What are my views on illegal immigration? Well, this is something that I’ve always sort of remained outwardly neutral toward, mostly because I am not, in fact, very informed on the subject. But, since this is where I put forth my opinion, whether or not it be full, permanent, or informed, then I suppose I will share it, anyway.
So, we have this problem wherein Mexicans cross the border without going through customs. Let’s not pussyfoot around the question, either; when it says “illegal immigrants,” we all know it means “Mexicans.” One of the most pressing questions I always immediately had whenever I thought about this subject was this: what is so difficult about crossing the border, legally? Obviously, there has to be something hindering these Mexicans from just going through the proper channels, because I would hope that if it were easy and convenient to just leave Mexico and start working on citizenship in America, somebody, somewhere, by now, would have gone, “Eh, guys, you can come over ‘ere and fill out dis paper, instead of, ya know, being chased by dogs and crawling under barbed wire. ¡Olé!” The person who would, hypothetically, say this is very stereotypically Mexican, if you can’t tell.
So, I asked my roommate this question, and he gave me an answer: because they can and will deny you entrance into America for any reason they feel like. I did a small amount of research on this, and then realized that, yes, they can just turn you away from the border for arriving on the wrong day of the week, by the law. Having had this question answered, I finally understood exactly why Mexicans run the border. It all made sense, after that. I always knew that those people who clamoured for the deportation of all illegal aliens on the grounds that they could just legally get in were full of shit, but that was a subconscious reflex moreso than anything based in tangible terminology.
So, this is our problem? We don’t let people into the country because we don’t feel like it, and then we’re surprised to learn that they sneak in, under our noses? Mexico is a really shitty place: it’s poor, it’s dirty, it’s unfriendly, and it’s languishing away under the hot, tropical sun. Whereas America is a first-world nation with prosperity and opportunity, political freedom and economic growth-potential, Mexico is somewhere where you just don’t get anywhere, and you live and die in shambles. Of course people would want to come to America, versus staying there. Granted, I do know that the argument here isn’t about whether or not it’s a valid point to desire citizenship in America, but rather it is a disputed issue about getting in illegally and living in America as an unregistered citizen.
No, it’s not good that an illegal alien can reside here, not pay taxes, not be responsible for laws, and be slid under the carpet. And, as we all very well know, the single-most enraging thing they do, while here, is “take jobs.” See, this is where I begin to question whether or not this has anything to do with the aliens, and more to do with those who employ them and pay them pennies on the dollar.
Right, so you’ve just stolen your way into a country because the legal channels saw fit to deny you passage, and you have no rights or obligations to anything around you. You need a home, so somebody houses you with thirty-seven other people just like you, in a tiny hovel in a ghetto; you need a job, so somebody pays you five cents an hour to dig holes or work construction, along with twenty-two people just like you. Now, in this scenario, who just made all this possible? Why, yes, it was, in fact, the person who provided the shelter and the person who hired the alien. Would any illegal alien ever be able to survive if it weren’t for the Americans who profit from their situation, pocketing untaxed rent and abusing cheap, underpaid, manual labour? The people I have a problem with are those are so greedy and exploitative as to take in a refugee from another country, put them in deplorable living conditions, and then work them to the bone for a wage no sane American would even consider.
Don’t get angry at the border-hopping Mexican for “taking American jobs,” because it’s the Americans who are giving them away to these people. If it weren’t for your fellow, greedy, red-blooded compatriots, who would rather employ hard-working and devoted aliens for laughable wages that garnish incredible profit than unmotivated and typically lazy Americans, then there would be no question as to the rightful heirs to these positions. I don’t believe it’s any Mexican’s doing here, what with their complete inability to own or run a company, thus they are not the ones in charge of who is getting these jobs. This is the same mentality that leads to corporations opening off-shore factories for the sole fact that they have no obligation, by the law of the soil they build the factories on, to pay wages that are humane. And I say “humane” on the basis that it is of good morality to compensate someone an amount of money significant enough to live and eat on when you are taking from that person a large, irreplaceable chunk of the time in his life. However, I digress, as that is a separate, tangential rant.
What this whole job-thing comes down to is that selfish, greedy, profit-minded American company-owners are exploiting an unprotected workforce that can’t exist without employment, but can’t legally be hired; so, there are a lot of your fellow Americans out there paying Mexicans under the table a five-dollars-a-week wage for the job that would’ve cost him one hundred dollars a week to hire an American to do. Am I surprised? No. Is it the immigrants’ fault that this happens, and should, thus, be blamed and hated for it? No.
Anyway, onto something aside from asking and answering my own questions: the other big part of the issue of illegal immigration is what to do with them. What ever shall be done about all these unregistered aliens waltzing about the countryside, innocently being paid to dig ditches?
The sheer cost of finding and deporting each and every one of them is astronomical. The price-tag on that is so astronomical that it forces me to label it as astronomical, and astronomical is one of those adjectives I am honestly not a fan of using. I mean, come on, astronomical? What makes something astronomical: relating to astronomy. That means that being gaseous is astronomical, because Jupiter is gaseous, and is a planet, thus is studied in and part of astronomy. Feh, I say, to this adjective! Anyway, that was a retarded, little tangent I felt like exploring up until, oh, right now.
It’s impractical, unfeasible, and impossible to deport all the illegal aliens in the country. So, what should we do? We could just make them all legal citizens and hold everyone employing them illegitimately responsible for paying them minimum wage and filing them on their taxes. Oh, and then they could all openly seek out better living conditions, because they’d be getting money worth spitting at, and be able to afford something aside from fucking lean-tos. Perhaps, while we’re at it, we could recognize them as accountable for our laws and keep them in line in the same manner we do everybody else, and not have to expend the resources of the INS. But, for some reason, this plan is shot down, constantly, by conservatives and those who would like to see us deport them all . . . Too likely to happen and too fair, I guess. Because, you know, they’re immigrants, not human beings.
Oh, another point of this argument is the differentiation between political refugees from Cuba and border-hoppers from Mexico. I never understood exactly why this mattered, at all; I mean, if the deplorable economic ruin of Mexico is an acceptable condition for people to live in, and thus keep them bordered into, then what is so much worse about Cuba, which is actually a more wealthy country? Oh, right, because it’s Communist. I forgot that it was still the 1950’s and the era of McCarthy. Oh, oh, wait, no, it’s not — we have absolutely no reason left to excuse the illegal immigration of Cubans over Mexicans. One is just a political refugee, and the other is an economic refugee. Really, what is worse? Having the political freedom to rot away in squalor, or being kept prisoner in what passes for a humane, decent country? (Granted, I am not saying Cuba is the greatest place in the world — do not interpret what I have said as such.)
To wrap up: Mexico is poor and rancid, so Mexicans escape from it like rats off a flaming ship. The proverbial “they” don’t like just letting them flood out of Mexico, so they are forced to either stay in a shit-hole or cross a poorly-guarded border. Sleazy owners give them jobs for little-to-no money and house them in cramped dwellings that are shitty but still preferable to living in Mexico (it’s true, and think about that). People get angry because the employers of America are skimping out on their own kind, and political debate ensues. Isn’t America the land of the free, where the inscription of the Statue of Liberty means something?

Not 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 that twin cities frame.
"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"


Adios.