How About Amnesty For Loyal, Hardworking U. S. Citizens?
By Robert Klein Engler (04/11/05)
Most people realize that amnesty for illegal immigrants to the U. S. will not solve our immigration problems. Amnesty is nothing more than an immigration magnet. It draws more illegal immigrants to the U. S. the way a magnet draws up iron filings. The stronger the magnet, the more it draws up iron. The more amnesty we grant, the more illegal immigrants we attract.
Perhaps there is a better solution to our immigration problem than granting amnesty to illegal immigrants. Instead of giving amnesty to those who break our laws and come into our country illegally, let's give amnesty to those hardworking U. S. citizens who have had their lives irreversibly harmed by a flood of illegal immigrants.
To start, we could give amnesty to those police officers who want to report illegal immigrants but can't because political shortsightedness makes the cities where they enforce the law sanctuary cities. Then, we could give amnesty to taxpayers who pay high property tax bills to educate and give health care to illegal immigrants. What about amnesty on overdue mortgages for those Americans who have lost their jobs because illegal immigrants have driven them out of work or driven down their salaries? That, too, would be a justifiable amnesty.
Tony Brown, author of What Mama Taught Me, knows how Black Americans are injured by illegal immigration. He writes, "the U. S. Census Bureau reported in the NY Times...the poor Black and Latino communities lose the most income of any group of Americans, including all Americans who did not finish high school and all Americans who are paying higher taxes to subsidize welfare benefits for illegal immigrants and businesses that hire them." Let's have amnesty for these Americans, instead of Affirmative Action for Latinos.
Amnesty for the overdue bills and high credit card interest rates for those working in janitorial and public service jobs would help many U. S. citizens, too. The Federation for American Immigration Reform reports that, "a GAO study found that a decade of heavy immigration to Los Angeles had changed the janitorial industry from a mostly native Black, unionized workforce to one of non-unionized Latinos, many of whom were illegal aliens...the employment of Black Americans as hotel workers in California dropped 30 percent in the 1980s, while the number of immigrants with such jobs rose 166 percent." A similar story can be told today of the garment industry, the restaurant business, hospital work, and public service jobs.
Let's have amnesty as well for the working Americans whose neighborhoods have been overturned because of an influx of illegal immigrants. Margaret Bianculli-Dyber is one of thousands who have felt the effects of illegal immigration. She is a resident of Farmingville and President of The Sachem Quality of Life Organization and could use some type of amnesty for her disappointment.
Margaret says, "...Because of a plentiful supply of cheap labor, my husband's wages are held down, and I have to work. Now, because of all the Mexicans, my property values have fallen $18,000 in four years. So, I can't afford to sell my house for a profit and move away (Kamber, The Village Voice. August 8-14, 2001)."
Even those immigrants who were granted amnesty in the past do not want amnesty for today's flood of illegal immigrants coming into the country. In his article on unskilled workers, Jerry Kammer of Copley News Services writes: "Many labor economists and immigration experts dismiss the notion that a shortage of low-wage workers exists, saying Bush's plan would help sustain a glut of low-wage workers that is pushing down labor costs in an expanding array of U. S. industries." Kammer continues, "Immigration of unskilled immigrants comes at a cost to unskilled U. S. workers, particularly established immigrants for whom new immigrants are economic substitutes."
In the spirit of reconciliation, maybe we ought to have amnesty for those politicians who are mistaken, too. But only after they institute better border controls! We hear these politicians claim that the Arizona border with Mexico is no place for citizen observers. They claim the border is dangerous. Armed smugglers bring people, drugs and contraband across that border into the U. S. all the time. The notorious gang MS-13 and "coyotes" control much of the territory.
Do our politicians realize what they are saying? Do they read their own press releases? The very argument against "vigilantes" on our southern border is the proof we need to put the National Guard there. If the border is as dangerous as our politicians claim, then they are shirking their responsibility to protect this nation by letting the border remain wide open. It is duplicitous to condemn the volunteer, border observers, while at the same time refusing to enforce the very laws politicians claim all should respect. If they insist on amnesty for millions of illegal Mexicans, then lets have amnesty also for hardworking, U. S. citizens harmed by out of control immigration.
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