Thread: ILLEGAL PEOPLE ARE CREATED BY GOD - ASPEN TIMES

This is from Mike Mcgarry OF CAIR (Colorado Alliance for Immigration Reform)
March 7, 2006
CAIR Alert: Please write letter to the Aspen Times

Folks:

Please take a few minutes to write a letter to the editor regarding
the following dopey column. It would be helpful if letters come in
from all parts of the state. Send your comments to:

The Aspen Times
310 East Main Street · Aspen, CO 81611
Office: (970) 925-3414 · FAX: (970) 925-6240
News Tips: (970) 925-3414

Email: mail@aspentimes.com

Thanks,

Mike McGarry



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The article
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http://www.aspentimes.com/article/20060 ... /103030020

Illegal people are created by God

By Roger Marolt
March 3, 2006

There is something unsettling about the current movement to curb illegal
immigration into the United States. A buried nuance lies beneath the
discussion that leaves me tight in heart and contradictory in mind.
There appear to be broad solutions proposed to solve vaguely defined
problems narrowly associated with Mexicans.

We're enraged about the economics.

The Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington, D.C.-based group
advocating tougher immigration policy estimates that "illegal aliens
imposed more than $26.3 billion in costs on the federal government
and paid only $16 billion in taxes, creating a $10.3 billion fiscal
deficit."

The American Resistance, an anti-immigration group, published an article
by Kathy McKee, the Arizona state coordinator of Citizens Against Illegal
Immigration. She argues: "Using minimum wage workers instead of illegal
aliens would (only) increase the cost of agricultural products by approximately
(3 to 4 percent) ... hardly the making of $10 heads of lettuce and
$25 hamburgers."

What is not said is that a 3.5 percent increase on the $200 billion
annual agricultural production in this country would amount to a $7
billion dollar increase in costs to you and me. What else is not said
is that only about 23 percent of illegal aliens are estimated to be
working in agriculture. If all illegal aliens are contributing to production
in other industries at the same rate, the annual savings to Americans
is more than $30 billion. Considering that many undocumented aliens
are working in more labor-intensive industries such as construction,
the total cost savings to us are likely much higher.

Migrant workers do not just tax the system. They provide backbreaking
services that few U.S. citizens will perform at the low wages necessary
to keep end products at prices we deem "fair."

Far from acknowledging this, we curse them for sending as much as $20
billion dollars of earnings back to their home countries each year.
The human side to this, which we fail to recognize, is that they do
it to support families and friends who are living in hopeless poverty.
It is a type of foreign aid in which we receive something in the bargain.


In reality, the effect is much the same as us sending our dollars overseas
to swell the flood of foreign goods and services here to slake our
seemingly insatiable consumption. We blame immigrants for taking jobs
from Americans. However, isn't it American industry, in homage to the
religion of economic efficiency, that continues to outsource truly
higher paying jobs?

We're frightened about national security. But, do we really believe
that tighter control over impoverished Mexicans entering our country
will bring us safety? If our focus is on thwarting vans full of poor,
migrant workers from crossing the border, hoping to inadvertently uncover
smuggled weapons of mass destruction in the process, our intentions
are misguided, resources wasted, and thinking unsound.

Yes, we need to have immigration laws. And yes, we need to enforce
them. But, no law is 100 percent effective in prevention. We can no
more stop 100 percent of illegal immigration than we can keep all drivers
under the posted speed limit or prevent all murders, for that matter.
We have to be realistic.

Even if we could seal our borders completely, would the extra expense
of that effort be less than the cost of illegal immigration? Even if
it were a straight dollar-for-dollar tradeoff, would we rather the
money feed another bloated federal bureaucracy rather than destitute
foreigners in desperate need of life's basic necessities?

Because they lack the pedigree, because they lack the proper paperwork,
we marginalize people and refuse to recognize them as fellow human
beings. In more palatable terminology, we withhold assistance simply
because "they" are not United States citizens.

Many barriers are already in place to keep poor, undocumented foreigners
out of the United States. Education and property ownership are the
true borders that most illegal aliens will never be able to cross.
I am not so naïve as to believe that this is a revealing insight. Is
it possible that among us are predisposed minds so conniving as to
attach themselves to an obviously futile and purposefully agitated
cause for the sole purpose of fueling their anger and justifying their
prejudices?

Illegal immigration is an issue that elicits bitter anger from proponents
of drastic changes in legislation and enforcement. Therein lies grave
danger. From anger sprouts hatred. From hatred, the thorns of racism
extend.

