I heard on the news today that the border watchers (you know, those violent vigilantes down in Arizona that are out to get Mexicans) are planning an outing here in the hills of East Tennessee. Their plan is to crack down on companies that hire illegal immigrants. Good for them, I say. What’s the official US position on these guys?
The US Boarder Patrol says they’ve never endorsed the activities of the Minutemen in Arizona, stressing that it’s the Border Patrol’s job to catch illegal immigrants.
Ha, ha! Did everyone catch that last part? Why, give ‘em a raise then! Sounds like everyone’s doing a bang-up job down there!
FAIR estimates there are between 10-12 million illegal aliens residing in the country in 2005. According to the Census Bureau, there were an estimated 8.7 million illegal aliens living in the United States in 2000. According to the Migration Policy Institute, roughly 500,000 illegal aliens are added to that population every year.
Catering to an entire population that’s broken the law probably doesn’t help deter, either. And though the effect of turning down illegals for bank accounts was unanticipated, seems like a lucky side effect to me.
Of course, I’m sure if this blog were popular enough I’d get nasty comments about those legitimate Mexicans sending money back to Mexico. I’m not talking about those 12 people; I’m talking about all the fence-jumpers. And frankly, we can’t do anything effective if we’re just sitting around trying to decide how to avoid offending criminals. I don’t care how nice they are, they’re breaking the law. There’s reasons we require documentation of people in this country, and when you’re without it, it causes problems. What’s the problem with documenting yourself, anyway? If you love America so much, become a citizen! What’s that? Taxes? Yeah, those are a bitch. They pay for things like health care, which you are apparently quite familiar with. (Anyone else hear that big sucking sound?)
It probably doesn’t help that the Mexican government has published the Border Crossing for Dummies brochure. (English version)
It all comes down to politicians wanting the Hispanic vote. I guess if the constituency were large enough, anything would be okay.