Throwdown: 34 immigration questions for the left to consider

[Jeanfromfillmore]

Throwdown: 34 immigration questions for the left to consider
The immigration problem in this country is growing worse every day. There are a few brave souls like Tom Tancredo who carry the banner on this issue. But mostly there is silence. Those who speak of it are generally reviled and, more often than not, shouted down when they try to talk about it with the public. Is this America? The inmates are running the asylum, my friends. I'd like to hear what our resident liberal has to say in response to the following questions:
Should American borders be enforced?
Is it racist to love your country above all others?
Should English be the official language of the U.S.?
Should illegal aliens have more rights than Border Patrol agents?
Should business owners be prosecuted for hiring illegal aliens?
Should a Mexican citizen here illegally have the right to sue Americans if he is injured while he is committing a crime?
Should illegal aliens get free medical care?
Should babies born to illegal aliens be citizens of the United States if they are born on U.S. soil?
There are 20 million illegal aliens here now. How many is too many? Do you think there should be a limit?
Do you believe illegal aliens should be able to vote?
Do you believe the Democrat Party is purposely allowing illegal aliens into this country so they can vote for Democrats?
As someone of Mexican heritage, does that influence how you think about illegal aliens of Mexican descent? How so?
Is there a right way to go about immigration or is getting into the country any way you can fair in your mind?
Do our open borders invite terrorists and drug traffickers?
Are we committing national suicide in the name of tolerance?
Does it bother you that illegals with bogus papers take jobs from those here legally?
Does it bother you that more than half of the cocaine brought into this country comes through our border with Mexico?
Does it bother you that the Mexican military often escorts drug mules into the U.S. and fires on our border agents?
Do you believe in sanctuary cities?
If illegal aliens are caught should they be deported or given a cash prize?
Should the children of illegal aliens be allowed to pay in-state tuition for college?
Should illegal aliens be allowed to get a driver's license?
Should we bankrupt our hospitals so we can feel compassionate?
Should we bankrupt our schools so we can feel compassionate?
Does it bother you that illegal aliens often get better medical care for free than you, the taxpayer?
Should American tax dollars be used to subsidize Mexico's poor?
Should the Mexican government be held accountable for exporting their poverty to the United States?
Up to a third of the prisoners in our jails are illegal aliens. Should they be jailed in America?
Is it possible to admire an illegal alien personally and still want him deported?
If we raised the minimum wage would the poorest Americans pick the crops? Should those here illegally be granted amnesty? If so, why?
Should people receiving taxpayer-funded benefits have to prove they are a U.S. citizen?
• Tom Schlegel is an award-winning screenwriter living in Salinas. He writes the conservative perspective for Throwdown on the first and third Saturday of each month. E-mail: BarSchleg@aol.com
Cheap labor is too profitable for U.S. to give up
Solutions begin with questions, but Schlegel veils his fears with them, presenting false choices, making us tease out facts — another American shunning hard work.
Yes, our borders should NOT allow drugs, guns, cartels, terrorists or undocumented people in. Nor let corrupt Mexican soldiers threaten and shoot border patrols and aid trafficking.
But hate should not be directed toward immigrants. To pick on society's most vulnerable is cowardly.
We're an immigrant nation. Travel the world. You'll recognize America. We are a hodgepodge of "Elsewhere."
Latino migrants aren't the problem. In fact, toward the quality of life in America, they've been the solution.
Things produced here with foreign labor cost less. From strawberries to stir-fry to suburbs, goods are cheaper because of them. "Cheap" rules. It's economics. And mathematically, undocumented workers are a net gain. They produce and pay taxes more than they draw services.
Yet, like slave owners, immigrant bashers demand "cheap" but reject the humanity that provides it. They don't want to educate the children of laborers, or provide humane relief from illness. Just like slave owners: "If you breed, don't expect us to offer your kids any more opportunity than to fill your shoes when you're dead. Otherwise, who'll pick when we've used you to the bone?" They dehumanize immigrants like Nazis dehumanized the Jews. Easier to harm them. Don't like immigrants? Get your savings. Burn half. That's what you'd have left without foreign labor. Grab your iPhone. Smash it. Go home. Bulldoze it. That's what you'd have without foreign labor. Foreign labor — legal or illegal — exists because Americans depend on it and the Mexican elite get paid to perpetuate it.
But, there's a larger truth that makes immigrant bashing folly. No matter the barrier, people find a way to migrate, or die trying.
Humans have been migrating for a million years. From Africa, we dispersed across oceans and straits, using our ability to adapt. It's why we look, talk, eat, commune, dress and worship differently. But we're genetically linked. Biologically the same. Our differences merely habitat-shaped. Advantage: humans.
Shamu can't survive release, but Shamshur can survive Mumbai to Monterey. And since Shamshur and O'Shea are familiars, Mutton Masala is what happens. Integration is a historic and human fact.
However, humans change only when stressed. Reluctantly, we change habits. And if unsuccessful, homelands.
Ask yourself: Why are you (still) in Salinas?
America's inmigrants are reluctant sojourners; Mexicans don't want to live here any more than Americans want to live in Mexico. But for now, some come and will. It's human instinct.
America's choice concerns proper integration and whether we optimize it for future gain. Gangs, violence, etc. — those aren't cultural traits. They're socio-economically derived; it reflects how we integrate and educate.
Meantime, consider this: We can spend billions fixing countries abroad for security, but not fix inmigrant integration and the failed country of Mexico, whose volatility affects us through drugs, lawlessness, inmigration, cartel violence and lost trade.
My guess is cheap labor, like slave labor, is just too profitable to surrender. Maybe it's time for a modern-day Lincoln to free us all from our current economic bondage.
• Ben Soriano is an Alisal High School and Williams College graduate. He writes the liberal perspective for Throwdown twice monthly. E-mail to: bensoriano@gmail.com. Online: