegal aliens living in the United States \u2013 and this increases by as many as 10,000 people per day.<\/p>\n

If by some weird chance congress did pass a law making illegal entry a felony, I think it\u2019d probably be time to buy stock in the private prison companies. Because prisons would be in for some truly fantastic growth opportunities. Ten thousand new potential inmates each and every day? Outstanding! This certainly is a Republican sort of remedy.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also obvious that the Republican sponsors of this bill must own stock in Corrections Corporation of America.<\/p>\n

What were they thinking?<\/p>\n

The proposal has galvanized the immigrant community, legal and illegal, producing the massive demonstrations all over the country. Immigration issues are now front and center on every TV channel because of the demonstrations.<\/p>\n

As one of the protesting immigrants put it, “We want to show the government that all the work in this country is impossible without us.”<\/p>\n

And so it is. Immigrants have historically been the lifeblood of the United States. Truly, the United States was built by immigrants. But that doesn\u2019t excuse people slipping into the country illegally.<\/p>\n

Now with that said, I have to reiterate that I think it\u2019s really stupid as all get out to even contemplate making illegal immigration a felony.<\/p>\n

But conversely, I don\u2019t think it should be allowed, either. I don\u2019t believe we should just throw the borders open and give up.<\/p>\n

The real solution is that we have to change this system we currently have \u2013 the system that actively encourages aliens to cross the border illegally.<\/p>\n

What system is this, you ask? It\u2019s the system that allows and even condones cheap labor for certain occupations, coupled with the fact that there are no effective sanctions to use against companies who employ illegals.<\/p>\n

First off, no worker should be made to work for less than a livable wage. If Americans as a class refuse to perform some particular jobs, then it\u2019s obvious that the employers need to raise the pay for those jobs.<\/p>\n

And if these employers cannot make a profit while paying increased, livable wages, then the best course is that they should probably go out of business and let someone else take over that can run the business at a profit and still pay livable wages.<\/p>\n

I have no sympathy at all for companies that are too cheap, too lazy or too inefficient to pay livable wages. The world would be a much better place without this type of sleaze.<\/p>\n

The second key ingredient to solving our immigration problems is that we should also impose severe monetary and criminal penalties on companies caught employing illegal aliens. For repeat violators, we should have a three-strikes-you\u2019re-out law which provides that employers convicted three times of hiring illegals would have their business and personal assets seized, and the owners would do serious jail time. Felony time.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s as easy as that: if we raise the wages and then make it extremely unattractive for companies to hire illegals, then the problems are solved.<\/p>\n

If they can\u2019t find jobs in the United States, the illegals will quit coming. Period.<\/p>\n

The whole system as it currently stands is solely aimed at exploiting the illegal alien workers. It has institutionalized this exploitation. And too often, businesses that routinely employ illegal aliens are also guilty of mistreating and abusing those workers.<\/p>\n

I can recall one time I was at a trucking company in Tacoma where I personally witnessed a boss screaming at a Mexican worker that if he didn\u2019t shut up and get back to work, he\u2019d call INS and have the guy shipped back to Mexico. Screaming.<\/p>\n

That is truly reprehensible. No one should have to suffer treatment like that.<\/p>\n

The sooner we take a responsible position on immigration, the sooner this sort of abuse will stop.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cNot like the brazen giant of Greek fame, With conquering limbs astride from land to land; Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command The air-bridged harbor […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-75","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikepellegrini.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikepellegrini.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikepellegrini.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikepellegrini.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikepellegrini.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mikepellegrini.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikepellegrini.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikepellegrini.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikepellegrini.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}