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An American Story
An early knock on the door usually means trouble. Today was
no exception. At my door were Ruth, Cesar and their son Danny. Their story:
Cesar is from Cuenca Ecuador. He came to the US illegally in
1998. His mother pledged her house to Coyotes for the ‘fee’ required to get
Cesar to US soil. That fee was
$8,000 plus interest at 10%. The
Coyotes delivered Cesar to Brownsville, Texas where he took a Greyhound bus to
NYC and finally he made it to his new home in Ossining NY.
Cesar was a hard working guy who had skills. He knew cement
and stone and he would dig holes with a shovel all day long. He worked six days
a week and paid off the Coyotes in just two years. There was plenty of work, no one cared much about illegal
aliens back then. Housing was easy to find. There were hundreds of illegals
arriving in Ossining and life was good.
Cesar had a wife, Ruth, in Cuenca. They had a daughter. In
2001 the process with the Coyotes was repeated. But the outcome was not as
good. Ruth was raped and abused on her trip to America. She spent several days
in an airless panel truck as it crossed Mexico. She thought she would die. She
was dumped at the US border, promptly caught by the Border Patrol and arrested.
In those days the policy was to release illegals that were not Mexicans. There
was no money to pay for a return flight to Ecuador. Ultimately she made it to
Ossining. I don’t think anyone fully recovers from an experience like that. Her
greatest pain was that she had to leave her daughter with the grandmother. She
has not seen this child for ten years.
Ruth got work and this couple did what many illegals did.
They got remarried in the Catholic Church and had a child. Their son Danny was born in the US and
therefore had automatic citizenship. The belief by the parents was that they
would be protected from deportation if they had a child who was a US citizen.
The re-marriage was a desperate attempt to prove that that they belonged here.
They got an official document, a wedding license from Westchester County. The only papers they had.
Ruth and Cesar worked for me. I don’t like this process but
it was very hard to find workers who could do the work that I needed. In an
effort to make this right I hired a lawyer for Ruth. I sponsored her to be
legal. I paid her wages and the taxes she would have been responsible for. She was officially in the Immigration
system five years ago. There have been no green cards issued for any of the
thousands of applicants. The process was an expensive waste of time. We tried
and failed to do the right thing.
Danny is a normal American boy. He speaks English perfectly.
He goes to the local public school and is a good student. He plays little
league and loves basketball. He does not play soccer. He wants to succeed at
American sports. He has never seen his sister. He can’t talk with her on the
phone because he has refused to learn Spanish.
Everything collapsed for this family in 2008. Unemployment
for illegals went from 0 to 50% in the course of months. They had stopped
working for me long ago. Their car was repossessed; they were behind in the
rent. They had gone through their savings from the good years. There was no
more money for food. To make matters worse the legal system was closing in on
them. The police were harassing them wherever they went. Employers were no longer hiring any illegals.
So they came to me this morning for help. They wanted two
things. They wanted the money for a plane ticket back to Ecuador for Ruth and
Cesar. They wanted me to take Danny and raise him until he was an adult. They were prepared to give up their son so that he would have a shot. I gave
them money for three tickets. I could not take Danny. It damn near broke my
heart to say no.
I know that there are many who will read this story and say,
“Good, they should not have been here in the first place”. And those people are
right. But the fact is that America is culpable in this disaster. We let this
Diaspora happen. It was not an accident that 10,000 people crossed our border
illegally every day for years.
The Cesars, Ruths and Dannys are leaving. In the general
area that I live the illegal population has been reduced by 40% over the
past eighteen months. That is the recession. For these people it has been a
depression. Cesar said before he left, “There is no opportunity in America any
more.” Maybe he is right.
The muse of this is that all of this happened because of easy credit. All that construction was from hot money. There were not enough workers as a result. But where there are jobs, people will come. Even from far away places like Cuenca.
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A crisis of the system generally means that a tooth of a vital gear on the bycycle breaks and you have to either push your bike for the next thousand miles, or you come to a bycycle repair shop in a land that no longer exists, or abandon the bicycle to the ditch. At least four billion of us are superfluous. We are the unhappy exudate of a century of fun. The fun has just broke.
isn't ZH a study in risk management?
wasn't their choice to enter this *market* a gamble? the emotional responses from this audience are interesting and often surprising.
any way you look at it, bruce sounds like a good man, and this story isn't fun for anyone. as the rules stand, the results aren't surprising.
similarly, the rules of this market are equally broken, and we flock to ZH to find an angle on the chaos. i fear many of our stories will end in a similar way, in spite of our attempts to "do the right thing". we don't belong in this market, and we will be similarly expelled.
i hope we get tickets home.
