Roll the Dice of Topicality

I'm in the home-stretch of my PMP studies, and haven't written much lately, so I figured I should write something. The muse is hitting me today, for some reason. But, the backlog of things I want to write about is rather extensive, so I have to resort to my time-tested manner of choosing a subject: rolling the twenty-sided Die of Topicality.

Here we go...

[Come on, "Kinky Sex"!]

Damn. "Illegal Immigration." Well, the die has spoken.

I gotta tell you, I'm sick of this subject. However, I've observed that once I've said my piece, there's really nothing left to be said. So, maybe if I grit my teeth and get this article written, everyone will read it, realize how silly everyone is being, and we can put this matter to rest once and for all.

The first thing we must do is get some facts straight. Here's the facts as I see 'em:

• An "Immigrant" is someone who came from this country from somewhere else.


• An "Illegal Immigrant" is an immigrant who came here illegally. The word "Illegal" is an adjective describing the word "Immigrant". It is not referring to the person, but the status of their entry into the country.


• The United States is a sovereign nation. As such, it has the right and obligation, under international laws and customs dating back to the dawn of civilization, to define, maintain and protect its borders, as well as to control migration through its borders. Sovereign nations also get to create laws to govern those within their borders.


• By definition, an illegal immigrant has entered and resides in a sovereign nation in violation of its laws.


• It is impossible to determine the legal status of an individual immigrant by looking at him or her. It requires an examination of documents, which may or may not be carried on the individual.


• Most of us don't carry these documents on a dialy basis. For instance, my passport is locked up in a drawer somewhere, as is my Birth Certificate. When I leave the house, I may or may not carry my driver's license. If I don't plan to drive anywhere, I am completely within my rights (as I choose to define them) not to carry any documents.


• Illegal immigrants take jobs. Due to their status, they take jobs at a price lower than that which legal citizens and immigrants take them, due to minimum wage and other concerns.


• Since illigal immigrants take jobs cheaper than others, they drive the price for those jobs lower, This creates a category of jobs often referred to as "jobs Americans are unwilling to do".


• If those jobs paid better, Americans (and legal immigrants) would do them. For instance, I'd mow your lawn if you'd pay me $100 to do it. I won't do it if you'll only pay me $5.


• Letting people break the law is a bad thing. Failure to enforce laws simply engenders disrespect towards the rule of law, and since this is what our civilization is based on, the defense of civilization requires the enforcement of the civilization's laws.


• The United States is a nation at war against forces which seek our destruction. This is called the "Global War on Terror", or the GWOT.


• Winning this GWOT is the only thing that really matters right now.


• Democrats will not win this war. Only by keeping Democrats out of power will we win this war.


• Electing Republicans is the only proven way to keep Democrats out of power.


• Politicians, barring any suicidal bout of honorable behavior, will by and large do only those things which contribute to the maintainance and growth of their power. This is especially true in an election year.


• The vast majority of the Republican poiticians are reluctant to do much about this issue. They see this issue as a loser. They see this issue as one which drives Latinos deeper into the Democrat camp.


• Democrats are also unwilling to do anything meaningful about this issue, but wish to keep it alive because they believe the Republicans are right. That is, they believe this issue is a lose for Republicans.

For the sake of argument, let's assume the following:

• Most illegal immigrants are law-abiding folks, with the notable exception being that their very act of being here is illegal. By this I mean that they aren't necessarily breaking other laws. They aren't necessarily dealing drugs, for instance.


• While many Americans are passionate about this issue, the vast majority are not. That is to say that while every caller to your favorite talk radio station is virtually foaming with anger over this issue, the polls show that the greatest portion of the electorate really doesn't care. They like $8 car washes and cheap labor around the house. With your kind permission, I'll assume this is correct, and that the numbers of people who are passionately against illegal immigration are roughly matched in numbers by their counterparts on the other side of the issue. One side calls talk radio shows, the other side marches and burns American flags.

With all that said, a few conclusions can be made. The first is that we need to enforce our laws. In doing so, we protect our borders, which is a responsibility of any sovereign power. But, laws can be changed, and at any rate, the laws should suit the needs of the country. That is to say, if we find it beneficial, or even convenient, to alter the laws, this is within our power. However, these laws are created by our elected representatives, who are only likely to do so if they see it as a means to re-election. It would appear that the President and the Senate Republicans believe the law should make some provision to allow those illegal immigrants already here to remain. The House Republicans believe that the status of illegal immigrants should not be changed. Both are, I believe, responding to where they think the electorate is at this time. The Democrats, on the other hand, really don't want any laws passed at all, but rather want to keep the debate going, because they see this as a wedge issue driving the Republican base apart during an election year. They think that by keeping this issue alive, they can recapture the House of Representatives and improve their margin in the Senate.

The second conlusion we can make is that illegal immigrants adversely affect the jobs situation at the lowest rungs of the employment ladder. This results in legal immigrants and citizens without higher-level job skills being unable to find entry-level manual labor jobs. This is a huge problem, since people who can't find jobs make claims against the public either through our social welfare programs, or through crime. The illegal immigrants would simply go home, but the people here legally have no such choice. The only way to remedy this is to force the wages of illegals up to the level that legals would be able to work at, or to force the illegals to leave.

This leads to the third conclusion I wish to make, which is that removing the illegal immigrants is an almost impossible prospect. Estimates of the number of illegal immigrants in this country are varied, but the mean appears to be somewhere in the neighborhood of twelve million people, spread throughout the nation, but largely concentrated in the Southwest. I say almost impossible, because if could be done, but only if we had the will to do so. For starters, we'd have to have a serious program of deporting illegals when they are found. Assuming such a process would require Due Process, you can do some simple math to see that the costs of such an action would be quite high. Let's say that processing an illegal immigrant cost us $1000 to cover the cost of law enforcement on a per capita basis, housing the arrested illegal immigrant, providing a legal hearing, and a bus ride to the border. Multiply this by 12 million people and you have a price tag of about $12 billion dollars. That may be money well-spent, but it won't come close to recouping the cost of letting them remain. The President and the Senate Republicans won't go for this solution anyways, so it's a moot point.

So, if we don't make them leave, how about if we force their wages up so that they are competing on an even footing with legal residents? To do this, we pretty much need to change the law to allow them to stay, legalize their status, and create an environment where illegal immigrants can't be exploited as they are today. This is what the talk radio set is calling "Amnesty". The House Republicans won't go for this, and so it won't happen.

My final conclusion is this: we have to let this issue drop. We are at an impasse. No solution can be found which is acceptable to both sides of the Republican divide. Continued debate on this issue will only divide the base, which is beneficial to the Democrats. Anything which is beneficial to Democrats will assist them in getting more of their numbers elected in the Fall. If more Democrats get elected, we lose the Global War on Terror. If we lose the GWOT, we're all dead.

It's that simple. My preferred solution, enforce the border and force wages for illegals to a standard level so that legal immigrants and citizens will be preferred for those jobs, will result in Democratic gains in the government. As does any other possible solution.

Let the matter drop.