Saturday, April 2, 2011

Immigration & Citizenship

When Emma Lazarus wrote The New Colossus for the Statue of Liberty "--- 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!" 
Did she know what the future immigrants of America faced?  Prior to this 1883 poem immigrants were thoroughly exploited and used for low paying backbreaking jobs; the building of our railroads, working our coal mines and sweat shops.
The list of abuses immigrants faced was long but most egregious was being pressed into service during the Civil War.  This action gave the rich the opportunity to buy their way out of the draft and let the have-nots do the majority of fighting and dying in order to preserve the Union.  Things changed little after 1883, immigrants were used to build America into an industrial powerhouse and the robber barons became rich on the fruits of their labor. 
In the modern era of immigration legal immigrants have the best America can offer.  Protected by labor laws they are paid at least minimum wage.  With assistance from their ethnic community and a lot of self-sacrifice they have the opportunity to open a business, and if things go badly they can fall back on government programs set up to assist them.
This is not the case for the millions of illegal immigrants who have come to America.  They are relegated to our low paying and sometimes below minimum wage jobs.  They work our fields, factories, restaurants and construction jobs.  The excuse given by their employers for breaking the law and hiring them is that the average American citizen does not want to work the type of job an illegal is willing to work.
Of the millions of citizens unemployed the Best Party would like to know what survey was taken that tells us a citizen would not want to work in a restaurant or construction job?  The answer is self-evident.
On February 8, 2011 The New York Daily News reported that a national chain restaurant fired hundreds of workers in Minnesota after an audit by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement found that these workers presented fake I-9 forms.  This chain of restaurants is also facing investigation in other states for the same infraction.  How much trouble would this chain have filling these now vacant jobs with Americans?  When these jobs are filled, let the critics of the American work ethic admit to their twisting of the facts or in middle-class terms, their spreading of BS. 
Our present day robber barons both big and small use illegal immigrants to enrich themselves at the expense of the American taxpayer and the subclass of workers they have created. Hearing our politician’s cry of the injustice being done to illegal immigrants if we dare to identify them makes the Best Party wonder who’s hand is in the politicians pockets.  In New York City we are told Stop-and-Frisk is an "essential crime fighting tool".  This policy allows police to stop and frisk citizens on the street and take an appropriate action if a weapon or contraband is found.
Since 2004, three million people have been stopped on NYC streets and frisked.  This policy seems to be in violation of our IV Amendment Right "...against unreasonable searches....." but as of this writing no court has put a stop to this policy.  The Best Party finds it hypocritical that the same billionaire Mayor and members of his City Council that support the Stop-and-Frisk policy in New York, express their criticism of the government of Arizona for checking on a person’s immigration status while enforcing other laws.
The question is why do politician's from NY and around the country disapprove of the proposed Arizona law?  Some states have threatened to stop doing business with Arizona.  Are they humanitarians only seeking to help the underprivileged?  If so why do we not hear their outcries about the working conditions of the countries these illegal immigrants come from.
In Cancun, Mexico condo/resorts pay their security guards $100 a week to work twelve hour days.  This is up from the $4 per day workers received in 2001.  Should we not stop doing business with Mexico?  Tourists are charged American prices for everything, why not share the wealth?  Should we not demand that Mexico and all tourism countries share the tourist dollar with their workers.
Should not the humanitarians demand that all countries we trade with pay their workers a fair wage based on the profit they make trading with America?  Logically this would reduce the flow of illegal immigrants to our shores.  But we hear no demands from our humanitarians and politicians on this.  We are only given press releases with meaningless objections.  The issue of illegal immigrants can never be solved unless we insist the robber barons abroad pay a fair wage to their workers and the American robber barons are prevented from preying on illegals.
The Best Party welcomes illegal immigrants to become citizens on the condition that they have made the same contribution to America as present citizens have.  Have they made an effort to pay taxes, especially in local communities where they are sending their children to school?  Are they making an effort to pay any medical bills they have incurred. This does not mean paying the whole bill but at least making a small payment to the provider? Have they served in the military?  If some of this criteria is meet it shows the person is of moral character and should be given the opportunity to become a citizen.
As proved in 1986 blanket amnesty does not work, after granting 2.9 million illegal immigrants amnesty we are now faced with untold millions of illegal immigrants.  Our government failed to secure our borders and failed to hold employers accountable for hiring illegals.  Those newly made citizens who moved on to jobs paying a fair wage were easily replaced by a new wave of illegals. America cannot afford to make the same mistakes again. Keeping the status quo is not an option.
History tells us that you cannot exploit a segment of society indefinitely without repercussions.  Has our present government thought out what happens when millions of illegals demand their right to the American dream.  If they are granted citizenship does the taxpayer pick up the bill for their share of universal health care and all the subsidies they would be entitled to?  We must make some unpleasant choices but for our future generations we must enforce our immigration laws and deport those illegal immigrants, who understandably, have come here for a better life but are a drain on our local economies and a contributor to unemployment among American citizens. 
Robert Schlaffer                                                                                 
Best Party for the Middle Clas

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