Immigration and Strongly Worded Politics Equals Disaster

PCO USCIS.GOV

Quite some time ago I wrote a piece on Hazelton, PA and Farmers Branch, TX with its enforcement of punishing landlords and employers who cater to illegal immigrants. On paper the idea is a disaster and in practice it kills local economies. The proof is in the latest report from the New York times on communities that adopted strongly worded local laws that forced the law not on the illegal immigrants but the people that might provide housing or employment to them.

Well the plan to kick out all the illegal immigrants worked and they moved out. Job well done to any local government that took this hard line stance or should I say you get what you enacted! So why are all those mom and pop shops downtown closing? Might it be that the townspeople fired some of their largest customers? Could it be that the same people that were buying in their shops every day as community members were forcibly evicted. Mega DUH!

Towns Rethink Laws Against Illegal Immigrants

By KEN BELSON and JILL P. CAPUZZO
Published: September 26, 2007

RIVERSIDE, N.J., Sept. 25 — A little more than a year ago, the Township Committee in this faded factory town became the first municipality in New Jersey to enact legislation penalizing anyone who employed or rented to an illegal immigrant.

Within months, hundreds, if not thousands, of recent immigrants from Brazil and other Latin American countries had fled. The noise, crowding and traffic that had accompanied their arrival over the past decade abated.

The law had worked. Perhaps, some said, too well.

With the departure of so many people, the local economy suffered. Hair salons, restaurants and corner shops that catered to the immigrants saw business plummet; several closed. Once-boarded-up storefronts downtown were boarded up again.

Meanwhile, the town was hit with two lawsuits challenging the law. Legal bills began to pile up, straining the town’s already tight budget. Suddenly, many people — including some who originally favored the law — started having second thoughts.

So last week, the town rescinded the ordinance, joining a small but growing list of municipalities nationwide that have begun rethinking such laws as their legal and economic consequences have become clearer.

“I don’t think people knew there would be such an economic burden,” said Mayor George Conard, who voted for the original ordinance. “A lot of people did not look three years out.” - New York Times

What kills me about this story is the simple fact that this is a FEDERAL GOVERNMENT problem! Local communities can enact any law they want against illegal aliens but in the same sense the community they live in will pay the price for economics 101 lessons of the local government politicians.

Illegal and legal immigrants live in one community and for the most part are peaceful participants in the world they live. Extremist will label every immigrant a terrorist and all of them are to blame for your lot in life. Wake the hell up people and look in the damn mirror. They are us! The only difference is time.

I tend to find it humorous that towns that kicked out the illegal immigrants are now boarding up their businesses. When the people that wanted them out made it illegal for them to be there the illegal aliens and legal immigrants sort of voted with their feet and immigrated out.

Board up the car parts store, poor people like new immigrants and illegal immigrants prefer to fix the old Chevy. Board up the local corner store that sold bread and milk into the wee hours of the morning because the new immigrants and illegal immigrants work long hours into the night. Board up the local shops that cater to ethnic foods and a touch of back home for legal and illegal immigrants. Coffee shops, board them up too! Jose and Miguel don’t live here any more who used to stop in every single day for a quick bite to eat and a coffee. The trickle down gets worse.

Now that all them pesky illegal immigrants are gone we don’t need those five extra cops that used to stop at the coffee shop on their breaks. Ten of the teachers at the local school can be let go because the kids are no longer there. Close up one or two of the fire stations because the need is obviously no longer there. Realty companies can start laying off sales staff because there is nobody buying the houses at the lower end of the market. No lower end market house sales means new houses will start to fade in need. Carpenters can’t find work. Over at the supermarket they can lay off many of the stores shelf stockers because the food is just not moving anymore. You get the idea.

America needs an immigration policy that is feasible and will be adaptable to the illegal aliens that are already here. This should not be the responsibility of any local communities or for that matter the states problem. This issue and the failure to fix it rests with the current President, his predecessors and those that wish to follow him in the next election.

