The Wizard of IM – Immigration, That Is


wizard-of-OzTin Man:  “If I only had a heart – I would see poor immigrant families risking their lives to follow the yellow brick road to prosperity in the United States.  They borrow money from their families in Mexico and Central America to pay a “coyote” or some other shyster to get them over the border, and  If they survive the trip, many end up working for slave wages and living in the shadows.  Some fathers leave their wives and children behind, sending their pay back home to feed the family and pay off debt.  Those who bring their families with them dodge immigration officials and hostile neighbors who don’t want them in their neighborhoods and schools.”

Scarecrow:  “If I only had a brain, I would know that the US economy can’t afford the loss of millions more jobs.  The huge influx of low-skilled immigrants only pushes down wage rates, and the cost of social services for them is unsustainable.   And our open border allows more than just immigrants to enter the country – do we need more drugs, crime, and terrorism?”

Cowardly Lion:  “If I only had the nerve, I would stop worrying about getting elected.  I should be doing the right thing for the future of our citizens, their kids, and even our neighbors who want to live the American dream.  I would come up with a plan that protects the security and prosperity of legal Americans, creates a sensible way for productive foreigners to share and contribute, and allows families to improve their lives through effort and ingenuity.”

Dorothy:  “I think I’m still in Kansas.  Why is everybody speaking Spanish?”

Wizard:  “Don’t look behind the curtain!  Nothing to see here!   I uh, I’m the Wizard, and everything will be, umm, all right . . . oh blast it, I don’t know what I’m doing!”


Well, there’s the script.  You can choose your own favorite actors to play the parts (I have a favorite for the Wicked Witch, too).

Unfortunately, there is no resolution to the plot.   Everybody is looking at the symptoms instead of the cause of the problem.

It’s understandable that people want to move here – we have a rich history of opportunity and economic success due to our free market economy, honest government and commonly-held values.  Even though these staples of our American heritage are at risk, enough of our founding fathers’ wisdom still remains to make the United States a leading attraction to the world’s strivers.

There is only one way this story can have a happy ending.  We have to deal with the reason why Latin Americans want to leave their homes and move to the United States:  their own governments are corrupt and dysfunctional.

What prevents our political leaders from devising a plan to help our North American neighbors improve their own nations?  Cost can’t be the problem – we are apparently willing to risk all of our wealth – and that of our children and grandchildren – to allow them to move and stay here.  It’s not that the people of other nations don’t want to be like us.  If that were true, they wouldn’t be risking all to be here.  And it can’t be that we don’t want to exert undue influence on how neighboring countries manage their affairs.  We don’t seem to have a problem meddling in other parts of the world.

If we are going to spend a bazillion dollars accommodating people who leave their own countries to come here, why not try spending a half a bazillion to make their home countries livable?   We might even find out that our neighbors can help US with some things if we treat them like friends instead of poor cousins.  Obviously, some regime changes would be in order in some of these countries.  Maybe even in ours.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Rockin' On the Right Side

Oz never did give nothing to the Tin Man
That he didn’t, didn’t already have

Tin Man – America

Here’s a great clip from an amazing but somewhat overlooked duo – America.  Enjoy.

Tell Me Again – Why Do You Support Amnesty and Illegal Immigration?

ramirez10So tell me again – why do we want to offer amnesty to illegal immigrants and encourage even more legal and (mostly Mexican) illegal immigration?   (statistics from Mark Levin’s outstanding book “Liberty and Tyranny”, comments by me)

  • Mexico only requires school attendance through the eighth grade.  One third of Mexican immigrants to the US have not graduated from high school. Any wonder why our literacy statistics are headed south? Or why the flood of unskilled and uneducated immigrants is pushing down pay rates in the US?
  • One third of immigrant-headed households are on at least one major welfare program.  No problem, we can just print more money, right?
  • One third of immigrants lack health insurance.  These are the uninsured “Americans” that we are compelled to cover under ObamaCare.
  • Over one half of Mexican immigrants are here illegally.  If our federal government and “sanctuary cities” do not enforce immigration laws, we encourage even more illegal immigration.
  • 9 percent of the population of Mexico was living in the US in 2004, and in 2007, 27% of Mexico’s labor force was working in the US and sending home $20 billion per year.  Mexico’s corrupt government and dysfunctional economy cannot sustain its growing population, so they export their labor force to the US, and the proceeds are sent back to Mexico – representing a major proportion of that nation’s income.
  • One out of five students in 2006 was Hispanic, and at current growth rates by 2050 the majority of US students will be Spanish speakers.  The stress put on US schools by immigration is reaching crisis proportions.
  • More than 55 million individuals in the US speak a language other than English at home – 34 million speak Spanish.
  • The current level of assimilation of all recent immigrant groups is lower than at any time in US history, and Mexicans are the least assimilated of any group.  Immigration no longer produces the “melting pot” of grateful and talented immigrants who became patriotic Americans and made our nation great.  Instead, we are rapidly becoming a balkanized, polarized country.
  • Mexican adolescents are imprisoned at rates 80 percent greater than the general immigrant adolescent population.  The US already has by far the greatest incarceration rate in the world.
  • Hispanic women have the highest unmarried birthrate in the country – over three times that of whites and Asians, and nearly 1.5 times that of black women.  We already know how destructive the increased number of unwed mothers is to our economy.

I will be accused of racism for reporting these truths.  Believe me, I have no ill will toward Mexicans or any other ethnic groups.  My only aim in presenting this argument is the economic survival of the United States.  Mexico certainly does not allow illegals to cross their borders.

The percent of US residents actively working is now at an all-time low.  Wage rates continue to decline.  Our competitive edge against other nations is gone due to our relative lack of skills and education.  What could possibly justify encouraging and allowing more unskilled and needy immigrants to move in?  If we stopped the flow of low-wage unskilled workers into our economy, businesses would adjust – they would increase labor rates and/or efficiency.  As long as we tolerate the status quo, businesses will take advantage of the profit opportunity – and the immigrants.

Obviously there is only one justification for amnesty and tolerance of illegal immigration, and it applies only if you are a liberal politician or bureaucrat who cares nothing for the future and security of American families.  You want to accumulate as many bodies as possible to be dependent on you, to vote for you, and to keep you in your permanent political positions of power.

Ugly, isn’t it?

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Rockin' On the Right Side

 

Tell me why you cried
And why you lied to me!

Tell Me Why – the Beatles

 

 

Amazing colorized footage of the Beatles from their first movie “A Hard Day’s Night”