Foreigners with strong minds or strong backs should be welcomed, not hounded
Very well, say some, let’s let in educated foreigners, but what about Mexican laborers? Do we need them too? You bet we do. Currently, over half of U.S. farm workers are illegal immigrants from Mexico. American agriculture simply could not function without them. True, they are breaking the law, but if they did not do so, we would not have food. So where does the problem lie — with the illegals, or with the system that makes it illegal for people to do good and necessary work?
To secure legal status for immigrants and then hire them for farm work is a process that can take years. Say you are a businessman living under this regime. What do you do? The answer is clear: You seek to evade the overweening bureaucracy by hiring people off the books, paying them as consultants, or engaging in other tricks. If you did not do so, you would not stay in business. And despite those who might denounce you for giving away American jobs to illegal workers, without your and your illegal employees’ willingness to brave doing what is necessary to function despite the bureaucracy, no one would get any jobs or products from your company.
So the problem is not with the illegal farmworkers, who work long hours in the hot sun to put food on our tables, but with the dysfunctional federal immigration bureaucracy, which has failed to do its job of providing a means for swift and efficient processing and approval of entry and work permits for people who wish to come to the United States for mutually beneficial purposes. That is the problem that a Republican immigration policy needs to fix. The nation needs a fence, but it also needs a well-functioning door.
Blowback
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Slavemaster mindset.
Mimzey on November 12, 2012 at 9:22 PM
Hear hear!
JohnGalt23 on November 12, 2012 at 9:28 PM
Guess what? As soon as they’re “citizens”, the cost of their labor goes up and a new wave of illegals to replace them is right behind.
Anyone who thinks that this is a solution is just stupid or dishonest.
hawkdriver on November 12, 2012 at 9:28 PM
Illegal immigrants who work in the fields are stuck in a vicious cycle. The Democrats are all too happy with the current immigration system. We need sensible and comprehensive immigration reform so that qualified immigrants can enter the country LEGALLY. Make them form a line and set up certain criteria they must meet in order to enter the country. The Hispanic electorate is being taken advantage of by the Democrats for electoral gain.
cjv209 on November 12, 2012 at 9:29 PM
Mr. Zubrin-even if it were acceptable to allow illegal farm workers to come here that is only a small part of the problem.. Illegals are taking jobs in construction, landscaping, and service jobs amongst other areas. Jobs that legal American citizens were doing until bosses realized they could pay illegals off the books and it would cost them less than paying legal workers a reasonable wage.
hopeful on November 12, 2012 at 9:29 PM
I know. Everytime I hear “They do jobs ordinary Americans won`t do,” I hear two things.
1.) Our own people are lazy and prissy.
2.) Give the back breaking, low paying job to the poor Mexican. He`ll be happy to have that!
Number two should be a part of every Republican speech to Latino groups. The democrats are treating your people like slaves.
ThePrez on November 12, 2012 at 9:30 PM
Mexican laborers should be welcomed as temporary laborers with work permits that allow them to travel back and forth. They should not be offered amnesty.
Illegals by and large don’t want citizenship. They just want to work. It’s the Democrat party and the ethnic interest groups that want to give them citizenship to bolster the Democrat party ranks.
Charlemagne on November 12, 2012 at 9:32 PM
Reforming the law and acting as though the law did not exist are different things. Rule of law, not man.
Ted Torgerson on November 12, 2012 at 9:32 PM
Before the government handed out welfare checks like candy corn and peeps, American citizens did these jobs the the progressive slave masters insist that can only be done by illegal aliens .
Rio Linda Refugee on November 12, 2012 at 9:32 PM
if we didn’t have illegal immigrants, everyone in america would starve! wait what?
Sachiko on November 12, 2012 at 9:34 PM
Hawk , we all know that slave masters are evil and dishonest but rarely stupid
Rio Linda Refugee on November 12, 2012 at 9:35 PM
Sick and effing tired hearing about comprehensive immigration reform and how we need to have them form a line and set up criteria, etc, etc, blah, blah, blah.
This country has an immigration policy. procedures are already in place for people to get here legally if they wish.
Enforce the flipping law we have.
Unless and until we are willing to even do that, what’s the effing point?
Can’t stand hearing ‘conservatives’ calling for more regulation and procedure and bureaucracy.