From the perspective of one that spent a portion of my career at DOJ to say the process to legally come to or stay in the US is broken may well be the understatement of the year. The whole system is another reflection of any system we see today that stands abreast of a major crossroads of commerce. In this case, human commerce. This crossroads is so potent because of its power to further fractionalize society and empower those who make their living doing so. A fine way to redirect attention away from the foundational issues that confront us like how to deal with those failures that control these crossroads of commerce...
Thanks Bruce.
This is a story of hope from my unemployed point of view. Thank god these people are going home! Maybe we can start hiring Americans again. Good riddance.
Funny that they didn't want their anchor baby once they decided to go back to Ecuador.
Danny had a 47.83% chance of joining a Hispanic gang in the next 10 years. Danny would have joined a mini-army of 13-33 years old Hispanic Gangsters that routinely deal drugs, rape, kill, torture, assassinate, go to prison, knock up teen Hispanic girls, achieve 8th grade reading levels, fail to graduate, get tatooed, get into knife fights, act as drug mules, extort money from Hispanic businesses, fund La Raza, attack Western culture via Hispanic Spray paint, waste enormous amounts of precious spending money on Rims-Car parts for their Gangsta-wheels.
Danny doesn't have a future in America. He shouldn't have been let in to begin with. In 1965, Chosen Ones from the State of Florida... afraid that the coming Arab-Israeli wars would dump a couple of million of their fellow Chosen Ones in the USA post-haste if the Arabs won, desired to wreck the USA for generations by importing people that would obviously live poor and leach off the wealth of the mostly Central-Northern European people that created the real capital of the USA over serveral generations.
Remember you import Mexicans, in 25 years your cities will begin to smell, look like Mexico with the beheadings and acid baths. Ask yourself, is cheap immigrant raped coyote-brokered labor Good for America?
Your donations to the Hispanic (Haitian,Jamaican as well) Repatriation fund are most welcome. Your children will thank you for it. Forget the Dannys, they are like the peat moss you hired them to lay down...
Danny had a 47.83% chance of joining a Hispanic gang in the next 10 years. Danny would have joined a mini-army of 13-33 years old Hispanic Gangsters that routinely deal drugs, rape, kill, torture, assassinate, go to prison, knock up teen Hispanic girls, achieve 8th grade reading levels, fail to graduate, get tatooed, get into knife fights, act as drug mules, extort money from Hispanic businesses, fund La Raza, attack Western culture via Hispanic Spray paint, waste enormous amounts of precious spending money on Rims-Car parts for their Gangsta-wheels.
Danny doesn't have a future in America. He shouldn't have been let in to begin with. In 1965, Chosen Ones from the State of Florida... afraid that the coming Arab-Israeli wars would dump a couple of million of their fellow Chosen Ones in the USA post-haste if the Arabs won, desired to wreck the USA for generations by importing people that would obviously live poor and leach off the wealth of the mostly Central-Northern European people that created the real capital of the USA over serveral generations.
Remember you import Mexicans, in 25 years your cities will begin to smell, look like Mexico with the beheadings and acid baths. Ask yourself, is cheap immigrant raped coyote-brokered labor Good for America?
Your donations to the Hispanic (Haitian,Jamaican as well) Repatriation fund are most welcome. Your children will thank you for it. Forget the Dannys, they are like the peat moss you hired them to lay down...
Wow, I'm overwhelmed with the White Guilt syndrome here on ZH. US CITIZENS have been the most generous contributors to the rest of the world and Cheeky Bastard can't hate this country enough. Pure Evil hits the nail on the head and so do many other posters on this thread so CB forget trying to run them off! IMO, Bruce's compassion for the Illegal Immigrants is commendable on a personal basis but not only has Bruce broken the law, his actions actually have harmed many of his fellow citizens as I'm sure his Illegal Employees (I assume he had more than 1) made full use of the Free Taxpayer services, Food stamps, Medical, Education + they likely attracted others from Ecuador to enter US illegally....so Bruce's final compassion was more like a pentence for his crimes, facillitating at a minimum stealing from Taxpayers and probably displacing Legal Jobseekers as well as possibly accessory to Rape or Murder...but that doesn't matter to Bruce or Cheeky Bastard as long as they can feel good about themselves and don't have any personal tragedies resulting from Illegal Immigrants. Go here and look at this catalogue of Ilegal Immigrant's Crimes: http://www.immigrationshumancost.org/
Maybe you will start waking up as the vast majority of your fellow citizens have...compassion should dictate that all illegals immigrants be strongly encouraged to leave this country peacefully because when push comes to shove, and it may be soon, American generosity will be spent and we will use FORCE to have our laws enforced!
