What needs to be said about immigration

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Republicans who are enamored with supply-side economics also apply this disproved and discredited economic theory to the immigration problem as well. They believe that supply creates demand. Not true. It is demand that creates the supply.

When it comes to immigration, there are principally two issues that are generating all the anger:

(1) Illegal immigration to the United States for employment (involving human trafficking by coyotes); and

(2) Illegal drugs entering the United States through drug cartels and gangs in the United States (involving violent crime).

When you listen to the anti-immigrant hysteria, you often hear that "the U.S. is being invaded by Mexico," as if illegal immigrants and illegal drugs are being forced, unwillingly, down the throat of Americans.

This is just a rationalization to avoid looking into the mirror and facing the cold hard truth: it is American employers who are guilty of breaking the law by their demand for illegal immigrant labor, and it is Americans who are guilty of breaking the law by their demand for illegal drugs. The persons most responsible for the immigration and drug trafficking problems are Americans right here in the good ol' USA.

An effective immigration program would concentrate on prosecuting American employers who exploit illegal immigrant workers. Reduce the demand from American employers through enforcement, and the supply of illegal immigrants will be reduced as demand is reduced.

An effective anti-drug program would focus on prosecuting drug users — and Americans are the largest consumers of illegal drugs in the World — to reduce the demand from American drug users through enforcement, and the supply of illegal drugs will be reduced as demand is reduced.

But Americans never see their own conduct as a problem. Americans will not focus their anger on American employers and their own use of illegal drugs. To even suggest that Americans look in the mirror at their own conduct is immediately attacked with "blame America first" hyperbole.

So Americans do what we have always done, we rationalize our own conduct and we demonize a minority group to scapegoat them for all our problems that our own conduct has created.

And who is paying the price for this?

It is Mexico that has seen its former agrarian economy disrupted by American agribusinesses that have bought up large collectives of land and forced small land owners off their family farms and into a desperate search for work anywhere they can find it. This is the consequence of NAFTA, CAFTA and free-trade policies. Exploitive American trade policies created this problem within Mexico. And exploitive American employers perpetuate the problem on this side of the border by hiring coyotes to transport illegal immigrant labor to the United States. As a result, people desperate for work die in the desert trying to cross the border or are victimized by human traffickers.

The drug cartel violence is largely concentrated within Mexico. It is the Mexican government threatened by "Narco" warlords and Mexican citizens threatened by drug cartel violence. It is Mexicans who are dying at the hands of drug lords made fabulously wealthy by Americans' demand for illegal drugs. Every time an American drug user purchases illegal drugs, that American is contributing to the wealth of the drug cartels and indirectly contributing to the deaths of Mexicans. Consider yourself an accessory to this crime. Americans can complain about gang violence on this side of the border all they want, but it is Americans' demand for illegal drugs that is contributing to the wealth of these gangs and indirectly contributing to the deaths of Americans on this side of the border. Again, consider yourself an accessory to this crime.

So let's focus on the real cause of this problem, shall we: exploitive American employers, and American drug users. Take a good look in the mirror, America, and face the cold hard truth. The solution to this problem begins with you.