Bay of Fundie

I am opposed to illegal immigration. If it is true that there are some jobs that Americans won’t do (e.g. picking lettuce), then we need to modify the law to solve that problem. (A guest-worker program might be the right approach for these types of jobs.)

However, for some of the jobs that illegals do (e.g., hotel maids and construction), I suspect that many Americans would be willing to do them, if they just paid a little better. The fact that there are so many illegals in those professions suppresses the wages that are paid to everyone.

(Pause here, while I wait to be flamed by both sides.)

There was an attempt to solve this problem back during the Reagan administration, but the big business lobbyists gutted enforcement of the law. The law provides for penalties for employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants. For the most part, that provision has not been enforced, because big business likes hiring illegals. They work much cheaper.

Businesses that hire illegal immigrants have largely created this problem, and they are perpetuating it. Read this next sentence carefully:

Obviously, some illegal immigration would still occur. But the reason millions of immigrants illegally cross our borders is because they know they will be able to find work.

Until you stop the jobs, you won’t stop the immigrants! It’s really no more complicated than that.

The “Pro-Family” Approach

Conservatives of most stripes claim that they are pro-family. If they’re “pro-family” the way they are “pro-life” (advocating the death penalty and the Iraq war, to cite just two examples), then the family is in big trouble. And sure enough, here’s comes an example.

It is sometimes difficult to separate fundies from the larger group of conservatives. Although fundies’ main concern is banning abortion and creating a theocracy, they have hitched their wagon to the one group who pandered to them: neo-conservative Republicans. As a result, the fundies will back any crazy neocon idea. If the GOP is successful, the fundies will be rewarded with Supreme Court justices. Recent history shows this in action.

Illegal immigration seems somewhat outside the realm of what a fundie would be interested in, but I hear them squawk about it all the time. The various emails and “news reports” I get from them usually have an anti-immigrant diatribe or two thrown into the mix. That’s why it isn’t surprising to see this article editorial in the fundie news propaganda site One News Now:

‘Anchor baby’ subject of latest illegal alien riff

According to the Constitution, anybody born on American soil is automatically an American citizen. Personally, I think that provision is outdated in today’s world. Back in the days when it took two months to cross an ocean, that made sense. Not so today.

Anyway, illegal aliens enter the country, have babies who are American citizens, then use the baby’s residency status to try to stay in the country. That’s why they are called (at least by anti-immigrant people) “anchor babies”.

I haven’t decided yet where I stand on the issue of what to do about current anchor babies and their families, but I’m not the one claiming to be “pro-family”. Let’s just look at this article and see how pro-family the fundies really are:

An immigration reform activist says that a Mexican national who was deported from the United States last month has nobody to blame but herself that her eight-year-old son is still in the United States.

That seems like a rather cold statement from people who are supposed to be full of love.

Elvira Arellano, who broke into the country twice, was arrested for using a fake ID card to obtain employment.

Don’t you love their slanted language? Arellano “broke into the country” like a common burglar. She has come to rob you of your valuables! Hide the silverware! Hide the jewelry! Hide the Dale Earnhardt commemorative plate from the Franklin Mint! And she’s done it not once, but twice! She’s a serial offender, a career criminal!

Susan Tully of the Federation for American Immigration Reform says if Arellano really cared about her son, she would have taken him to Mexico.

So now they’re telling Arellano that she’s a terrible mother! That she doesn’t love her son! Did it ever occur to these nitwits that maybe Arellano left her son in this country precisely because she loves him? His opportunities are so much greater on this side of the border. What parent wouldn’t want that for their child? But as is typical with fundies, they know everything, and they know best. Their knowledge comes straight from God (who apparently hates Mexicans).

“She knew what our laws were before she came here, and it’s her choice to take her son with her.…,” explains Tully. “The advocates for illegal aliens like to say that our laws are breaking up families, but the fact is Elvira did this herself.”

The love! The empathy! The compassion! “Pro-family” my ass!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 18th, 2007 at 6:01 pm and is filed under Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.