Vote for Lamar Smith

Representative Lamar Smith of Texas gets it . He says, “each time ICE [U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement] detains and deports an illegal immigrant worker, ICE creates a job for an American worker.”

Unfortunately, the Obama administration has ended workplace raids because they “are often accompanied by great personal trauma, including deportation…” Why do we care about traumatizing people who are breaking our laws? Serves them right.

Comments

[bigboy]

No, the ICE would be creating a job for another immigrant each time.

[Stu]

Half, I am with you 100%. I have sympathy for the illegals, moving to America to create a better life for themselves. But I want every single one of them out of the country asap.

At the same time, you can assemble a much bigger political coalition in favor of fining the employers than the coalition you can assemble for raids.

In fact the idea of fining the employers of illegals is popular among most Sarah Palin voters and also among most blacks who voted for Obama. I think there may be almost no other issue in the world that would unify those two groups in agreement.

Sometimes you just have to do what you can do, and not what is ideal.

Start out fining all the businesses in America that employ illegals. Keep escalating the fines until they are unbearable and every illegal loses his job at a company.

Then try to build the political coalition to fine the households that employ illegals. This is politically tougher - Huge numbers of peopele in America employ illegal nannies and gardeners and pool people and maids.

But at the end of the day, you will be more likely to build a coalition in favor of fining those paying the illegals than you will by rounding up and deporting the illegals themselves.

Once it is impossible for an illegal to get a job I believe most of them will self deport. The ones that do not self deport will commit crimes to support themselves, so after they commit crimes they will be arrested and deported.

My point is that this problem can mostly be solved without "operation wetback" type roundups.

[RW]

This post has sparked a personal revelation. Who needs another stimulus program or a jobs summit (which will inevitably either create no new jobs or only temporary make-work jobs building bridges to nowhere) when we already have a massive temp work program in the task of finding and deporting the 10+ million illegal immigrants. I'm sure the current 10.2% unemployment rate, the majority of whom are men lacking a college degree, would be very willing to serve their country in this capacity, even if it was only on a temporary basis. And they say it can't be done. A new WPA for the 21st century!

[RW]

Also, I find it rather amusing that the ad to the left currently features an enormous smiling Palin. That is all.

[David Alexander]

I jokingly noted to myself that there's more of an incentive to keep illegal immigrants in their current state than to provide them with an actual path to citizenship. Keeping them in their current status ensures that they're still going to work for cheap, and their low wages ensures that they'll be even more dependent on social services (especially non-profits) for handouts. It also polarizes the electorate and toys around with the votes of those who have family members with an undocumented status who'll vote for anybody that will "save" their family member from deportation*. Otherwise, even though NAMs are likely to vote for the Democrats, why would anybody rely on a groups with traditionally poor voter turnout to win elections? The Democrats lucked out with the young vote and the black vote in 2008, but I don't see 2010 and 2012 as being so generous to their electoral chances.

*when we already have a massive temp work program in the task of finding and deporting the 10+ million illegal immigrants*

Those aren't jobs for "white people". We want to convert those unemployed blue collar types into white collar workers.

*A few Haitians in South Florida were voting for Bush due to rumours that he was going to stop deportations while others voted for him because "he fixed Haiti by getting rid of Aristide".

[Niklas]

The fact that he believes in something so obviously untrue is reason enough to vote AGAINST him.

[BahamaMama]

“each time ICE [U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement] detains and deports an illegal immigrant worker, ICE creates a job for an American worker.”

Makes sense to me. They had a roundup at the Swift meat packing plant in Greeley a couple years ago. The next week there were hundreds of American citizen's applying for those jobs. Jobs McCain thought American's won't do - actually, they're jobs American's won't get hired for.

Republican's hate labor and Democrats love minority votes. It really is gutsy, as you point out, of Lamar to take this position.

[icr]

"Caucasian-Americans" now showing up at day labor sites:
http://www.allgov.com/ViewNews/US_Citizens_Joining_Immigrant_Day_Laborers_91104