Immigration can never be a NIMBY policy simply because they, the immigrants, legal or illegal are a large part of the economy. Thirty communities have proven this point and now they are closing down main street. Many communities will rescind the laws passed only to find that the immigrants no longer wish to be a part of that community. I know I would not!

Papamoka

Cross posted at Bring It ON!

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Census Bureau Cancels Deportation in 2010

Logo courtesy of U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Services

Counting of the people every ten years is one hell of a tough job and I can understand the dilemma of the Census Bureau when counting illegal immigrants to America. Their job is in fact to count all of the people regardless of citizenship or legality of that residency requirement.

As liberal and blue state blooded that I am I find it ridiculous for the Census Bureau to request that immigration enforcement agencies stop deportation of illegal aliens for any time period. Any person that works with numbers on a daily basis knows that if you deliberately take out any part of the equation it will skew the results that the experiment is looking to study. Stopping the legal government deportation of illegal aliens would make the next census useless.

That is where the hairs on the back of my neck go up and low and behold that same request would feed into the hands of the political philosophy that immigrants are a pox on America. Making illegal immigrants look like an invasion on our shores would feed into what political machine in 2012?

Immigrants are a constant in the American population whether you like it or not. Stopping the deportation process for any reason serves only one purpose and that is to make all immigrants, legal or illegal a political weapon for political parties to stand against.

Over at the Chicago Tribune they have this to say about the request to stop deportation in 2010...

Census Bureau Wants to Halt 2010 Raids
By STEPHEN OHLEMACHER
Associated Press Writer
6:45 PM CDT, August 16, 2007

WASHINGTON - The Census Bureau wants immigration agents to suspend enforcement raids during the 2010 census so the government can better count illegal immigrants.

Raids during the population count would make an already distrustful group even less likely to cooperate with government workers who are supposed to include them, the Census Bureau's second-ranking official said in an Associated Press interview.

Deputy Director Preston Jay Waite said immigration enforcement officials did not conduct raids for several months before and after the 2000 census. But today's political climate is even more volatile on the issue of illegal immigration.

Snip - A - Roooooo

Arturo Vargas, executive director of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, said the intense debate over immigration has made immigrants even more suspicious of the government today.

"The Census Bureau has a job to do," said Vargas, who belongs to a committee that advises the bureau on the 2010 census. "They need to convince people that they need to report themselves to the federal government and that it's going to remain confidential. That's a hard sell."

Supporters of stricter immigration laws said the whole discussion of suspending raids shows that the immigration system is broken.

"If you don't enforce your laws, this is what you are going to get, one agency asking another agency to subvert the law," said Steven Camarota of the Center for Immigration Studies, which advocates stricter enforcement of immigration laws. - Chicago Tribune

I’m guessing that this is just a political chess game that will play out a couple of years down the road in the race for president in 2012. You have to really think long term when it comes to issues like immigration. Both political parties are fighting the procedures and laws required to fix it so who is up to this latest strategy? That is an answer I don’t have. Just something for you to tuck away in the back of your mind to think about a few years from now.

Same paper and the same article…

One lawmaker said she thinks "it's nuts" for the Census Bureau to ask for a break in enforcement.

"I don't know what country the Census Bureau is living in," Rep. Candice Miller, R-Mich., said in a telephone interview from her district. "I can tell them the American people have grown sick and tired of their immigration laws not being enforced. They are not going to tolerate enforcement being suspended for any amount of time."

The Constitution requires the Census Bureau to count everyone, including illegal immigrants, in the census. The once-a-decade population count is then used to apportion seats in Congress and to appropriate billions of dollars in federal spending each year.

Miller has introduced a constitutional amendment that would apportion seats in Congress based only on the number of U.S. citizens in each state. - Chicago Tribune

One question regarding this latest point in the article and this Congressional Members outrage, isn’t the Census Bureau under the Bush administration? Could this be micro managing by President Cheney… I mean Bush on forwarding the agenda of promoting the party politic?

I for one do not trust any lawmakers that want a Constitutional Amendment change when we have a perfectly good Congress and Senate at our disposal. What the hell is she so afraid of?

