I have talked to a lot of people about the immigration protests over the last few days. Some were in favor of full amnesty, some were in favor of deportation. I still don't have a clear position here. The people making these decisions seem to be the elite Democrats and Republicans, and Greens and Libertarians have nearly the same positions. So I want to cover what I predict will actually happen, as well as a lot of the arguments.
This is very long, I ramble, and there aren't any citations. It covers a lot of Democratic talking points, and it also covers a few from the freeper crowd. The main focus is globalization. It's mostly about economics, although national security is also mentioned. Wanted to get it posted now and fix it up later if anyone reads it.
Today I'm outside, talking to a few of my fellow students.
One of them brings up the protests. He sees it as a black and white issue (his words). Mexicans broke US laws and are now demanding a full amnesty. This creates disrespect for the rule of law and forces other citizens to pay for a safety net for all of the Mexican immigrants. The state and federal government have large amounts of debt. He also brings up that Southeastern Asians and other immigrants do have to go through the regular immigration process.
Note, I know there are lots of other immigrants back in LA who are not legal, we talk for a while about the Chinese immigrants in LA. They are being used as slaves in places like the garment district, as prostitutes, whatever the gangs want them to do. The impression from everyone I talk to is that these protests are about amnesty for Mexican illegal immigrants.
My response is that they are de facto citizens now. During the Bush term there were many less raids than there were under Clinton. The freepers have a chart of this that I don't currently have the link for. And he says it's not right to uproot people who have lived here for many years and he doesn't agree with the HR 4437. People who live in California or other border states; felony charges for helping undocumented immigrants likely would apply to you and your friends. Unless you stop everyone on the street and ask for their papers. This isn't Soviet Russia. He still says that the illegal immigrants are criminals, but he doesn't want them to be punished the way other felons are.
The other kids I talk to up here are pro-amnesty, pro-may day. They support the protests. They talk about jobs Americans won't do. Teachers who teach everyone regardless of their documentation, kids who work at restaurants with Mexicans who don't have papers. Also, quite a few of them are Latin American immigrants themselves.
I recall my friends in Ventura who complain about Mexicans taking their jobs. For elites, this is win-win. Destroy the economies of Latin America with subsidized imports from free trade agreements. Profit from selling our crops to these countries. The poor farmers migrate here and can be paid under the table in wages that are much less than what citizens get. The service jobs that cannot be outsourced can be filled by foreign workers in the US for less money. The other citizens get to subsidize government services for the migrants, the elites can hide their money off shore.
I also bring up the CFR integration plan. This is tinfoil hat John Bircher conspiracy theory. All the evidence I see makes me think it is being implemented. Like I said in other diaries; the two major parties and the two minor parties are in favor of this. The only parties opposed are far right, basically neo-national socialist parties. I don't think this integration plan would get a majority vote of US citizens, and think elites in all parties are trying to secretly pass it. I'm confident enough to bet money on this.
I want to keep our Bill of Rights, things like free speech, right to bear arms, and privacy I see as mostly unique to the US. Also I prefer common law to the French civil law.
We also talk about other countries' immigration laws. Haiti-DR, Mexico and Central America, South Korea.
Freepers like Israel's border security, our immigrants aren't coming across with bombs tied to themselves, it's a bit different.
**
Now for the possible solutions.
I see quite a few. Allow everyone in the world to enter the US, legalise these 12 million, guest workers, do nothing, send out ICE and deport all the undocumented immigrants, or build the Great Wall of America.
Allowing everyone in the world to enter the US? When I was in Europe papers said: immigrants or safety net. We cannot afford developed country social services for 6 billion people. Wages would also decrease by large amounts. There are also many people in other counties that wish to destroy the US, kill Americans, etc. Yes, I know not everyone would come here, or could afford the trip, but many would.
Amnesty. It helps the 12 million immigrants that are already here to assimilate. They will get jobs that aren't paid only in cash. Businesses will be looking for 12 million more workers that can be deported if they complain so the issue will come up again in another decade. This appears to be positive overall for GDP, from Krugman, and workers here will be paid less or lose their jobs as new competition emerges.
Guest workers. The US tried this one already. The descendants of the guest workers eventually got citizenship. This is what is used by dictatorships like the Arabian states. It's like slavery except instead of buying slaves guest workers are used who can be treated worse and sent home if they get hurt or are worn out by years of labor. Irish, Chinese, other immigrants in the US went through this in the past. All the immigrants had to start out with the
crappy jobs and mistreatment, when they first came here. My prediction is that this proposal succeeds- win-win for the rich people in all 4 parties.
Another alternative here is EU-style rules for the North American continent and possibly all the Americas. This one also seems highly likely. I predict the results will parallel what happens with Eastern European countries' entries into the EU.
Send out the ICE and deport them all. The federal government and the CA state government will not do this. I hear a lot of people say this. I tell them, are you personally going to ask your neighbors for their papers, and if they don't have them, tie them up and drive down to Mexico and dump them over the border? At least in California you'd probably get arrested for trying this.
The Wall. Expensive and people will just go around it or through it. The minutemen are building it anyway. No wall, Osama could just walk across. But if he plans to nuke LA, how many Mexicans will get killed? So I don't worry too much about terrorists just walking across. I recall my immigrant friends from the Middle East not going to TJ to party in case they wouldn't be allowed back in. Genius scientists, all of them. Security on both sides is profiling for Arabs, or people from nearby countries. Still, there should be some way to prevent people who intend harm on Americans from entering the country.
some of these options overlap so I can't do a poll here.
I have no idea what to do about immigration myself, there
doesn't seem to be an easy solution.