White House Calling America's Perceived Bluff
By Frosty Wooldridge (10/12/07)
“Democracy is a theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it - good and hard.”
Last week, Homeland Security Chief Michael Chertoff, a man for all seasons and two different countries, directed raids in California that netted 1,200 illegal aliens. Hundreds of them proved deportation absconders, rapists, murderers and MS-13 gang members.
After Bush flamed out of the sky in a stunning defeat for the amnesty bill in June, he pondered enforcement of our laws. While not enforcing our immigration laws for six years after 9/11, Bush thought he might apply the law to show Americans how desperate their condition might become without illegals working the jobs that “Americans won’t do.” Secretary Michael Chertoff said, "There will be some unhappy consequences for the economy out of doing this."
To that I say, sir, “Bring it on by doing your job and let us decide!” Mark Krikorian, director of Center for Immigration Studies (www.cis.org), said, “Just as the administration completely misread public sentiment on immigration — the president appears to have genuinely believed his "I'll see you at the bill signing" bravado — they're now misreading the likely reaction to increased enforcement. Because despite the hysterical exaggerations we can look forward to from some farmers and other employers of illegal aliens, the produce department of your local supermarket won't be shutting down any time soon.”
I talked with Krikorian in Washington, DC two weeks ago. His new book on illegal immigration hits the bookstores next year. It provides a sobering reality check on the future aspects of continued illegal migration.
“The only reason the White House thinks this gamble might pay off is that some of the measures announced last week really can make a difference.
The complete fact sheet is here, and since it's a public relations document, it should come as no surprise that there's a good deal of padding,” Krikorian said. “Some of the measures included are just continuations of current policy (completion of about half the border fencing by the end of next year, for instance) are not likely to have major impacts.”
One of the most important aspects of creating “attrition through enforcement” stems from the Social Security “no match” letters. When employers check their identification, the majority “no matches” originate with illegal aliens. Theft and forgeries dominate!
“The new rule sets out common-sense steps an employer must take upon receiving a no-match letter to ensure that he won't be held liable if the worker turns out to be an illegal alien,” Krikorian reported. “Social Security is now sending out these letters to employers with more than ten mismatches that make up more than one half of one percent of its workforce — covering about 80 percent of all mismatches.”
Some employers may fire an illegal whose SS card doesn’t match, but re-hire him off the books. "Employers who do that," Secretary Chertoff said, "are making a deliberate decision to compound their legal difficulties by committing tax crimes as well as immigration crimes."
What does this mean to the illegal? No job! Which means, no way to remain in the United States. When President Eisenhower created the same program in 1954, within a year, 500,000 illegal aliens self-deported.
With Bush finally applying the rule of law, the same “attrition through enforcement” rule applies.
Both the Pilot Program and E-Verify enable employers to check if a person applying for a job proves to be legal.
As can be imagined, farmers, roofers, contractors, landscapers, fast food, house painters, ski resorts and others can yell, stomp their feet and raise a ruckus, but, for the first time in 20 years, they must adhere to the rule of law. What a concept!
When it happened the last time, farmers created new ways to plant and harvest crops. Krikorian reported, “California farmers claimed that "the use of braceros [Mexican guest-workers] is absolutely essential to the survival of the tomato industry." Instead, termination of the program prompted mechanization which caused a quintupling of production for tomatoes grown for processing, an 89-percent drop in demand for harvest labor, and a fall in real prices.”
Krikorian continued, “The same sort of thing happened half a century earlier, when the textile industry predicted disaster if child labor were ended. At a Senate hearing in 1916, one mill owner said that limiting child labor would "stop my machines"; another said "investors would never receive another dividend"; while a third said that ending child labor would "paralyze the country."
The same thing occurred right up until 1865 when slave states continued their legacy of human bondage. “We won’t get the cotton picked…we’ll lose our farms…we have a right to own slaves….”
We face high roller corporate slave traders in the 21st century wielding their power to obfuscate, cloud, deny and ignore a social wrong. If they could get away with as much slave labor as possible in 2007, they would continue without blinking. What they don’t want to deal with is: it’s unlawful, it’s ethically reprehensible, it’s immoral and it’s creating a nightmare in every community in America.
Mr. Bush, you do your job by enforcing our laws and we’ll honestly find the methods to harvest crops, paint our houses, roof our homes, process our meat, mow our lawns, build our houses and maintain our civil society via the rule of law. Let the legal, free market rule by raising wages to meet the demand in every sector. In the final analysis, we’ll employ American citizens at a living wage.
Copyright ©2007 Frosty Wooldridge All Rights Reserved.
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