Minutemen--Wrong Battle, Wrong Place

Minutemen--Wrong Battle, Wrong Place

Is it possible that these people are being manipulated by . . . Republicans, BIG business, the Dems, the pols? Why doesn’t anyone want to enforce immigration laws? For the Dems, is it because of fear of appearing insensitive to needy people, the hope of future votes? It’s enough to give a right-thinkin’ American a headache! My big assertion, mostly true but possibly false in a few particulars, is that all those guys-- Republicans, BIG business, the Dems, the pols—are allowing this to go on at ordinary citizen’s expense exactly because they see dollars or votes in their future.

What the hell is a guest worker program? Is that an invitation to a certain number of foreign nationals to come do our worst jobs at very low pay? Who benefits from that? Wal-Mart? The hotel industry? The construction industry? Small businesses such as landscapers, farmers, restaurants? And at whose expense do these groups benefit? THAT is the ugliest question because all these businesses benefit from the availability of “guest workers” (the economic equivalent of “illegal immigrants") at the expense of less educated Americans and legal immigrants.

Strangely, these are the same folks who resist increases in the minimum wage with the argument that wages will naturally increase as labor becomes more scarce and demand increases. That would most likely happen if it were not for the easy availability of large numbers of immigrants, legal, illegal, or “guest” to fill lowest paid jobs. My amateur economic assertion is that this large pool of “brought in” workers has the effect of suppressing the wages of most all working Americans. And they are most certainly “brought in.” The availability of jobs is why they endure what they must in order to be here and fill them.

Not only does the presence of “brought in” labor suppress wages of American laborers, they undermine unionization. Unions are losing influence in this country in part because of their own inefficient structures, in part because of extremely anti-union rhetoric in the public discourse, but in large part because of the availability of workers desperate for any work. Does that argue for the influx of large numbers of “guest” workers?

The Minutemen would serve their cause and this country much better by going home and supporting their unions, letting their elected representatives know that they can be turned out of office for not enforcing the law, letting businesses know that they will support business that appreciate and fairly pay American labor, and by demanding sane immigration policies that allow people from other countries into the United States to become American citizens, not guest workers.

Our problem is not the people coming over that border; it is the people using them against American workers in the name of profits. These are the same people who have “outsourced” American jobs to countries who not only have no unions, but no laws against sweatshops, child labor, or even slave labor. Can you say Wal-Mart, Nike, Orvis, Tommy Hilfiger, Apple . . .