Yesterday I started a discussion about illegal immigration that left off with the assertion that illegal immigrants do in fact wield a fair bit of poltical clout in the southwest U.S.
From my perspective this influence is not legitimate – the business of electing public servants should be exclusively reserved for citizens, in my opinion.
But illegals do not vote – how do they impact the process?
Call one leg of their undue influence the “homo-ethnic proxy” effect, for lack of a better term. U.S. residents of ethnic descent often identify with illegals and shield them with their votes, local governmental policies, and activist organizations. Effectively their position is that illegals have the same name or skin color or geographic background as they do; therefore, the illegals *deserve* the advantages of de facto citizenship that they haven’t yet earned and, in many cases, have no intention of ever earning.
That Hispanics give preference to illegals demonstrates an unfortunate cultural and ethnic bias on their part, a bias that’s strong enough that they consciously devalue the laws of their country and their own citizenship in it.
On a case-by-case basis, this is understandable. Why shouldn’t Uncle Fred be allowed to stay in the U.S.? He’s a swell guy, works hard, doesn’t beat his wife, etc. But there’s a bigger picture to consider and one that I’m not sure gets the attention of ethnic groups.
Or does it? Immigrant activists have every intention of changing the racial, cultural, and ethnic makeup of this country. When they weigh into the debate, the good intentions of individuals often get subordinated to the louder, more radical voices.
The second leg that illegal immigrants’ political influence stands on is that of good old American politics. In the southwest, Mexican-Americans vote overwhelmingly for Democrats. Presumedly this is because Dems run the party that gives away goodies to lower-income people. Who’s going to say no to that? Not too many on the getting side of the equation.
As foolish as their policies often are, the Dems are not stupid people. They know who is voting for them and they cater to their audience. The result is that the Dems in immigrant-influenced states support, tacitly and otherwise, illegal immigration through their party’s platform and the actions of their elected officials. It’s almost impossible to imagine how poorly the Dems would fare at the polls in Texas without the MA vote, but “irrelevant” is the word that immediately comes to mind.
In the southwestern U.S., the immigration issue is exclusively related to illegals who come up from Latin America. On a national level, there are obviously other nationalities involved. But these groups are less relevant to the discussion than Hispanics because of the numbers involved. In a very real sense, Hispanics are the illegal immigration problem in this country.
Does that mean that Hispanics are bad people? No. They are just as decent, hard-working, intelligent, and capable as any white boy. Their relative goodness or badness isn’t, or shouldn’t, be the issue. Instead there are fundamental, objective principles that should be acted upon.
These are:
- Law. Illegal immigration is “illegal” for a reason. It’s against public policy and the law should be enforced.
- Economics. The argument that “illegals do the work no one else wants” is false. No one wants to do the work because the wages are too low due to an increase in the supply of labor.
- Cultural integrity. Illegal immigration creates pools of people who are not interested in, able to, or allowed to integrate into mainstream society. Legal immigration, on the other hand, fosters integration.
The list is much longer, but I don’t want to spoil tomorrow’s ranting today! 🙂
In the end, what you or I or the illegals *feel* about illegal immigration is irrelevant. Only what is just and right for the America people matters. Our government should act accordingly. If it won’t, we should choose a new one.