Jeebus tap dancing rice…
catmman on November 12, 2012 at 9:35 PM
Of course it has to have a door…how else can you get the ones in..out? Throw them over the fence??
Mimzey on November 12, 2012 at 9:36 PM
dailycaller.com/2012/11/11/white-house-website-deluged-with- $ecession -petitions-from-19-states/
You’ll have to cut and paste. The mod won’t allow the “s” word. HotAir is not grown up enough to handle it.
davidk on November 12, 2012 at 9:36 PM
Exactly.
They are already being unionized. That’ll be cost effective.
Mimzey on November 12, 2012 at 9:37 PM
that’s a good point. we need to keep repeating that.
Sachiko on November 12, 2012 at 9:37 PM
http://dailycaller.com/2012/06/01/white-house-website-petition-to-obama-please-create-do-not-kill-list/
davidk on November 12, 2012 at 9:38 PM
Look, it`s really quite simple. Like Dennis Miller says, come in the front door and sign the guest book. That`s all!
ThePrez on November 12, 2012 at 9:39 PM
Where I live there are a lot of Mexicans who have been coming from the same towns in Mexico working the same farms here in the US for the better part of a century. These are hard working, church going people. Things ARE a little different in the big cities than they are on the farms. We have many from places like El Salvador and Guatemala and Nicaragua and Honduras that are basically economic refugees. We have to distinguish between the workers and those who just show up, head for the barrio, and immediately go on welfare.
If someone has been here for a while, is a member of their community in good standing, is holding down a steady job and hasn’t been in trouble, I am fine with letting them stay because those are the kind of people we always want in our community no matter where they come from. If they have served in the military or have an advanced degree, give them a path to citizenship. But if they land in jail or use welfare for more than 1 year out of their first 5 here, they need to go home.
My view of these people might be different than that of folks in other parts of the country. A close friend’s parents had a ranch here in California and the people who worked that ranch were just as much a part of their community as anyone else. The old man took care of the doctor when they were sick, made sure the babies were baptized, saw that the daughters had their quinceañera when they turned 15. He was a strong Catholic and so were the help on his ranch. He made sure everyone got to church on Sunday who wanted to go, too, which was most of the folks who worked there who had their families with them … the single guys not so much sometimes.
But one thing I would want to get rid of is this notion of keeping them separate with bi-lingual everything. If they are going to live here, they need to be able to work within the system here and not have a separate parallel system. That doesn’t do them any good and just keeps them segregated.
crosspatch on November 12, 2012 at 9:39 PM
http://blog.chron.com/txpotomac/2012/11/the-petition-to-let-texas- $ecede-from-the-u-s-to-be-reviewed-by-the-white-house/
Again, copy and paste.
davidk on November 12, 2012 at 9:41 PM
That and the mind set that “Whatever keeps the price of arugula low”
This is no different than the rationale for slavery in the Antebellum South.
“HEII boy!..you know what those longjohns would cost if I had to pay good ‘ol southern boys to pick that cotton?”
Mimzey on November 12, 2012 at 9:41 PM
Yep.
WisCon on November 12, 2012 at 9:42 PM
You only need the blue part.
davidk on November 12, 2012 at 9:42 PM
NO BORDERS!
Anything less is racist!
Dissolve America now!
profitsbeard on November 12, 2012 at 9:43 PM
If they’re such good people, then why don’t they go to the immigration office and start the paper work to get their citizenship? We have a perfectly good immigration program. People should follow the rules.
And republicans shouldn’t agree to anymore comprehensive immigration bills until the enforcement part of all past bills is completed and put in place.
hopeful on November 12, 2012 at 9:51 PM
Use tinyurl.
If Mexicans are such hardworking and honest folk, why is it that Mexico is such a 3rd world corrupt hellhole? You know, being filled with Mexicans and all.
Rebar on November 12, 2012 at 9:55 PM
The problem…down the road..with letting people stay if they are “good” and law abiding when those people are from Mexico, is that it sets the stage for “Equality grievances” in the courts and a gaggle of lawyers and sob stories.
If that standard applies to Mexican’s, on what grounds do you NOT permit the same for..anybody from anywhere, under whatever means they arrived on this side of the border?
Its the same tactic that has worked so well for other grievances.
Just set the precedent, and the lawyers will take it from there.
