Thread: Immigration debate no one is ready for

Immigration debate no one is ready for

By Ruben Navarrette,
Sunday, December 20, 2009 at midnight

With the nation’s jobless rate at 10 percent and six applicants for every opening, you might think this is the worst possible time for Congress to legalize millions of illegal immigrants.

Yet that’s one of the proposals in a new immigration reform bill introduced by Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill.

Those who believe you can’t discuss immigration reform in a down economy must also assume that newly legalized immigrants would automatically compete for jobs with U.S. workers, and that the last thing our homegrown workforce needs in tough times is more competition. This is an easy argument to make, but it’s not a very strong one for three reasons.

(1) There is never a good time for Congress to discuss legalizing the undocumented. The last time it debated the issue, from 2005 to 2007, the country had a stronger economy and an unemployment rate of less than 5 percent. Even then, many members found the issue too hot to handle. That’s because the sticking point isn’t the economy or jobs or what’s best for U.S. workers. What really concerns many Americans about the immigrants of today is the same thing that has concerned them throughout U.S. history – an irrational but insuppressible fear over shifting demographics and other changes that newcomers bring to the culture, language and landscape.

Americans aren’t trying to save jobs. They’re trying to save their quality of life. What they’re missing is that they often owe this quality of life to the availability of cheap and reliable illegal immigrant labor. If they would just admit this, the debate would be better off.

(2) The whole “illegal immigrants take jobs from Americansâ€

Ruben, you're an idiot. Why anyone prints your crap is inexplicable. There may have been a time when some fell for your twisted logic and zero business and economic knowledge but that time has long passed. Americans want illegal aliens to go home, not stay. Americans want them out of our country, out of our job market, out of our neighborhoods, off our streets and roadways, out of our schools, out of our hospitals, out of our prisons and returned to their country of origin to live, work, educate, medicate and incarcerate there where they belong. These people are not the responsibility of the United States or the American People. They are the responsibility of their home nations.

Americans shouldn't feel bad or sorry that illegal aliens are being deported. Illegal aliens are responsible for the misery and suffering of at least 40 million Americans who are part of families who have lost jobs, loved ones, businesses and wages because of illegal immigration. If someone wants to cry for someone, cry the 40 million Americans whose lives were destroyed by these invaders. If someone wants a pity article on the topic of illegal immigration, interview the American families whose lives and livelihoods were ravaged by illegal immigration.

Originally Posted by JohnDoe2

As President Barack Obama himself has suggested, one way to level the playing field for beleaguered U.S. workers is to make undocumented immigrants legal and take away the incentive for unscrupulous employers to hire them because they can pay them less than U.S. workers.

That doesn't make sense. An amnesty won't prevent employers from exploiting immigrants for lower wages. The government won't enforce the laws that are on the books right now, so a new set of laws won't be enforced either.

I've heard these arguments before but when? Wait...wait...it's coming back to me...1986!