Bruce has a good heart but wrong thinking, why wasn't child protective services called? It sounds like Danny is really at risk. Hey mister take my kid.. what if Danny ends up with creepy "good guy"? This is so wrong on so many levels.
It's a socialist system that makes every man a competitor for public facilities. All these disparaging comments about hard-working immigrants who don't happen to contribute to our oh-so-glorious tax system are mostly based on the unjust nature of redistributive policies and public services (the dole of welfare and public schools). End public schools, end welfare, and this "illegal" immigration is a victimless crime!
Painting all Latinos as child murders is not cool, Pure Evil; what about the illegal immigrant who saved the little white boy from exposure in the desert after an auto accident (http://www.kvoa.com/global/story.asp?s=7426719
)? What about the Italian mobsters or those horrific Irish from a century ago? You'd be one of those ranting about the "Chinks" and "Wops" luring our white women into their opium dens and restaurants. If you're so worried about a poor Mexican stealing your job, maybe you should work harder instead of insulting commentators.
If the government were not reducing our working poor into a permanent lumpen-proletariat underclass (as Uncle Sam has done with inner-city blacks) to serve as a base of support for the ruling elite, we would be welcoming immigration! Human labor + capital = better life for everyone! DUH! How can those who back free trade and free markets not apply the same elegant principles to the labor market - immigrants make a country richer (pursing our self-interest without infringing on the rights of another to do the same - the beauty of the free market and the non-coercion principle). Viva l'anarchismo!
If I understand you right, they broke the law, you broke the law, its our fault and when they asked you for help you gave them three tickets and sent an american to a third world country. Try to keep your guilt to yourself and remeber we live in the best country in the world
Sometimes there are only sad endings.
There is immigration and then there is illegal immigration.
While I don't know what I would do if I were in their situation, I do know that if we legal citizens didn't hire them they wouldn't be here.
For those like me who would never willfully employ an illegal I am still burdened with the cost because those- like you Bruce- hire these illegals. I have lived my entire life in a what is now considered a sanctuary city. My property taxes have double in the past five years. A large portion of that cost due to the influx on illegals into our school system and onto the county welfare rolls.
Sure It's a heart jerking story, yes the politicians are much to blame. Yet the ultimate blame lies with individual that hires these people for reasons, after you clear away all the bullshit is to save a buck which ends up spread among all.
There is no such thing as "legal immigration". Only by the luck of birth are you able to believe the way you do, have the lifestyle you do. Make immigration legal and the problem is solved. Something for you to comment on: What if by the luck birth you where born in, oh lets say, Honduras, you're poor and you are having a hard time feeding your family.... and day after day you see the men of your town going "north" and then within a few month those families of those men are enjoying full stomachs.... do you stay or do you go....?
I'll tell you quick story, one of my customers came from South America. You know how he got here? He walked.... He walked at night - do you know why he walked at night? Because "they" would have killed him. Something else for you to comment on: Would you have walked to get here?
DBL
NO. The fault lies ENTIRELY with the oligarchs who rule us. Period.
OMG...this is a major coup for ZH...Lou Dobb's joins us as Pure Evil...lmao
Since he is on probation at CNN, he has come here to spew his vitriol...welcome, just show some manners and respect or face the consequences of being a Newbie!
Yo Evil Pussycat, your frustration is understandable, but completely misplaced. An immigrant cutting the lawn for ten bucks an hour isn't the problem. Thousands living in tent cities, unemployed Americans, well Thank You to U.S. Citizens who work on Wall Street. Last time I checked no one jumped the border to get a job at Goldman trading Credit Default Swaps.
I am in Vegas. Called in dead this Friday. It was ether that or having a small nervous breakdown by the end of this month. This story is so damn good, I have to break away from my Vegas routine to write a comment.
