Friday, March 24, 2006
A day without a mexican
Congress is considering a bill that would more or less make it a felony to be Mexican ... kind of reminds me of a movie I saw.
The movie itself was pretty dumb, but the idea is great. Basically, our economy would collapse without low-paid Mexican labor. Mexicans continue the long tradition of hard-working immigrants who do shit jobs in pursuit of a better life.
OK, so what happens if we make it a felony to be an illegal immigrant? Answer -- absolutely nothing. I have no idea what the actual number is, but let's say that there are currently 1,000,000 illegal immigrants in this country. That's got to be a conservative estimate. And where, pray tell, are we going to find the judicial resources to find, prosecute, jail, and then deport all of these people? Give me a fucking break.
Nativism has shown its ugly face in this country before. What's that line from the Gangs of New York -- "Today is a day for Americans," distinguishing "native" Americans from the Irish immigrants. Those goddamn Irish -- got to get them the hell out of this country. Not to mention the Italians, Germans, etc. etc.
Today the idea that people with Irish/German/Italian backgrounds are any less American is preposterous, but that was not always the case. Check out the appropriately named Know-Nothing Party.
One of America's greatest strengths is its ability to attract hardworking people and then to accept them into the mainstream. We cherry-pick the most ambitious people from all over the world and then allow them to use our merit-based economy to succeed. It's a goddamn brilliant system. Try immigrating to France some time and check out the difference.
|
The movie itself was pretty dumb, but the idea is great. Basically, our economy would collapse without low-paid Mexican labor. Mexicans continue the long tradition of hard-working immigrants who do shit jobs in pursuit of a better life.
OK, so what happens if we make it a felony to be an illegal immigrant? Answer -- absolutely nothing. I have no idea what the actual number is, but let's say that there are currently 1,000,000 illegal immigrants in this country. That's got to be a conservative estimate. And where, pray tell, are we going to find the judicial resources to find, prosecute, jail, and then deport all of these people? Give me a fucking break.
Nativism has shown its ugly face in this country before. What's that line from the Gangs of New York -- "Today is a day for Americans," distinguishing "native" Americans from the Irish immigrants. Those goddamn Irish -- got to get them the hell out of this country. Not to mention the Italians, Germans, etc. etc.
Today the idea that people with Irish/German/Italian backgrounds are any less American is preposterous, but that was not always the case. Check out the appropriately named Know-Nothing Party.
One of America's greatest strengths is its ability to attract hardworking people and then to accept them into the mainstream. We cherry-pick the most ambitious people from all over the world and then allow them to use our merit-based economy to succeed. It's a goddamn brilliant system. Try immigrating to France some time and check out the difference.
|
