.
arizona has certainly stirred up a shitstorm with its new anti-illegal immigrant legislation, and i'm finding it fascinating watching as the holier-than-thou backlash builds.
as a middle-class california taxpayer who has watched as the the flood of unchecked immigration from mexico and central america has immeasurably diminished the quality of virtually every aspect of life in my adopted state over the last 20 years, i have a definite opinion on the subject.
but before i go any further, i should acknowledge that i am often accused of hypocrisy on this issue--an accusation i can't really deny.
consider:
- i think american companies who who hire illegals should be prosecuted, yet i personally have employed more than a few.
- i've met many honest, hard-working illegals who subsequently became my friends.
- i've watched as illegal immigration has reduced the once-greatest public school system in america to mississippi standards, while at the same time volunteering to tutor their kids.
- i was thrilled last year when the exodus of illegals from california finally started--until i realized all the young, cute ones were leaving first.
i.e., as in so many other areas of my life, i'm a conflicted soul of the first order.
but, you know what? whenever i manage to put my own personal emotions aside and concentrate on the cold, hard facts, all becomes clear: illegal immigration is killing the southwestern united states.
consider:
- in the last 20 years, hundreds of thousands of solid, southern-california middle-class [and often, union] jobs in the janitorial, trucking, construction and food-service industries have devolved into minimum-wage shitwork, thanks to a flood of third-world immigrants happily willing to do the same jobs for next to nothing [and, btw, into whose pocket do you liberal do-gooders think all the money saved from those reduced wages actually went?].
- it isn't, as george bush once famously said, that illegals come here to do the work "americans aren't willing to do"; it's more like americans aren't willing to do that work for five dollars an hour--and therein lies the crux of the problem.
- crime, border violence and kidnapping [i.e., the spillover from mexico] have increased exponentially in arizona over the last 10 years.
- the heritage foundation conservatively figured a couple years ago that, for every $9,000 in tax revenue the average low-skilled illegal-immigrant family in america contributes [and they even included lottery-ticket purchases to get that total], said family consumes $32,000 in tax credits and social services--i.e., a $23,000-per-family deficit.
now, factor in all of the above and then multiply $23,000 x 125,000 illegal-immigrant families [i.e., 7.5% of the families] in cash-strapped arizona. and, once you've done the math from whatever non-arizona state you live in and figured your own yearly hypothetical risk and personal tax burden to cover same and then imagined what it would feel like to cough that much up each year in addition to whatever you're paying in taxes now, then feel free to sit back and judge the taxpaying citizens of arizona.
* * * * *
do i personally think arizona's gone too far?
yeah, i do--they've suddenly made fully a third of their legal citizens brown-skinned targets for police-state excess, and i can't imagine anything more un-american than that.
do i understand why they did it?
yeah, i do--arizona has been compelled to do what it did because the federal government refuses to do what it was sworn to do; i.e, uphold the law and protect the sovereign borders of the united states of america.
do i see an easy resolution to the problem?
no, i don't--each political party is encouraging illegal immigration for its own misguided purposes, none of which have anything to do with what's in the best interests of the united states of america.
what's next?
who knows? i personally am hoping texas and new mexico [fuck california--it's a lost cause] will join with arizona in order to force the federal government to do right by its citizens, but i'm not gonna hold my breath.