I'll call this story the masterpiece. It's rather hard to write about this issue as objectively as you did. You didn't call names, just call everything the way it is and made us think rather than dumping some biased conclusion on us.
Loved it.
Bruce, please move on, you never know whether this child would be better off with you or his parents. Besides, often there is only so much we control.
p.s. There are still cranes in Vegas. Also older 4 star hotels while still clean are not maintained the way they used to. Those are turned into the cash flow cows with all of those little fees for things that used to be free. There are as many cars from other states as from CA, which is something new. My guess would be many people that were planning trips aboard redirected those to Vegas. Haven't heard many accents beyond mine which is unusual for a week dollar. So while it's a bad idea to find some relief in someone else flight, people around world suffer from this crisis as much or more than we are.
I wonder what has become of them now that they are in Ecuador and how they managed to get through airport security to get there?
If your story is true, it's likely they took your money and stiffed you for the tickets and have relocated to somewhere in America where employment can be found. It's very hard to think they would voluntarily leave the country just because they lost a job.
Besides, as a representative sample, if 40% of the reported 12 million illegals have indeed returned to their home countries, the economic impact to those areas would be dramatic.
"The total value of money transfers to Ecuador between October and December 2008 came in at $643.9 million, $181.7 million less than the amount registered in the fourth quarter of the previous year."
http://ecuador-rising.blogspot.com/2009/02/remittances-to-ecuador-down-2...
If they were really voluntarily leaving in droves then not only would the remittances continue to dry up, but the very people who once contributed would return as burdens to society (unless they packed all their belongings into suitcases) and yet the evidence is clear, on a macro level anyway, that this is not the case:
http://www.pro-ecuador.com/ecuador-economy.html
Good info on remittances. That number is down 25% from prior year. That probably reflect that the people working here were earning less in that quarter and sent less home. It might have been an indication that less new people were coming so the coyote money going back was smaller. It could be an indication of the reverse migration that I see. The real question is, "what will in be in the fourth quarter of 09?
You are right that this data is too small a base to draw any firm conclusions. I would be interested if anyone from other parts of the country have similar stories of people leaving. The tip off is rentals in the area where the lived. If you see empty houses that would be an answer.
Yeah I could be getting ripped off. I gave to Katrina victims too. We know that a lot of that money was wasted.
Bruce, I am 1st generation American. Back before my dad came to this country he gave an illegal immigrant a chance at considerable risk to himself and his family. There was a violent revolution in this country and my dad was on a hit list. It was the guy he helped who warned him in time to leave the country (with gold coins to bribe the border guards, for all you bugs out there :-)
My dad's thick accent and funny sounding last name cost him promotions and was just generally a liability in 80's Atlanta. So when I was a young kid we changed our last name to something as whitebread and apple pie as you can imagine. Between stories from my dad and his circle and my 1st generation friends, my life has been infused with stories of people i know who sacrificed so much to come to this country. The nuclear physicist who worked as a janitor, the man who worked odd jobs for decades whose son is now a skilled doctor, the refugee who witnessed unspeakable horrors.
So when I hear people talk broadly about "illegals" dispassionately I take it personally. They're talking about my family and my friends. And when I hear stories of kindness and altruism like yours I take it personally as well. The folks you helped could have easily been any one of my friends and family.
I'll wrap this with something from one of my Eastern European friends. His family used to do odd jobs for the Mafia because ironically enough it guaranteed the family's safety (everyone on the block knew who not to mess with). When they came here my friends dad constantly drilled into him that this is a country where if you play by the rules you can lead a peaceful life wanting for nothing. That was years ago...now their stories of struggle and survival in the Soviet Union sound more familiar than the America they told their son about a decade ago.
Some emotive comments here. That was not my intent. Illegal immigration is just that, illegal. It should not have happened. But it did.
What is the bigger crime, the illegal immigrants, or the banksters that have brought the country to its knees? You decide. Neither should have happened but they both did.
This was not a story about right and wrong. This is a story of where we are at. It is a terrible story. And there is no one better off because of the bad ending.
For those of you who think there was a legal way to get to this country, you are wrong. I tried that for five years and failed. There is no legal way to get here unless you have a college education and can write computer code. If you are limited to digging holes and pouring cement there is no legal option. We had the power to defeat the Axis of Evil but we could not put some troops on the border to stop the endless inflow? That was a choice. The decision was made. The consequences are what they are.
