I can't look yet

I can't look at the details of this proposed immigration bill. The pieces that I hear about anger and disappoint me. I'll have to wait another few days to take a look.

Think what you want.....

Some laugh at me. Some might accuse me of being a xenophobe. Nothing could be further from the truth. My grandmother came to the United States from Portugal, legally. My in-laws came to the United States from Portugal, legally. They speak Portuguese and English as does my wife. Although Portuguese, I never had learned to speak it, but chose to learn it when I met my wife in college.

People who think that because someone has a differing opinion are "haters", try backing your argument with facts before casting labels.

Yesterday, May 1st 2007, legal and illegal immigrants marched in different parts of this country peacefully to oppose this nations immigration laws. I have a couple of problems with this:

1. The illegal immigrants marching are in fact here illegally. Whether it is because their visa ran out, or if they ran across the border, they are here illegally. Because of this, they are breaking the law, yet they have the nerve to march in our streets, and protest our laws as if they have some right or say to them. They do not. Yet our law enforcement, our government allows this behavior making illegal immigrants more brazen. Our government validates their behavior by allowing it.

Imagine if you will that I travelled to Mexico. Once there, I decided that I would stay for as long as I'd like. I would then try and find a job, and demand school tuition benefits, unemployment benefits and for the Mexican government to overlook the fact that I wasn't there legally. Next, because I didn't receive the benefits that I would like, I tried to form a rally of other illegal immigrants in Mexico to protest that I am not allowed these rights. Sounds crazy doesn't it?

2. The fact that illegal immigrants want a "path to citizenship" is ludicrous to me. Why you ask?
First and foremost, what about all of the people from different countries who are following our laws and doing the process legally? Providing a path to citizenship is rewarding people who have knowingly broken our laws. What message our we sending to people waiting to get in to the U.S.? We're essentially telling them to abandon the process, walk over, break our law, because that will be cheaper and easier and we will not punish you for it.

People don't seem to understand. I hear, "well they are doing the jobs that Americans don't want to do" and "they are paying taxes". Bologna. If an illegal is paying taxes, he is paying illegally through an illegal social security number. Now let's stipulate that an illegal is doing this. What kind of implications do you think that would cause the actual owner of that SSN number when he/she has a 3rd more income reported for the year? How effective is a SSN when multiple people are using it? You don't know who is opening what, whether that be a credit card, a home loan, etc. As for the jobs, illegals are working. Not all, but they are out there working.
Now the funny part to all of this to me is, leaving illegals to exist as they are is largely a Democrat idea. You might convince me that a percentage of independents (aka unenrolled) might back this as well, but for argument sake, this is a Democrat idea. For full disclosure, I belong to the "unenrolled (aka independent)" party. Now we all know that the Democrats are supposed to represent blue collar workers, the party of the "working" class. Now explain this to me. If a blue collar worker is making $10 per hour mowing lawns for a landscaping company. His/her employer has to pay unemployment to the state and possibly health benefits. That legal, blue collar United States citizen has to work many hours to make a living at that rate. Enter an illegal immigrant. The employer now is no longer required to pay unemployment to the state, benefits, or $10 per hour. Let's say they pay $6 per hour. The illegal immigrant wants to earn money, so he will work longer hours at the lower rate, knowing that the lower rate will get them the work. The employer has saved themselves thousands of dollars. That practice causes wages to be driven down for those jobs, not up. So each year as new legal citizens are entering into the work force, they are less likely to find work in the trades because of the above reasons. The employers margin is higher, but the hourly rate stays low as long as there is a way to pay someone a lower wage. So for unions who are largely Democrat voting groups, how does this benefit them? If a non-union contractor who hires illegals comes and bids at 30% less than a union contractor who may not, who do you think will win that bid?

Schools, hospital care, insurance, there are so many facets to the way illegal immigration is hurting our culture, I could type for days. I understand that people are looking for a better way of life. America does currently provide that. I am certain that many illegal immigrants are nice, hard-working, family loving people. But there are a finite amount of resources. My taxes and my parents taxes paid and pay for the services we use (i.e. hospitals, schools). Those facilities were built to service a certain population of people for a particular geographic area. Adding 30, 20 even 10 percent more of the anticipated people changes the way that service can be provided. A hospital built in the center of Beverly, MA. is meant to service far less people than a hospital build in the center of Chicago. Why? Because when each hospital was built it was planned to service a certain number of people, and a certain amount of tax payer and federal money was used to build it. If you have 30% more people using a service, but had no hand in paying for it, then it will not longer be able to work at the anticipated service level because that extra 30% was not figured into it's size .

Laugh at me if you will. In 20 years, our country will no longer be the same country where our parents raised us. It will have changed, because we allowed it to happen. By then it will be too late. Based in no fact, label me a racist or a xenophobe. That's what people do when they argue with emotion and without facts. It saddens me.