El Vaquero arrests show ill-placed national priorities
Phil Jarrett
Issue date: 4/3/08 Section: Opinions
These men were taxpayers.
And it is not too surprising, either. Annually, as much as $7 billion in Social Security comes from the estimated two-thirds of the illegal immigrant population that pays payroll taxes attached to phony Social Security numbers. These tax dollars go toward programs in which these individuals likely will never get to participate.
In this age when xenophobic language about diseases and threats to national security color the immigration debate, it is all too easy to demonize illegal immigrants. Even the name is a kind of a scarlet letter. Illegal immigrants, like they broke out of prison or something. And while we can talk crime statistics 'til we are blue in the face, these individuals at El Vaquero are illegal solely for being in the United States.
The irony really sinks in when you realize how much we accommodate this illegality. How can we have 5 percent of our workforce composed of so-called criminals if we were not getting something out of it?
Make no mistake, the raid on El Vaquero was a symbolic one - made to appease the kick-'em-out crowd who always have been more bark than bite. While meat packing plants in our own state exploit teems of illegal immigrants working in despicable conditions for long hours with no real protection from any on-site injury for the sake of cheap pork, the authorities raid the one place everyone expects to find illegal immigrants: a Mexican restaurant.
The sting was visible to seem as if something was being done about the nearly half a million immigrants who enter our country each year. In reality, America would be lost without this modern population of indentured servants who constantly pay into the system yet can never fully earn the ability to scale the economic ladder. By selectively enforcing our immigration policies, we create a work force that literally is trapped doing jobs that employers are unwilling to pay more for.
So who is the real parasite: the evil immigrants creeping into our country with the sinister intent to steal American jobs or the Americans who refuse to recognize 4 percent of their own population and actively accept tax dollars from phony Social Security numbers?
"Gosh-darn illegals muckin' up our country. ... I'll have the fajitas, please."
And it is not too surprising, either. Annually, as much as $7 billion in Social Security comes from the estimated two-thirds of the illegal immigrant population that pays payroll taxes attached to phony Social Security numbers. These tax dollars go toward programs in which these individuals likely will never get to participate.
In this age when xenophobic language about diseases and threats to national security color the immigration debate, it is all too easy to demonize illegal immigrants. Even the name is a kind of a scarlet letter. Illegal immigrants, like they broke out of prison or something. And while we can talk crime statistics 'til we are blue in the face, these individuals at El Vaquero are illegal solely for being in the United States.
The irony really sinks in when you realize how much we accommodate this illegality. How can we have 5 percent of our workforce composed of so-called criminals if we were not getting something out of it?
Make no mistake, the raid on El Vaquero was a symbolic one - made to appease the kick-'em-out crowd who always have been more bark than bite. While meat packing plants in our own state exploit teems of illegal immigrants working in despicable conditions for long hours with no real protection from any on-site injury for the sake of cheap pork, the authorities raid the one place everyone expects to find illegal immigrants: a Mexican restaurant.
The sting was visible to seem as if something was being done about the nearly half a million immigrants who enter our country each year. In reality, America would be lost without this modern population of indentured servants who constantly pay into the system yet can never fully earn the ability to scale the economic ladder. By selectively enforcing our immigration policies, we create a work force that literally is trapped doing jobs that employers are unwilling to pay more for.
So who is the real parasite: the evil immigrants creeping into our country with the sinister intent to steal American jobs or the Americans who refuse to recognize 4 percent of their own population and actively accept tax dollars from phony Social Security numbers?
"Gosh-darn illegals muckin' up our country. ... I'll have the fajitas, please."
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 1
Heidi Kaplan
posted 4/03/08 @ 12:01 PM CST
Right on, Phil!
When I was in DC, the excuse I heard floating around the hearings was that we 'just didn't have the resources to do anything' about the number of false social security employment information submitted each year. (Continued…)
Post a Comment