House Republicans, returning from a month of field hearings on illegal immigration, yesterday warned of a gaping disconnect between American voters and many “elite” lawmakers.
“I have never seen such a disconnect between the American people and the elite,” said Rep. Peter T. King, the New York Republican who chairs the House Homeland Security Committee and held two hearings last month.
Many of the conservatives (we won't mention party affiliations, right now) in my region, in particular, have started to show genuine resentment that there seems no control over illegal immigration... there's a factory in town where probably 3/4 of the employees speak absolutely no English, and yet the long-term locals have, many, lost jobs recently due to (a) fire, (b)industries folding and (c) industries moving to other locations. Of course, some of the reasons for the latter two can be set directly on the doorstep of workers who want more than a simple wage for hours worked -- pension and health insurance programs -- among others -- have to be factored into the cost of running a business, these days, and it's understandable why a factory owner might want to avoid paying them if possible. It's easy to become an angry union-supporter if you don't have to make sure that next year's payroll will be met. And it's easy to blame the illegals who cross borders to take the jobs, undermining your bargaining power.
So they get ticked off with the virtual open-borders policy we have to both north and south (especially, though, the south, because they ain't smart enough to talk English, and they still steal our jobs).
It's also easy to be a heartless corporate goon willing to hire said cheap labor if there are no repercussions for your undercutting your industry's community by hiring outsiders illegally.
People will always want to come to America, to pursue the American Dream... Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Property are big draws, especially from the poorest lands, especially in lands where the system is corrupt. Putting up a big fence to keep them out is not the simple solution many on the far right sell it to be. Just as so many of us choose to die to defend this land, people will still risk death to come here.
So, we need to seriously look at the Big Incentive to their stealing across our borders, to their packing themselves into freight boxes and hiding themselves in auto upholstery. We need to start seriously taking the employers to task for circumventing law in order to take advantage of cheap labor. Immigrations offices need more enforcement agents to examine sites and books for places like the meat packing plants, the agribusinesses, and so on, to find the scofflaws, and then they need to be given some teeth with which to chomp down on criminal employers.
This is not a partisan issue. Both Democrats and Republicans need to recognize that, if laws are to exist, they need to be enforced. That is the way of civilized society. If a law is no longer enforceable, it needs to be written out of existence.
Now, the joint houses of Congress need to think about how the general voting public would respond to their (a) ignoring laws, and/or (b) writing laws out of existence. In the case of illegal immigration, there are two issues: money and personal safety. If they choose to continue to support an open borders attitude in the face of the laws which restrict border traffic, they are saying that they disregard the existence of the societal safeguards to both. If they choose to rewrite laws to to decriminalize such immigration, make the crossing easier, they are saying that the opinions and livelihoods of their constituents are of no value. Do the members of today's Congress wish to be caught in the act of ignoring both the fiscal and physical well-being of the people who will, they hope vote them back into office again in November? Dare they risk saying to the folks who are unemployed out here in Forgottonia, "Gee, we're really sorry, but we like having cheap labor in our own back yard. If you want something better, move to... uh... Canada or something"? Dare they tell the rest of us that they're ignoring a porous border in a time when a known terrorist group -- a group which has already proudly killed Americans -- is openly operating on soil in the Western Hemisphere, just a hop skip and jeep's drive south of the border?
And when some start complaining about how much it will cost to boost the number of agents within ICE and take the criminal employers to court and jail and all those other basic requirements to getting this job done in a satisfactory manner (including border controls), ask that person why his car has backing lights. When you're backing up, you want everybody to recognize that, because you don't want somebody to plow into your back end and force you to take your car (and yourself) for costly repairs. Spending a little money for security is fiscally responsible.
Congress could probably lift a few bucks out of each state's earmark projects, and cover everything. They might even have a few bucks to spare.
Now, I'm from a district which, unfortunately, has consistently put Democrats into office, "because my daddy and granddaddy voted Democrat." Therefore, I can't necessarily ride the high horse against the Republican tone-deafness. My Congressman has been Lane Evans... health notwithstanding, the man is a ninny. He always has been. And, God forbid I should mention my Senators...
Disconnect seems too mild a word, somehow.
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