Letters to the Editor
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Well for my part
I'm pretty pissed that illegals are off the radar, and if they do commit crimes and generally either get sent back or just lost in the system. Whereas citizens with one bogus pot bust are pretty screwed over for a very long time. Go try to sign a lease if you've ever been arrested for a bullshit 3 joint roust.
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As we used to joke when we were kids
(all of us the children of immigrants),
"I been dis country tree veek, and already some damn eemeegrant stole mine job".
Everybody wants to shut the borders, right after himself. And his family. And friends.
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Statistics
I don't know about the overall statistics, but here in Los Angeles, it seems like almost every crime report contains Hispanic names. Drunk driving tragedies, especially.
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Hate to rain on the parade ....
Don't get me wrong, immgrants can be a positive force. And most are hardworking, decent folks. But illegal immgrants have broken the law just by being here. Guess that doesn't count towards the crime rate? I am aware that as a "left" leaning person that taking this type of stance is not politically correct. But in light of the problem of global climate change staring all of in the face, having masses of immgrants is not going to be a good thing for any country. The red lights are flashing folks, we need to start thinking about the future.
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Is there a link between illegal aliens and crime?
Of course there is. Not everyone crossing the border from Mexico can become a successful gardener, housekeeper or day laborer paid under the table.
Violent crime, as a rule, is not committed by people with a college (or even high school) degree and a full time job with benefits.
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it's not sustainable
It's not sustainable for the US to keep absorbing millions of immigrants every year--whether legal or illegal. Our society is ultra-high in cosumption (it would take 6 earths and its resources with today's technology to give everybody on the planet the lifestyle we have here.) It's not about race or color, it's about the pressure put on our natural resources that scares me. While I do my best to limit my carbon footprint, I'm in the extreme minority. Ever since I was in high school in the 1970's, I was alarmed at the ever growing population of the planet, and that was when we had 4 billion people. We add 10,000 humans an hour (after births and deaths), and this poor planet can't continue to absorb that type of exponential growth rate. So, to me, the US can't be the country that continues to absorb the population explosions of other countries-- they'll have to comes to terms with it without sending their overflow here. I would say the same thing if it were millions of Swedes or Norwegians that come here-- I could care less what color or race you are. Paving over ever more farmland and forests is not my idea of progress to accomodate ever more humans. There are enough of us, for God's sake! Let's leave some green, OK??
When the Population Bomb was written decades ago, it warned of dire consequences that have yet to be seen; after all, when it was written, the oceans weren't being strip mined, and the concept of global warming had yet to understood. We weren't pumping millions of tons of herbicides and pesticides to extract ever more food from our decreasing acres of farmland. We WILL hit a wall, the question is WHEN. Did you know that the late 70's was when there was more food produced per capita than today? While the earth is producing more food, there is actually less of it to go around because production is not keeping pace with the human growth rate. So, more people are going to bed hungry today than twenty years ago. Some progress.
This all ties in to illegal and legal immigration. At what number to we slow down? We've got 300 million now in the US, how about 400 million? 500 million? 1 Billion?? 2 billion?When? These are things we need to think about. So please, leave the race card out of this one.
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Technically all illegal immigrants are criminals
Since immigrating without permission is a crime then each illegal immigrant commits at least 1 crime. ( This is the same argument made in the famous bumper sticker "if they outlaw guns only outlaws will have guns.") But that isn't really my point, I just thought I would mention it.
I am torn over this issue. On the one hand I believe in the economic principle: that on average every worker creates 1 job. So if Anthony comes into this country and starts doing brick work. He has to live somewhere, he has to eat, he has to buy clothes. He ends up spending most of his money that he earns in the economy. The net affect of this is to create another job.
On the other hand he may displace someone who has been a brick layer for 20 years that doesn't have any other skills as good as brick laying. This person might not be able to be as gainfully employed as he has been because there is no longer a market for him as a brick layer. He may have to become a painter which might mean a pay cut.
Also since, people can't instantaneously retrain to meet the labor market demands you have some workers displaced while they look for work in their trained field or retrain for another field. For example, if someone trains to be a software developer for 10 years, it is highly unlikely that he will be able to earn as good a living if he gets displaced by a higher skilled H1A visa holder. He may be able to retrain to another job but it would take time and it may not be as lucrative as his current job. This creates a market inefficiency that I don't think that the first law entirely takes into account.
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Poor Conclusion
Simply shotty journalism. If Bill O'Reilly didn't debate Gerry Rivers, would Salon take this stance?
If we substitute 'America' for 'Bill O'Reilly' would this be published? Why don't we invite everyone in the world to come into America illegally? That would surely push the crime-rate to zero in America. Right?
Freedom isn't free.