For those of you who thought I was a nice guy, some additional info. I was made Godfather to Danny. I thought that meant Christmas and birthday presents. But when push came to shove I had to let him down, so I bought some tickets instead. I will have to live with this for a long time.
there is a reason why you are Danny's Godfather Bruce...and you remain so, even though he's no longer as near as before.
Reply to Bruce Krastling in post #87537
You wrote:
For those of you who thought I was a nice guy, some additional info. I was made Godfather to Danny. I thought that meant Christmas and birthday presents. But when push came to shove I had to let him down, so I bought some tickets instead. I will have to live with this for a long time.
OK. You had more of an emotional connection with the family than originally expressed in the article. But you still did the right thing. The important thing was to keep the family together. Being a godfather is a support role, it's not being a surrogate father. What they were asking you to do would have been nice for them if you had seen your way clear to do it, but it wasn't necessary for you to do it, and it wasn't mandatory for you to do it.
You can still fulfill your role in this child's life by staying involved. Talk to him on the phone and let him know you're still interested in his progress, activities, etc... Ask him what is going on in his life. Send birthday cards. Just show interest that he exists and that he is alive. If he or his parents are angry with you because you didn't take him in, sorry, but that's their loss. I'm older than a lot of people that tend to post on this forum and I have a tendency to be pretty cut and dried about these things. When you get a little older, you realize that there aren't a whole lot of things in this world that are worth losing sleep over.
Anyway, you did nothing wrong. Don't lose any sleep over it. ;)
Ichi WTF ?
"talk to him on the phone" "send him birthday cards"
Hey, you forgot Facebook friends.
That was a major mistake not to keep Danny. Bruce should fly down to Ecuador and get the kid.
In the Catholic Church the only thing the Godfather pledges to do is to bring the child up in the faith if something happens to one or both parents. That is the cut and dried definition.
But in reading through the whole post, Bruce has feeling for this whole family, and there is really no reason why that connection should be lost.
I'm really appalled at the number of people who think that Latinos are just gang bangers who murder, rape, and pillage. Some of the posts on this thread are really over the top. jeez.
It's very humble of you to admit this. While I cannot comment on whether you made the right decision/choice or not, my respect for you just went up manifold. And although it deeply pains me to say this, but given what I think is going to happen in America in the near future, Ecuador might actually be a better/safer place for Danny. Think of it as a blessing in disguise.
Bruce, you can change your mind.
DBL
Godfather means you do what you can. You didn't cause the problem, and you can't control it, and you can't cure it. Every parent lets down every child sometimes. For instance, consider the movie "Renaissance Man"; the hero felt he had let down his children. Perhaps you can visit him in Ecuador. What an opportunity to learn! The story is not over yet, and probably has many important chapters ahead.
You did what you could, and that's that Bruce. Let it be. You did more than most would have. It is what it is. I ask you to show yourself the same compassion you showed them.
As I pointed out above the real heart of the matter can be summed in the question, "Cui bono?" It is not the citizens of this country, and is most certainly not the illegal immigrants. When the answer to who benefits is found you may be surprised to find that the issues of banksters and illegal immigration are not far removed from one another.
BTW, EXCELLENT job with helping them guys out. It just proves that we have no shortage of sensible and compassionate human beings who can take care of things after the animals that are the present day ruling elite have all been guillotined off.
GG, +1 on both comments.
Great story. May we all have such compassion. We may need it in the times ahead.
The irony of the immigration challenges: It it about the only hope for the SS/Medicair ponzi, and attempts reflate housing. Ponzi always requires fresh meat.
Thanks anon.
This is what "misallocation of resources" means in real terms.
Either the dream that is America dies, or Socialism does. It's either or.
Obviously it's the illegal's fault. They should get organized, maybe buy some east coast property from the natives. Then start killing off the natives. Maybe bring in some malaria, to decimate the local defenseless white population.
Then start expanding west, build some railroads, keep killing the natives in self-defense. The whiteys cant stand real liquor, give them free tequila to break them.
Maybe in 200 years they will keep all the natives confined to small locations, where they can celebrate among themselves with their green beers, red pizzas, white sauerkrauts and free tequila.
Were they starving in Ecuador? If not, then they were willing to risk losing a daughter, the rape of the wife, and a long and expensive journey for what? A nice house, a big screen TV and a pick-up truck?
