So, here's an article

[conuly]

This town in Nebraska is voting on whether or not it should be legal to hire illegal immigrants.

Now, there's a lot of racist commentary in the articles, and the comments are beyond help as always.

However, I do think that if you think taking a stand against illegal immigration is something that needs to be done (I tend to think that immigration has been going on a very, very long time and that the nation hasn't collapsed yet), this is the thing to do.

People aren't coming to the US illegally for fun, okay? They're not waking up and going "You know what? I see entirely too much of my family. I don't even LIKE my kids! I'm going to leave my home, make a dangerous and costly trip into another country where they don't even speak my language and where I'll be distrusted just for being me, and work long hours there while constantly worrying about being deported. JUST TO SCREW OVER THE AMERICAN WORKER."

They're not! Who does that?

No, instead they're doing all that and sending money home because they figure they can support their families better here than there.

Are they "stealing jobs from Americans"? Maybe? I don't know. But if they are, it's not really their fault. The blame lies on the people who knowingly hire illegal immigrants because they can take advantage of them, because they can get them to work longer hours for less money, because they can get away with ignoring basic safety measures since illegal immigrants, even if they KNOW better, aren't in any position to complain!

Out of the many, many people involved in this travesty, why do we say that the people at the BOTTOM of the chain, the people who are the ones getting hurt by this are the criminals? Clearly, the blame lies with the people who think it's cheaper to do this than to provide a safe and humane working environment for a decent wage.

Incidentally, I hear this said a lot, that illegal immigrants don't pay taxes. That's absolutely untrue. Many of them do pay taxes, thank you very much, and you can Google about it if you like. (Of course, the people hiring them also pay taxes... but funny thing, their taxes keep getting cut. And they're rich already!)

Comments

[leora.livejournal.com]

I personally have a difficulty reconciling the idea of rejecting immigrants and claiming to be the United States of America. The Statue of Liberty and the creation of a nation out of immigrants is an inherent part of what the US ~is~ to me. To reject that is to reject America itself. This is partly emotional, and I know that. But I just can't get past the whole - but that's just fundamentally unAmerican. I can sort of see why some countries might limit immigration, but I don't see how the US can do so without destroying its own national character. Maybe we don't want to be what we were. I guess. But then we need to do something about the Statue of Liberty.

[conuly]

Oh, people have been trying to reject immigrants for well over a hundred years. It's never worked, of course.

[cumaeansibyl.livejournal.com]

Wait, what? I thought it was illegal already! Hiring illegal immigrants, I mean. Isn't that a federal crime?

I don't know about the renting part, because I'm not sure, legally speaking, whether one can enter into a contract such that the fulfillment of that contract aids one party in the commission of a crime. Enabling an illegal immigrant to establish residence doesn't seem like a very good idea.

[leora.livejournal.com]

I know that... just as I know that the US was founded partly by people who came seeking religious oppression. They just wanted to be the oppressors, which is what they started doing.

But the US claims to have principles. And I think it's okay to not always live up to your principles. It's good to have really fantastic principles and sometimes fall short, but to keep striving for them. I think that's better than totally throwing away your principles and giving up.

The US was founded by religious bigots, tobacco farmers, and debters... and some miscellaneous others... but sometimes I like to pretend that they had noble ideals. We teach that they did. We act like they did... sometimes. Can't we pretend that the US has noble principles and hasn't always been full of hypocrisy and oppression?

[ancarett]

I would much rather that, in all those attacks on the horrors of illegal immigrants, the authorities cracked down on the people who profited handsomely from their plight -- the employers who fake their SS IDs (or arrange for the same), the landlords who charge outrageously because they have no safe recourse and so on.

Gah! Those "fine, upstanding citizens" are anything but!

[lakidaa.livejournal.com]

I was just about to post this.

Drop the hammer on the guys doing this; don't punish the immigrants even more.

[rainbow-goddess.livejournal.com]

I don't think that anyone is "stealing" any jobs from anyone else. The way I understand it, immigrants -- both legal and illegal -- are taking jobs that most other people will not do. The illegal immigrants are taking the lowest-paying jobs, the pays-under-the-table jobs, the pays-less-than-minimum-wage jobs. They're taking jobs that most other people would not take because they are DESPERATE. They don't dare report that they're being paid slave wages and working in horrific conditions because of their illegal status, so the "employers" are getting away with it.

[conuly]

Wait, what? I thought it was illegal already! Hiring illegal immigrants, I mean. Isn't that a federal crime?

Maybe they intend to actually punish them for a change.

[ksol1460.livejournal.com]

[conuly]

I've been saying that for a long time.

[conuly]

True. It's like "the government steals money!" - no, taxes (your patriotic duty!) are how you pay for services rendered.

[conuly]

Classic, right up there with the XKCD in Cherokee.