|
April 15, 2005
 Immigration
Becoming An Issue—Whether Politicians Like It Or Not
By
Joe Guzzardi
Just a few short years ago,
immigration reform activists were wondering how to
get our issue to resonate with the American public.
In the mid-1990s, when my
weekly column appeared in The Record
(Stockton, CA.), people wrote to ask me why I kept
harping on illegal immigration.
"It’s not that big of a deal,"
they claimed.
But, honestly, as I look back I am
amazed at how
prescient our small group of
skeptics was.
The most prominent leaders in the
immigration
reform movement—I won’t list them for fear of
omitting someone—have been hammering away since
Michelle Malkin, now among the most admired of us,
was in
junior high school.
We identified nearly twenty years
ago the problem that illegal immigration represented.
And we knew that, if ignored, illegal immigration would
mushroom into the
crisis that it has.
But our persistence paid off.
Illegal immigration is high on the list of
every concerned American. And for those who
understand how it is interwoven with our faltering
economy and collapsing schools, illegal immigration is
the number one social problem—by a wide margin.
Before the immigration reform
movement can take the next big step forward, we have to
persuade those who are on the fence—that significant
block of Americans who are uncomfortable with illegal
immigration but who fear charges of
racism or who somehow buy into the notion that
illegal immigration is a
victimless crime.
Fence sitters send me a lot of mail. Over the years,
I’ve accumulated substantial experience in dealing with
Doubting Thomases.
I’ve honed a particular approach
toward responding to their concerns that is a blend of
key hard facts and pointed questions back to the
doubter.
Whether I have convinced anyone or
not, I cannot say for certain. But I like to think that
I have planted the seeds of doubt.
Here are three FAQs that may help
you the next time your pressed to defend yourself.
1.
Inquiry:
"Why don’t
people like you have a
heart?"
"People like me," I explain,
"are fighting for people like you and your family."
The reality is that whether or not
the U.S. ever has a sensible immigration policy, my life
will remain unchanged.
I’m out of school, at the end of my
working career and set in my middle class lifestyle.
But that’s not the case for
everyone. Are you worried about your
kid’s education, rising
health care costs, the
weak job market and
urban sprawl?
If so, ask yourself how illegal
immigration ties in.
Everyone who comes to the U.S will
need either a
job or
social services. The last time I checked we were
short on those two commodities.
Unless you own a business and can
profit through worker exploitation, your life will
not be made better by continued unchecked immigration.
MY QUESTION: Each nation
must nurture its own citizens. Why should the U.S.
assume the role of caretaker to the world?
2. Inquiry:
"Doesn’t our
economy need immigrants?
They do
jobs Americans
will not."
You would think that this tedious
argument would be out of gas by now. But it isn’t.
To all who suggest that no harm is
done when aliens take jobs, I refer them to the
straightforward and outstanding work done by VDARE.COM’s
Edwin Rubenstein.
(Rubenstein’s work is based on the
Bureau of Labor Statistics Household Data.)
In November 2004, Rubenstein
introduced the
VDARE American Worker Displacement Index
Among the
VDAWDI findings are that, since January 2001,
immigrant job growth (up 14.3 percent) has exceeded
non-immigrant job growth (up 0.3 percent) by a factor of
more than 45. Immigrants, including illegal aliens, are
getting jobs; Americans aren’t.
The AFL –CIO says that
14 million Americans want a full-time job and can’t
find one. Among those 14 million are the officially
unemployed, people who have part time jobs but are
looking for full-time work and a category of people who
recently quit the official unemployment listing because
they gave up looking.
My QUESTION: And we need more
immigration?
3.
Inquiry: "Why
can’t you understand that they want to make a better
life for their
families?"
There are several answers to this.
One of them: while most illegal immigrants may come to
the US in search of a "better life," a
significant number pursue criminal paths.
You rarely hear about this in the
Establishment media. But (hooray for the internet!)
my friend and fellow VDARE.COM editor Brenda Walker
hosts an important website,
Immigrations Human Cost that features three
important subsections:
community turmoil, crime victims and
importing criminals.
Walker writes in detail about
crimes—many unreported—committed by
illegal aliens. This is must reading for anyone who
really thinks that
broken borders don’t make it as easy for
violent felons as it is for the God-fearing to enter
America.
Equally invaluable for those who
argue that "family values" must be respected is
the
website maintained by the Los Angeles County
District Attorney’s office.
Listed here are cop killers,
gang bangers and other lowlifes who
murder in America and then, as
Mexican nationals, flee south of the border where
they are protected by the
Mexican government.
MY QUESTION: If
illegal aliens just come to work, why are the
jails so full of them?
After twenty years of hard work by
the immigration reform community, push has hit shove.
We have a strong and powerful voice
in Congress.
In January, U.S. Representative
Tom Tancredo stated that at least
180 Congressmen oppose amnesty.
Accusing Bush of being beholden to
corporate interests and of "petulance,"
Tancredo promised "a hell of a battle" on any
legislation that smacks of amnesty.
Tancredo’s years of effort
persuading his once-Politically Correct Congressional
colleagues about the pitfalls of immigration should set
an example for the rest of us.
For those Americans who are still
dozing…WAKE UP!
Joe Guzzardi [email
him], an instructor in English at the Lodi
Adult School, has been writing a weekly newspaper column
since 1988. This column is exclusive to VDARE.COM. |
