The immigration issue is super-complicated and multi-faceted. My email wasn't intended to address all of them, it was simply meant to challenge some American's very simplistic beliefs about the immigration issue. Some Americans have these notions in their heads that "these people" sneak into the country and take, take, take. It's just not true. Like any other group of people, they give and take. There are advantages to having them here and disadvantages. Some Americans benefit more from their presence (businesses and people who can hire them cheaply) and some Americans are hurt by their presence (low-educated, low-skilled workers who would compete for SOME of those jobs). The reality is that immigration is a mixed bag of results.


Some of American's concerns are possibly based in reality:

fear of influx of cheap immigrant labor driving down wages, benefits and working conditions for everyone, including Americans
use of public services by the immigrants and their families
some of the immigrants also being dangerous criminals or terrorists
But, let's face it, some of the opposition is NOT based in reality, but on American's fears and ignorance (such as xenophobia and yes, even outright racism).



But all that my email was trying to say basically this: when the Europeons (our ancestors) illegally (or at least immorally) immigrated here, they were fucking pigs. They did everything wrong and immoral they possibly could--and it was the native population that suffered. And for the past 500 years, the future generations (including ours) of those immigrants haven't done squat to make amends. We haven't done squat to make amends to those who our nation enslaved and discriminated against either.



What I'm saying is: now that there's a group (Mexicans and other immigrants) that are also coming to these lands (but causing a lot less harm than our ancestors did), I don't believe we have a leg to stand on. What moral authority do we have to say, "Hey, you're here illegally," or "Hey, a small percentage of you are collecting food stamps--you're ripping us off!"? None, in my opinion. If we hadn't TOTALLY fucked over the people who were here originally, then maybe we'd have a right to complain--in my opinion, we don't. The cat's out of the bag. We can't come into this country like a pig rolling over the natives like fucking steamroller and then throw up fences (both literally and figuratively) once we're here. How hypocritical is that?



And then when you add the Mexican-American War into the mix, it's gets even more complicated. Only 150 years ago, the states that are now complaining about the most "illegal" immigrants (California, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Nevada and Utah--Texas was stolen previously) belonged to Mexico!!! President Polk made it publicly known that he wanted those territories. He sent a negotiator there to "buy" the lands. When the Mexican government refused, the United States government stole all of that property through an "illegal" war!



So if you know your history, it seems absurd for we descendents of European countries to claim these lands as ours! If you're upset with some "illegals" sliding under a fence to get into a land that rightfully belonged to their descendants, then you should really have a much bigger problem with all of the illegal things our country did to obtain these lands. It would be like us taking over half of Iraq, killing the natives, sending a bunch of white Americans to live there, created immigration laws, threw up fences and border patrols, then getting pissed when some of the Iraqis snuck into "our" land. Absurd!



And according to what I've read, most of the Mexicans are descendants of the pre-Columbus inhabitants--so they WERE here before us, so my comparison isn't as far off-base as you think:

http://people.colgate.edu/emulhare/CORE171/syllabus.html

http://www.a2zlanguages.com/Mexico/country_guide/mex_culture.htm



However, you were right about how Mexico handles illegal (and even legal) immigrants. I wasn't aware of this. Pretty frightening: http://www.centerforsecuritypolicy.org/index.jsp?section=papers&code=06-D_18 So, yes, it's also hypocritical for Mexicans to have the knee-jerk reaction calling Americans who oppose them as automatically racsists and xenophobes. The Mexican people are also to blame for not dealing with their corrupt governments. The nasty PRI party held sole power for 70 years (until 2000) and really fucked things up. So the Mexicans are also to blame because they couldn't get their political and economic shit together, so their citizens want to look for a better life. And the U.S. happens to be right next to them.



As far as the legal vs. illegal issue. I don't know as much about that. I'm assuming that it's just about impossible for a Mexican to both come here legally and be able to stay legally past their visa expiration date, not to mention the difficulty to obtain citizenship. And don't forget, what's driving the immigration is the ILLEGAL hiring by American employers. It's like drugs: going after the growers and transporters of the drugs is backasswards--you have to get at the root cause: the demand. American employers are creating the demand, the immigrants are providing the supply.



In a courtroom, a judge will not let a case go forward until the defendant can establish that he or she has been harmed somehow by the plantiff. If that standard were used with illegal immigration, would Americans who are against it have a case? Maybe or maybe not.


This guy argues that immigrants leave an economic surplus from their activities. He basically argues that illegal immigrants come here to work, generally are too young to need a lot of services like healthcare, so they don't cost American taxpayers much in services but contribute by paying taxes and into the Social Security fund:

http://www.juliansimon.com/writings/Immigration/CHAPTER5.txt

On the other hand, this guy argues that immigrants leave an economic deficit from their activities. While Mexicans do come here to work (and not to use U.S. social services), because of their low education and therefore low wages, they only pay about 28% of the taxes that an average American does, but that they use 46% of the tax-funded services that an average American uses:

http://www.cis.org/articles/2004/fiscalconclusion.html


So who really knows? I just want people to see the whole picture, not just a bumper sticker mentality. On a South Park episode, some humans from the future used a time machine to come to the present day. And these "aliens" worked cheap, resulting in a lowering of wages, layoffs, etc. for the townspeople. Part of what was so funny was the local yokels only had one response: "They took our jobs!" It was funny because it was clear that a more complex analysis of the situation was warranted, but the townspeople were either too stupid or mentally lazy to really understand the bigger, more complex picture. It's just easier to get mad, comically stomp around and yell, "They took our jobs!" I'm sorry, but when it comes to understanding the complexities of this issue, I think most Americans fit that model, too. So when someone sends me a simple-minded, one-sided email, I can't help it--I have to respond. It drives me crazy to think that most Americans go into the voting booth about 90% ignorant on every issue, and then make stupid decisions--like voting for Republicans. Yes, Republicans are generally TWICE as ignorant about major issues are as Democrats: http://www.pipa.org/OnlineReports/Iraq/IraqRealities_Oct04/IraqRealities%20Oct04%20rpt.pdf Scroll down to page 5 and look at the responses. It's very scary but kind of entertaining.


Anyway, thanks for challenging me. You forced me to take a more detailed look myself into this issue.



And again, sorry for the long email, but this is main hobby.



Steve