Perhaps this economic crisis is a time when we all---from America to Ecuador---should reflect on what is important in life and what we might well be able to do without.
I am not particularly moved by this story. It is not because I have no heart, but perhaps I do have compassion fatigue. I am also quite familiar with the plight of the less fortunate. I gave up a lucrative WS trading career to start my own aid group, non-registered, non-denominational, non-political and non-tax deductible. I have spent millions of dollars from my own pocket and not taken a penny of donation from anyone. I am also anonymous because I prefer it that way, or as I believe St Paul said, "Those who speak of their own acts of generosity can expect no heavenly reward because they have already gotten it on Earth".
While I still do what I do, I harbor no more illusions about the nobility of the poor. I have been lied to too many times to count. I have been cheated. I have seen greed and abuse and self-centeredness that would make a Goldman Sachs partner blush. I've seen mothers sell their own daughters into prostitution just so they could buy a new dress or a cellphone (even though they don't know anyone else on this planet who has a phone) or just to be able to place a bet on a Manchester United football match. I've seen other mothers rent out their diseased children so that another young woman can use the "prop" as a means to beg and garner additional pity points.
The reason I keep at it is because I have become content with a two or three percent success rate, where someone's life is made better through education or robust health. I have come to learn that a "good life" is one where you are amongst friends and where you have the opportunity to challenge yourself to be just a little bit better at something, whether that something is football or playing the guitar or doing calculus or running a shop. I have also come to realize that a good life doesn't really require all the things for which Cesar and Ruth came to America, but which were repossessed when they lost their jobs. And I am not naive enough to think the only motivation of Cesar was to provide a good education for the children (since Danny wasn't even born at the time and the daughter was left behind). He was chasing material wealth, and at what price?
Given all of that, I have to stand on the side of the law.
thank you for sharing.
you make excellent points.
have also seen the dark side of the noble impoverished masses although i'm sure i have much less wealth than you (not that this makes us any different).
to many in Latin America, the sight of an American means one thing:
$$$ US
and many of them know every magic trick in the book to get them out of your wallet. and they're way better at it than even the hardcore hustlas in the inner cities of America.
remember Catholicism runs deep down there, so they have had many generations to ponder the concept of 'guilt' and twist it in so many different ways.
perhaps even Bruce will one day understand that there may have been also been an unspoken element in his story as well...that's for him to determine for himself in due time.
maybe the moral of this story is that it is just time to look at every individual person as a human being born with equal propensity for good and evil, equally subjected to such forces, rather than automatically labelling them based on our imperfect projections?
if so, you may wanna watch where you stand, for the line of the law may shift without you even realizing it.
just a thought.
Since someone else finally stated what I think is the obvious, I can add my two cents (which I tried to suggest in my comment) without feeling like I am spoiling the warm and fuzzy feeling:
Unless Bruce watched the three get on the plane and watched it take off, I am willing to bet Cesar and his family are still in the US. Two reasons:
1) In a post-9/11 world, the lack of documentation makes it next to impossible to board a flight, even domestic, much less international. The airline won't check you in, and TSA will want to have a long talk.
2) While I do not know Cesar's overall character, odds are someone in this position cashes the tickets, buys a pick-up truck, and went off to California or wherever. I'll bet a Goldman bonus that he's still a lot closer to Bruce than Quito.
Written by whom? The IDIOTS, THUGS and CRIMINALS in CONgress?
P.S.: I don't necessarily disagree with the rest of your comment.
wow what do you have to do to to get your wings clipped on this site? seriously, we've got bigger fish to fry. how are we going to save our asses when this train wreck meets its inevitable conclusion. I'm all for nostalgia, but right now I'm a little bit scared that Ecuador, or almost anywhere else could start looking safer than the USA. pure evil,chill, we are not the enemy. I'm pissed too, but not at you
Interesting story.
First, Bruce, a tip of the LS's Cap to you.You are to be commended for your humanity and compassion and your good Karma will be rewarded.
That having been said, I agree 1000% with every person in this thread expressing an opposition to immigration, both legal and illegal. In these parlous times, we cannot be the social safety-valve for every third world country on earth with poverty and employment problems.
Sure, "they just want to work" - but then so do many unemployed US Citizens who might be able to if they didn't have to compete with third-world labor arbitrage right here in their home country.
