Wow. So here comes an article written about illegals and their new plight. I wish I could feel bad for them, but…nope. I simply cannot. Illegal is illegal, folks, and it’s not as if they cannot do the right thing and become legal citizens of our great Nation. As you read this AP article, see how the writer seeks to pull at your heartstrings. It is compassion without discipline. It is the victim-mentality in all its glory. So be it. A line needed to be drawn in the Arizona sand, and rightly so. Now the illegals are going to other States to seek work.
From AP via Yahoo:
PHOENIX – Many of the cars that once stopped in the Home Depot parking lot to pick up day laborers to hang drywall or do landscaping now just drive on by.Arizona’s sweeping immigration bill allows police to arrest illegal immigrant day laborers seeking work on the street or anyone trying to hire them. It won’t take effect until summer but it is already having an effect on the state’s underground economy.“Nobody wants to pick us up,” Julio Loyola Diaz says in Spanish as he and dozens of other men wait under the shade of palo verde trees and lean against a low brick wall outside the east Phoenix home improvement store.Many day laborers like Diaz say they will leave Arizona because of the law, which also makes it a state crime to be in the U.S. illegally and directs police to question people about their immigration status if there is reason to suspect they are illegal immigrants.
I realize this will sound harsh and heartless, but isn’t that the purpose of this Arizona Law? I mean, like I have said, illegal is illegal.
An estimated 100,000 illegal immigrants have left Arizona in the past two years as it cracked down on illegal immigration and its economy was especially hard hit by the Great Recession. A Department of Homeland Security report on illegal immigrants estimates Arizona’s illegal immigrant population peaked in 2008 at 560,000, and a year later dipped to 460,000.The law’s supporters hope the departure of illegal immigrants will help dismantle part of the underground economy here and create jobs for thousands of legal residents in a state with a 9.6 percent unemployment rate.Kavanagh says day labor is generally off the books, and that deprives the state of much-needed tax dollars. “We’ll never eliminate it, just like laws against street prostitution,” he says. “But we can greatly reduce the prevalence.”
Ah, one of the tangible issues of illegals and their working jobs here wihtout documentation: It robs States of their taxes. I figured the Democrats would be all over this, as they love to tax everything. Go figure.
Day laborers do jobs including construction, landscaping and household work for cash paid under the table. Those jobs have been harder to find since the housing industry collapsed here several years ago.Standing near potted trees and bushes for sale at a Home Depot in east Phoenix, Diaz, 35, says he may follow three families in his neighborhood who moved to New Mexico because of the law. He says a friend is finding plenty of work in Dallas.Diaz says he has too much to lose by staying — he’s supporting a wife and infant son back home in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, across the border from El Paso, Texas.“They depend on me to survive,” he says. “I’m not going to wait for police to come and arrest me.”Jose Armenta, a 33-year-old illegal immigrant from Mexico’s western coast, is already planning to move to Utah within the next 20 days because of a combination of the economy and the new law.“A lot of people drive by,” he says as he watched nearby cars speeding past, “and they yell, ‘Hey, go back to Mexico!’”Analysts say it’s too soon to tell what lasting effects the law will have on the state’s underground work force, which also includes baby sitters, maids and cooks.
An interesting thought occurred to me here: Why doesn’t Mexico do more to make their economy stronger so folks would not risk arrest in order to feed their families? Is it our job as America, the greatest Nation on Earth, to feed Mexico? If so, when did that happen?
Some illegal immigrants, however, intended to stick around.Natalia Garcia, 35, from Mexico City, says she and her husband — a day laborer — will stay so their daughters — both born in the U.S. — can get a good education and learn English. The couple have been living in Arizona illegally for the last 10 years.“Mexico doesn’t have a lot of opportunities,” she says. “Here, we work honestly, and we have a better life.”Olga Sanchez, 32, from southern Mexico, lives in Phoenix illegally with her two brothers, who are 21 and 17. While the youngest boy is in high school, all three work and send money back home to their parents.“This law is very bad for us,” says Sanchez, who gets about $250 a week cleaning three houses. “I’m afraid of what’s going to happen.”She says the family is going to wait and see if the law takes effect and what the fallout will be before deciding whether to leave. The law is certain to be challenged in court; Phoenix, Tucson and Flagstaff already are considering lawsuits.“All I ask from God is a miracle for us to stay here and work,” she says.
I applaud Olga’s faith, indeed. And to respond to her words I would easily say that she and her husband can keep their family here, if they would simply become legal citizens. In doing so, she and her husband would be honoring our laws and, in doing so, show her obedience to God and her desire to live justly according to our laws. This is not rocket science here. Just follow the laws, Olga.
Simple enough, yes?
America in 2010 is made up of many, many immigrants from all corners of the world. My ancestors came to America through Ellis Island, many years ago, and have thrived ever since under the freedoms and liberties America affords its legal citizenry. That same privilege s still being offered today, even now.
America always has room for one more, as long as citizenship is done the right way. I have no animosity towards these illegals whatsoever. My heart breaks in that they cannot provide for their families in Mexico due to Mexico’s economy and poor leadership. But America is not to ever be their Santa Claus.
Go home. Then come back the right way. We’ll leave a light on for ya, I promise. If you persist in protesting as you have done and if you persist in living here illegally, do not expect compassion or understanding. The line has been drawn. Now it’s time for you illegals to do what you need to do, and moving away from Arizona to take up residence elsewhere on American soil is not the answer.
(Please note that the AP article I referenced has some videos worth watching!)