In researching this column, I read through a shocking number of websites
that are blatantly racist. They accept the mainstream arguments for
tighter laws and stricter policy prima facia. They espouse all of the
familiar arguments. Popular political sentiment, without modification
or embellishment, furthers the ugliness they are promoting.

We should be wary knowing that if we jump on this bandwagon, we are
joined by many people with evil in their hearts and malice on their
minds.

We know where malevolence lurks. Where is humanitarianism? Where are
the women's rights activists when we suggest that sending an undocumented
mother back to the darkness and filth of poverty to have her baby is
just? Is she not a woman? Where are the right to life advocates when
a foreign child dies of malnutrition simply because it was conceived
on the wrong side of the river? Is he not a child?

I don't pretend to have answers in this debate. I do know what is missing
from it, though: compassion. If discussing this issue gives us pause,
we need to take an honest look at our motivations in pursuing it. Is
it to make the world a better place? Is it to preserve this resource-rich
mass of real estate only for us? Or, is it something uglier than selfishness,
even?

Perhaps we could begin the discussion all over by referring to our
fellow human beings as something less coarse than "illegal immigrants"
or "undocumented aliens," keeping in mind that the true difference
that separates us is random luck of birthright and the proper filing
of paperwork.

We are talking about illegal people here; created by God and made into
outlaws by us.

This week Roger Marolt will read your comments publicly at mail@aspentimes.com


====================



Mike McGarry

Colorado Alliance for Immigration Reform (CAIR)
PO Box 151270, Lakewood, CO 80215
www.CAIRCO.org

Well, I see that the Aspen Times still has their "must register to read" turned on. I came across this article Friday afternoon posted by somebody on a private illegal immigration group. At that time, registration wasn't required to read acticles or post comments about the articles. It was turned on late Friday evening. Anyway, in addition to sending a letter to the editor, there is the opportunity to post about the article on the site (assuming you want to register in order to do it). FYI, these are the posts already there.


Re: Illegal people are created by God
by Anonymous on Friday, March 03 @ 16:40:12 PST
Well said Roger.
Illegal is only the latest label for immigrants. Every major immigrant group has been subjected to labels and stereotyping. Colorado elected a member of the Klan as Governor in the 1920's in reaction to immigrants. During this time the Klansmen did their best to intimidate legal German, Italian, Irish Catholic, Chinese and African immigrants to "go back where they came from". In the 30's we rounded up many legal Mexicans and drove them out of this country on a rail. America was the only country many of the young Mexicans in this roundup had ever known.

I think it is time to revisit the lady in the harbor and embrace the words she lives by before history repeats itself, "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!”


Re: Illegal people are created by God
by Anonymous on Saturday, March 04 @ 10:09:37 PST
It's called the Statue of Liberty, not the Statue of Breaking and Entering.


Re: Illegal people are created by God
by Anonymous on Saturday, March 04 @ 13:01:51 PST
What a load of nonsense. Illegal means in violation of the law. Illegal aliens are here in violation of our laws. To compare illegal aliens -- that is, criminals -- with immigrant groups of the past is the ultimate in either cynicism or hypocrisy. Sell it elsewhere.

Re: Illegal people are created by God
by Anonymous on Saturday, March 04 @ 18:53:21 PST
Their is a legal process to come here, everybody has to get in line and take their turn.Ther is no fairness in cutting in line and then demanding that we accomadate them. Your references to yesterday do no relate to todays problem. there are many coming here that have no respect for this country or its laws. You would welcome a Trojan horse.



Re: Illegal people are created by God
by Anonymous on Saturday, March 04 @ 20:26:40 PST
"Illegal" isn't a label, it's a fact. There are many millions of immigrants in this country. And there are many millions of illegal aliens. None of the smokescreens used by Roger or by the "Well said Roger" commenter obscure this basic distinction.

Plus "the lady in the harbor" has the official title "Liberty Enlightening the World". It was a gift from French citizens at the time of the U.S. centennial. It was intended to applaud the ordered liberty that the American polity had developed and offer it as an example that the world might choose to follow

THE STATUE HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH IMMIGRATION. It doesn't invite the world to move here.

The common confusion about the statue's meaning is
due, in part, to the statue's proximity to Ellis Island, the major port of entry for immigrants until the last few decades. But the statue's supposed (i.e. mistaken) connection with immigration has been used shamelessly by the Open Borders crowd for at least a generation.

