http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2005/05 ... 5_7_05.txt

Business dictates border policies

By: PAUL JACOBS - For The Californian

In a recent letter to the editor in the ongoing debate on illegal immigration, a writer repeatedly used the term "Mexican activists," as if being an activist is a bad thing. The term is used as a negative adjective to describe everything from liberals to judges, but being an activist was once a proud American trait.

Martin Luther King Jr. was an activist for equal rights and he is a celebrated American. The rights to assemble and speak freely are some of the most important gifts of freedom given to us from the founders of this great nation.

The founders themselves were activists. Conformity may work in China and other repressed countries, but it has nothing to do with patriotism or being a good American.


Complaining about the flood of immigrant labor is like complaining about water soaking your ankles after the dam has burst. It does absolutely no good until one looks to the source of the flood.

Why has controlling our borders been a low priority with our government for so many decades? Why hasn't the threat of terrorism prompted an increase in patrolling and controlling our borders? Our government was determined to invade and occupy Iraq for a nonexistent problem at the cost of a couple hundred billion of our tax dollars, but our elected leaders perpetually dismiss the real problems in our homeland.

With a wink and a nod from our government, immigrants are allowed into this country to do the jobs that couldn't be outsourced by big business.

Undocumented immigrant labor fulfills the needs of companies that don't want to pay minimum wage, employment taxes or provide health care for workers.

There is an unspoken arrangement between government and business that created this system that abuses Americans and immigrants equally.

This collusion between government and industry dictates that taxpayers will foot the bill for medical care, schooling and other benefits not provided or paid for by big business. It isn't Mexicans or other immigrants who are receiving welfare; it is our corporations.

It is to the advantage of government and business to deflect attention from the real cause and to put the blame on the illegal laborers they invite into our country. Angry Americans will be distracted blaming the "activist Mexicans" instead of discovering where the problem really lies.

Transnational corporations that have no allegiance to any country have largely assimilated the American government. The influx of both legal and illegal immigrant labor suits their needs to deflate the wages and the will of the working people. Americans are too demanding of living wages and benefits, so concerted efforts have been made to develop a more compliant work force and do away with those "activist" unions that dare fight for the rights and adequate compensation of working people.

You will have to find a dictionary from 1983 or earlier to find the definition of fascism as: A system of government that exercises a dictatorship of the extreme right, typically through the merging of state and business leadership, together with belligerent nationalism.

It is a merging of activist corporations and government that define this nation's immigration policies.

Paul Jacobs of Temecula is a regular columnist for The Californian. E-mail: TemeculaPaul@aol.com.