Should the USA Annex Mexico?

We had a "Day without Latinos" rally in Milwaukee the other day. An estimated 15-20,000 hispanics showed up. The point, I think, was to highlight all the work they do in the community by showing what happens when they don't work for a day. The majority of them carried Mexican flags and shouted in Spanish.

The city kept right on running without them. I guess Americans will do those kinds of jobs after all.

...Because Mexican immigrants have much less education than the average U.S. worker, they increase the supply of less-skilled labor, driving down the wages of the worst-paid Americans. The most authoritative recent study of this effect, by George Borjas and Lawrence Katz of Harvard, estimates that U.S. high school dropouts would earn as much as 8 percent more if it weren't for Mexican immigration.

That's why it's intellectually dishonest to say, as President Bush does, that immigrants do ''jobs that Americans will not do.'' The willingness of Americans to do a job depends on how much that job pays -- and the reason some jobs pay too little to attract native-born Americans is competition from poorly paid immigrants.

It angers me that not only is there an attempt to dehumanize "illegal" immigrants. By refusing to accept they are human beings, you don't have to give them rights, compassion or consideration.

It angers me just as much the attempt to de-Americanize any person-- even a US citizen-- who supports them.

My voice and my vote are in favor of treating immigrants-- legal or not-- with respect and compassion.

This, in my view, does not make me any less American.

Many of the people in those rallies are American citizens.

And JP, if all the Latinos disappeared you may not miss them. There are many American citizens, myself included, who would.

DontTreadOnMe wrote:

yet there is no outcry from you when a country like mexico deports people from el salvador, guatemala etc., asia or any other country who have entered illegally.

Perhaps because eh, he's not a Mexican? When you criticize your own government for something it does wrong in your eyes, do you always make sure to criticize every other government on earth which may have done the same thing, too?

Nah, of course one is more likely to speak up about something one's own government does than about something some other country does - no hypocrisy implied there. (The other way around, now that would be an issue)

it doesn't seem honest to complain about how my country deals with the issue and not address how the same issue is handled by their country of origin.

The other option is the McCain-Kennedy bill which acknowledges that these immigrants broke the law. But instead of harsh punishments and vindictive policies, it levies a fine and offers a path to legalization.

Students across the USA walked out of class today to protest the bills in congress. Let's hope they keep on walking, south, back across the border.

DontTreadOnMe wrote:

it doesn't seem honest to complain about how my country deals with the issue and not address how the same issue is handled by their country of origin.

And you think, Mexico and the USA are equal partners, so it's easy to make a fair and honest comparison?

ebrown_p wrote:

The other option is the McCain-Kennedy bill which acknowledges that these immigrants broke the law. But instead of harsh punishments and vindictive policies, it levies a fine and offers a path to legalization.

What does this bill do to stop the flow, or at least regulate the flow, of illegal immigrants entering the country?

What good is acknowledging that a law is broken if all you do is allow the law breakers to get away with breaking the law?

DTOM, I appreciated the tone of the last long reponse you posted and have been intending to give a well-thought out response (which may still come if I am not content with this one).

ummm.. nastiness and yelling rarely solves anything,e. not to mention that i really do see it as a legal rather than an ideological issue.
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There are millions of stories of people here without papers. Many of them you would probably like and if you took the time to hear their stories you would probably be sympathetic.

well, i've lived in l.a. for the most part of the last 30 years. you'd have to live in a cave to not know anyone who's come here without papers.

in fact, two of the first guys i was in a band with here were illegal. one from england and one from canada.

and when i was parking cars in beverly hills (one of those jobs tha americans won't do, btw.. :wink: ), i also got to know a few guys from places like mexico, guatemala, a couple of guys who'd escaped from the civil war in el salvadore and another young guy who'd fled afghanistan during the russian occupation. dunno for sure if they were legal or not. at the time, the issue was not nearly as big. i probably wouldn't have cared anyway. they all had compelling reasons and seemed to be good guys from what i knew.

as far as the bill that's in debate now.. it doesn't seem realistic to me. mostly because i can forsee a situation where a meaningless fence would get built, but the pressure and penalties against employers would most likely turn out to be nothing but lip service.

i'm not really sure what the right answer is dude. but i do believe that the 2 most important steps are to;

1) come down on the corporate and large scale employers. if anybody is making out on this deal, it's them. their costs keep getting lower via the increased use of illegals at the same time their pricing goes up. bigger profits for them. whooppeee!

2) clamp down on the flow of illegal entrants. now. it won't fix the problem, but it will give us a place to start by not allowing the situation to get worse.

now, i have a question for ya.

what do you think should be required of illegal immigrants in order to;

1) stay in the country ?

2) receive guest worker status ?

3) should they be allowed, at any point, to become citizens?