My local newspaper, the Star Tribune, has a very sad story about how tough it is to be an illegal immigrant here in Minnesota. 

The story, I am sure, is repeated across America. With literally uncounted millions of illegals having crossed the border, the competition for illegal jobs has heated up. 

"You have to be the fastest": Migrants face tough competition for cash day jobs on one Minneapolis corner https://t.co/jYr3ccj2s5

— Star Tribune (@StarTribune) February 18, 2024

Let me be clear: I have no personal gripes against illegal immigrants for wanting to work and make a better life. Individual illegal immigrants may be bad actors--too many are--but my anger over illegal immigration is directed mainly at our ruling class, who aren't defending ordinary Americans against a flood of illegal immigrants our country can't absorb. 

Still, whatever sympathy I have for the illegal immigrants whose major personal flaw was to have had the misfortune to be born in what Trump rightly called a s**thole country, I can't work up a lot of sympathy for people who came here illegally only to find that the streets are not paved with gold. 

My local newspaper thinks I should. 

As a dark SUV pulled up to a south Minneapolis street corner, Manuel and more than a dozen migrants sprinted down the sidewalk and mobbed the vehicle, clamoring for a seat inside. He tried to fight his way in, but a few men shoved past him into the backseat.

Manuel retreated, a power drill in the crook of his arm. Another day-labor job lost. Another bout of loitering on the corner, waiting, hoping another driver slowed down to pick up a few more migrants for a cash gig.

"They know we need a job and we'll pretty much work for anything," Manuel said in Spanish, his dark shoes and pants spattered with white paint.

A Darwinian scramble for survival plays out dozens of times a day at this corner, where scores of Ecuadorian migrants who arrived in the U.S. only months before desperately compete for any jobs they can land without work permits. The work-seekers, most of them men, say they'll do any job for almost any amount. To get in the backseat, Manuel said, "You have to be the fastest."

What, exactly, did they expect? And, I wonder, how many tax dollars are going to support them already? 

That second question is, practically speaking for Americans, the more immediately relevant one, but only by answering the first can we get a handle on how to solve this problem long term. 

Even if we don't know precisely what these particular illegal immigrants thought when they trekked from whatever country they originated, we do know the answers to both these questions. 

How much are we spending on illegal aliens? Way too much. The dollar figures only matter in the abstract; the real answer is that our cities and our social services are groaning under the weight of millions of illegals. 

What were they thinking? Exactly what Joe Biden, the UN, and all the nonprofits who facilitate this mass migration from countries around the world to the US want them to: Come to America, and we will take care of you. 

Cesar's peak earnings totaled $700 a month when he worked construction in Ecuador, but he struggled to survive as the economy plummeted. At 43, he trekked through the perilous jungles of the Darién Gap and crossed into Arizona with his teenage son in December.

They stayed for a week at an overflowing homeless shelter in New York. The city has faced a multibillion-dollar crisis as it struggles to follow a legal mandate to provide shelter for all who need it, and is paying for migrants to fly to other destinations. Cesar chose a ticket to Minnesota — the fifth most common destination — and moved into a hotel that Hennepin County is using to shelter homeless families in Brooklyn Park. He heard that he could pick up odd jobs at this corner in Minneapolis' Whittier neighborhood, and began leaving the shelter at 5:45 a.m. to take three bus rides here.

His most pressing aim has been to pay off $10,000 in debt for the coyote who facilitated his journey to the border. Then he'd like to find an apartment and an immigration lawyer. Early on, Cesar received $150 for a day of drywall work. Then a more established Ecuadorian promised him $150 a day for painting an apartment. The man didn't show up the third day to pay him, stiffing Cesar.

Average Americans are being harmed by this flood of illegal immigrants, but obviously some specific people are making bank on the crisis. That $10,000 to the coyote? He is a cartel member, undoubtedly, who probably has threatened Cesar's family if he doesn't pay up. The hotels are getting paid, the social workers who manage this, the nonprofits, and the immigration lawyers are doing well enough. 

It's the rest of us who are getting screwed. And, to an extent, Cesar is as well. He is simply the excuse for all those others to make bank, and life is a bit harder here than he was told. 

Almost none of the illegal immigrants flooding the country are actually "asylum seekers," although "asylum" is the magic word that gets them across the border and those government benefits. 

Most are economic migrants, although now that our borders are open, we are getting our share of truly bad actors. Those military-aged men who are crossing the border alone can't all be innocents, and the crime stats show that. 

Chances are good that Biden will pretend to have an election-year conversion on the border and attack Republicans for being soft on illegal immigration. 

In a sane world, the MSM would laugh at him and point out that the border crisis began when he entered office, but instead they will follow directions and turn their fire on Republicans. 

Will it work? Only with people who want to be fooled. How many of those will there be?

One is too many, and there will be millions. The MSM will ensure that there are.