Mimzey on November 12, 2012 at 9:55 PM
And there would be no one to feed the unicorns. The unicorns damn it.
xblade on November 12, 2012 at 10:00 PM
Because they don’t let illegal Guatemalans pick their crops, silly.
xblade on November 12, 2012 at 10:03 PM
America’s mistake was situating itself next to a poorer culture. Osmosis will always force migration of people from areas of low wealth to areas of higher wealth. The reason the northern border doesn’t experience this same migration is because the relative levels of wealth are similar.
And since the US has never cared enough to deport illegals as a matter of national security, it has now created so many illegals that it has become politically problematic to deport them now. In short, it’s too late to do what is right.
But this idea that Mexicans are needed for the economy is baseless. Who picked the lettuce and mowed the lawns before the Mexicans came? Was the lettuce not picked? Did the grass grow long and wild? Of course, if getting it done for the cheapest price is the name of the game, then welcome to the Third World. Selling America’s soul to the cheapest bidder -whether it is outsourcing to India, manufacturing in China, or importing Mexicans to do menial jobs – is a fool’s paradise.
keep the change on November 12, 2012 at 10:06 PM
Georgia passed an AZ style immigration law in 2011. Illegals left the state, and the local farmers were left with rotting crops.
HarryBackside on November 12, 2012 at 10:10 PM
If we listen to John McCain, et al then there are jobs Americans won’t do, like farming. If we make all the illegal immigrants Americans what makes them think they will continue doing it?
The Japanese did work permits with Koreans decades ago. Now they are screaming for citizenship which is natural given that they never intend to return to Korea and have been there for generations.
As long as we have birth right citizenship then a work permit is just a quick an easy way to make your children US citizens and create an opportunity for yourself to stay permanently. If we allow work permits every child born to a Mexican will be be born in the US.
Rocks on November 12, 2012 at 10:11 PM
I think yer right!
Mimzey on November 12, 2012 at 10:11 PM
Why is that?
What crops?
Mimzey on November 12, 2012 at 10:13 PM
And every farmer in Georgia went broke and everyone in the state starved to death?
How did I miss that news?!
profitsbeard on November 12, 2012 at 10:15 PM
If America adopted Mexican immigration laws, the Mexicans would go completely out of their minds.
Rebar on November 12, 2012 at 10:16 PM
And that’s why everyone in Georgia starved to death, and the state is now merely a desolate wasteland where a once thriving population existed…..
xblade on November 12, 2012 at 10:20 PM
How about, then, instead of legalizing an unarmed invasion of our southern border, we exempt agricultural workers from all minimum wage, workplace safety,FICA rules, etc – you know, just to level the playing field? See how it goes for a year or two? Yeah, maybe 8-10 million people here in America would go hungry if we sent those 8-10 million illegals back to Mexico…oh…wait…
Knott Buyinit on November 12, 2012 at 10:21 PM
Legal workers programs, then apply legally to stay, or go home.
Otherwise it’s not fair ot JPeterman and RWM, who came here legally and waited out any time they had to.
Schadenfreude on November 12, 2012 at 10:26 PM
We need to be in favor of the free market. The solution is to have open borders to allow for the free exchange of goods and labor. What we need to also do, though, is get rid of the attendant welfare state. Let labor come. Let businesses grow. Let the consumer reap the benefits.
Dante on November 12, 2012 at 10:32 PM
Sure, if you have no interest in having a country at all.
xblade on November 12, 2012 at 10:43 PM
Great!
Lets start with Mexico, let them get this ball rolling.
Rebar on November 12, 2012 at 10:52 PM
You should pay attention to the rest of the post instead of cherry picking. Or, you could present a counter-argument, if you are able.
Dante on November 12, 2012 at 10:53 PM
well then the farmers should have gotten off their butts and gone to work… lol
Sachiko on November 12, 2012 at 11:26 PM
How did Europeans feed themselves for thousands of years before the importation of cheap Mexican farmworkers.
I think that little black kid was right. I do want to put them back to work on the crops. Off the welfare, out of the projects, and into the fields.
And if we still can’t find enough farm labourers here in our own country, there’s a long history of Mexicans traveling north to work in the States during the season, and going home when it’s done.
sartana on November 12, 2012 at 11:34 PM
This. A thousand times this.
WeekendAtBernankes on November 12, 2012 at 11:34 PM
Link?
hawkdriver on November 13, 2012 at 3:16 AM