Further, there is the famous Emma Lazarus poem [quoted by "Well said Roger"], "The New Colossus", invoking "huddled masses, yearning to breathe free ... I lift my lamp beside the golden door". But the poem isn't part of the statue. It was placed inside the statue's base well after the statue was erected. And Congress (nor the American people represented by any other means) wasn't consulted about the placement of this
immigration poem on this statue to American liberty --- nor about the expectation that Americans should make room for huddled masses.

If you want to follow this up, you can look at

http://www.thesocialcontract.com/cgi-bi ... 147&terms=

And here is a shorter, easier-to-read piece:
http://www.immigrationshumancost.org/te ... e-mat.html


Re: Illegal people are created by God
by Anonymous on Saturday, March 04 @ 13:07:26 PST
The economic arugment in favor of illegal aliens is exactly the argument made by slave owners in the ante-bellum South Congratulations. Further, illegal aliens take jobs from Americans and drive down American wages. The idea that illegals are some kind of economic benefit is nonsense, given the cost of their health, education, and welfare, which are paid for by taxpayers. We can pay an American 20 bucks an hour, or we can pay an illegal 10 bucks an hour and subsidize his health, education, and welfare needs. In the end, the cost is about the same. But without the illegals, at least our schoos aren't overly crowded, our hospitals aren't jammed and going into bankruptcy, our neighborhoods aren't trashed, and we don't have all kinds of other social, economic, and political problems associated with masses of illegal aliens. If you think illegal alien labor is cheap, then you just aren't acknowledging the obvious.



Re: Illegal people are created by God
by Anonymous on Saturday, March 04 @ 13:09:08 PST
When an open borders/illegal alein enabler, such as Marolt, can not win the debat on the facts they all ways resort to distorting the facts and statistics. When that fails, they resort to the ubiquitous and worn out excuse; the religious/humanitarian exception to the equal application of the laws of this Republic. Like most others of his ilk, Marolt is a fool.


Re: Illegal people are created by God
by Anonymous on Monday, March 06 @ 08:10:27 PST
Same old "jobs Americans won't do" drivel with bad analysis thrown in.

Your analysis of the cost of using Americans in agriculture, for example, fails to consider that

1) the added cost of a few percent, while lots of dollars,would go to Americans, reducing the ranks of the unemployed.

and 2) that the illegals create a huge additional burden on US taxpayers to pay for health care, education, and incarceration. (Yes, they do commit lots of crimes.)


The rest of the analysis is equally flawed. Immigration has resulted in a loss of income to the American middle class, according to recent studies from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government and the University of North Carolina, among others. The resistance to illegal immigration isn't about lack of compassion but about understanding that importing cheap labor to work as virtual slaves helps no one in the long run. I feel for the plight of those living in poverty, but overfilling the lifeboat sinks it for everyone.




Re: Illegal people are created by God
by Anonymous on Saturday, March 04 @ 18:40:57 PST
Roger, it sounds as though you need these illegal aliens to exploit for their cheap labor.
There is no difference between outsourcing our jobs to third world countries or insourcing labor from third world countries. Mexico is not an impoverished nation as you suggest. Their government is corrupt to the core. Your solutions would make ours as bad.
If you really cared you would be doing something to remedy that problem in Mexico. You could be putting pressure on our government to put pressure on Mexico. You could go down there and help them.
There are third world peasents from all over the world that want to come here. Do you think we can take them all or should we do something to make their goverments better.
I don't think you have thought this through in a rational manner.


Re: Illegal people are created by God
by Anonymous on Sunday, March 05 @ 09:18:24 PST
Outstanding column. I am always amazed at how many people forget that at some point in their family's past someone was an immigrant and that often they were "illegal" or at least undocumented. Further, if todays standards for immigrantion had been in place for the last 200 years--almost all immigrants would be judged "illegal."



Re: Illegal people are created by God
by Anonymous on Monday, March 06 @ 11:25:54 PST
Marolt doesn't know what he's talking about. For an example, he completely fails to understand (or state) the massive downsides of remittances [immref.com]. If I had all day I could correct all the other misunderstandings and logical fallacies in the article. Unfortunately I don't, but the reader who wants to know what's really going on should visit the above site as well as this [lonewacko.com].

This article no surprise from a community that counts kenny lay as a homeowner. THe entire valley up there is worked by illegals and those shucking them. This is the where the american elite cooked up the scheme to import illegals(internationally) and sell your job to the lowest bidder.

Aspent where the affluent meet the effluent.

and his point is what? cockroaches are created by GOd too.