Fences alone won't do it - neither will a "nuanced" or "balanced" approach to immigration reform. The last time we tried that, we gave amnesty to 12 million illegals and opened the border to 12 million more.
The way to do this is simple. Amend the posse comitatus statutes and give the job of primary immigration enforcement to the Army. Make local LE enrollment in immigration control programs mandatory nationwide. Remove any constitutional protections for any person not lawfully allowed to be here. Denaturalize all "anchor babies" under age 18.
And the punishment for hiring illegals, even if it's just a nanny or gardener? Forfeiture of assets along with LOSS OF U.S. CITIZENSHIP or legal resident status.
Do you hire illegals in your business? If so, you'll be rendered "stateless" and deported along with your workforce...
Poetic justice to me...
KptLt. Laughing Swordfish
9er Unterseeboote Flotille
If so, then it is also time for America to give up its privilege of issuing the reserve currency of the world and stops sucking out the life out of the rest of the world. The present decimation of the America's and the world's economy is precisely due to frauds being perpetrated by the country in charge of the reserve currency.
anyone who has ever been to Latin America before 2008 and bought a gallon of petrol (sorry a liter) and then did the arithmetic can understand what Gordon's talking about.
or tried to buy a kilo of homegrown coffee.
or some homegrown fruit juice in the market.
wake up kiddees, time to stuff some homegrown reserve currency up our collective American buttholes.
Latin american countries are owned by a few families. The most expense cement, tortillas, internet, telephone in the world is in Mexico!
It's good that we do not have a border with Mars. Wonder how much those tickets would cost...
I've lived in Texas my whole life, and I would like to add my perspective here as we are somewhat of a nexus for this issue.
First and foremost, Illegals (mostly Mexicans) are some of the nicest, hard working, down to earth people you will ever meet. These people have more of the American spirit than most who are citizens, and that's the truth.
Bruce I thank you for your humanity, and thank goodness these folks had someone to turn to.
Let's clear one thing up real fast here though. Those folks shouldn't have been here, as you've admitted. We are long since past being able to accomodate huge waves of immigration without destabilization occuring, and that is exactly what has occured. There are good folks here in the US that have gotten screwed by illegal immigration. Illegal immigration has brought crime, cultural invasion, and poverty to communities. The list is long of US citizens, communities, and social services that have been abused by illegal immigration. Anger and a demand for change is justified.
US citizens and their communities are not the only victims here though. These good salt of the earth folks who just want a decent job to support their family have to dodge abuse at every turn. From your story Bruce that woman Ruth was raped on her way here, just to be with her husband. Undernourishment, deplorable housing, under the radar crime and abuse, fear of law enforcement, fear of deportation and family separation, under payment for services rendered, working conditions that wouldn't have been kosher by 19th century standards... This is what these people face, and worse. They too are victims.
So if the US citizens are victims, and the illegal immigrants are victims, who is the perpetrator? Who is the bad guy here? Not hard to find from this good 'ole boys perspective, the usual suspects. Business in collusion with government at all levels makes this victimization on both sides possible. This is just one big outsourcing game right here on our own damned soil.
Who would be hurt if you magically deported every illegal this very moment by teleportation. It ain't the lower and middle class I assure you. It's the restaurant owners, the factory operators, the big farmers, and many other businesses big and small.
This is one more example of the up and down issues that we as Americans face. Don't give me the left right partisan crap, that is a distraction. What we are dealing with is haves and have nots. The haves control everything including the Fed, the corporations, and the political parties. The haves screwed the good hard working American citizens and they screwed the illegals too. The laws don't apply to the super wealthy elite, and none are ever enforced that would jeopardize their state of having anything worth having.
Is this picture any clearer? Our government has been captured. The same damned people responsible for the greatest heist in America's history are responsible for victimization on both sides of the border.
hallelujah oroboros
The perpetrators are the businesses who overlook their status and the law enforcement that doesn't (want to) pursue them.
Secondly:
Ask yourself why Ramos and Compean aren't fully pardoned for doing their job.
The businesses and law enforcement, mayhaps, but it's bigger than that. Who owns the businesses? Who influences the government, and by extension law enforcement, to turn a blind eye to their citizens valid concerns and just enforcement of the law?
Cui bono? This is the question that cuts to the heart of all matters (be they illegal immigration, HFT, or any other concern). It is not the citizens of this country, or the illegal immigrants; obviously.