Thread: Leaders won't take effective action on illegal immigration

http://www.statesmanjournal.com/apps/pb ... 90328/1050

Leaders won't take effective action on illegal immigration

October 19, 2006

It must be election time. There are a lot of politicians flapping their lips and wringing their hands about illegal immigration.

Congress is even building a fence. It's a pretty dumb farmer who builds a fence when 12 million cows are already in the corn. Congress and their corporate masters have no intention of stopping illegal immigration. They love their cheap illegal work force, with it's downward pressure on U.S. citizens' wages.

Harvard economics professor George Borjas indicated in a recent lecture that the economic impact of the illegal work force is neutral or slightly positive for the United States as a whole.

The problem is that the illegal work force represents a huge profit for corporate America and the wealthy, and a big loss for working-class Americans.

His research indicates that all workers are impacted, but workers on the low end of the scale, particularly those who haven't finished high school, lose big. Their lost wages, due to the illegal work force, amount to 8.2 percent.

We have laws and a massive criminal-justice industry unwilling to enforce them. How can the average worker fight back when the illegals are lining the pockets of the rich and powerful?

-- Alex Sundberg, Stayton

We have laws and a massive criminal-justice industry unwilling to enforce them. How can the average worker fight back when the illegals are lining the pockets of the rich and powerful?

You know what I'm about to decide?

That we should just disband border control and make it a state to state endeavor. It's obviously a job the Feds can't do. Probably because there are too many feds on the payroll sitting on their butts in DC instead of working on the borders saying "Shoo!"

I think the future solution to this problem is going to be on the state and local level.