Immigrants are coming to our shores from every single nation around the world and changing our Constitution is not the answer. Changing the laws regarding immigration so that it works is the only answer.

My wife forwarded me an email recently that talked about the trials in life in comparison to boiling water that is our daily lives and what is put into it. Carrots in boiling water become soft and change to suit the temperature of the water. Eggs become hard when boiled and loose the ability to change forever other than a solid. Coffee beans however change the boiling water around them to become something for all to enjoy. That my friends is the melting pot that is America. Those of us that fear change the most are the people and leaders to fear the most.

Papamoka

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TRY, TRY AGAIN: THE GOLD-PLATED TURD OF “IMMIGRATION REFORM”

Picture courtesy of WelcometoUSA.gov

This post is courtesy of my good friend Michael Linn Jones. I have to say that he has swayed my opinion with his logic and articulate dissertation when it comes to the immigration issues here in America.

TRY, TRY AGAIN: THE GOLD-PLATED TURD OF “IMMIGRATION REFORM”

By: Michael Linn Jones

A long time ago, the impressionist David Frye came out with an album that poked fun at almost all the contemporary political figures. In one segment, a man is describing Richard Nixon’s decision to run for the presidency in 1968.
“He ignored the critics; he ignored the polls; he ignored the wishes of the American People.”

And so might be said about the latest moves by the U.S. Senate to breathe new life into a mockery of democracy. Combining “compassionate conservatism” with liberal dysfunctionality, the “immigration reform bill” is coming back for a second bite of the apple.

In plain English, where there’s a will there’s a way. Particularly when it comes to the U.S. Congress. President Bush threw a $4 billion bone to the wolves by applying it to border security. That’s easy to do since it, too, can be ignored as it has been since 1986.

Harry Reid is going to use some procedures that boil down to this: the bill is going to pass the Senate, and rumors abound that any unpalatable amendments (at least to proponents of amnesty) will be removed before it reaches the House for conference.
Considering the methods used, I would deem the legislation the “Suppository Act of 2007″ since every citizen and legal resident is going to get it whether they like it or not. It is felt that the “little people” enraged by this betrayal of the principle of obeying the law will be forgotten within six months.

To paraphrase Lincoln, you can screw all the people some of the time; some of the people all of the time, but not all of the people all of the time. This might be considered screwing most of the people for ALL time.

It has been said that George W. Bush doesn’t have to run for another election in his life so he is free to do whatever he feels is right, or expedient. Senators have six year terms, so each one weighs the negatives of an unpopular vote against the odds that the electorate will forget 4 or 5 years from now. Representatives, however, have to face the music every 2 years, and are far more sensitive to what their constituents say.

This may be politics, and it may be reality, but on a subject as critical to the future of this nation, could not these people look upon this whole thing with a bit of honesty? It’s a sham; not only a sham but an insult to anyone’s intelligence to say that the borders cannot POSSIBLY be secured unless amnesty is granted first.
What we are being told is that we need to renew the 1986 legislation, with the same false promises, and while we’re at it, grant another amnesty. So, it can be safely concluded that this entire exercise is for that one purpose, and everything else is just window dressing.

Some time ago I got into it with some rather conservative folks about the term “slow bleed,” referring to the Democrats’ Iraq War strategy. Now I can see that the term is appropriate; not in reference to the Iraq War, but to life here in the U.S.

Whether a person is killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq, or killed by a drunk driver who just happens to be here illegally (and after having been deported numerous times in many cases), that person is still dead. Or maimed for life. It is happening every single day in this country, but like a low-grade fever never makes the headlines because the statistics are boring.

So, whether you put a loved one in the ground or watch them go through years of recovery, you are living through the “slow bleed” strategy of Washington politicians, regardless of their party. It is the consequence of total indifference to the welfare of the citizens of the United States. It is malignant negligence through opportunism.

Paint it any color you want, but that immigration bill is a turd and will always smell like one. And those who vote for it may retain its odor longer than the memories of the voters.

Michael Linn Jones

MLJ was a featured Blog Talk Radio guest over at Political Vindication on this issue.