Americans can never agree about anything. That's obvious in the loud contention surrounding elections, football games and bar fights. Likewise, Americans aren't looking at the illegal immigration OR the economy with both eyes open. For instance, I daily read claims that our economy is healthy, vibrant, growing. Yet, I have watched my income and retirement funds go downhill for several years now. This holds true for nearly everyone I know. But, of course, I live in Michigan-the rapidly-developing third-world state. And, yes, we do have illegal immigrants here-taking jobs. Michigan's experience is not unique, however, as the decline spreads to other states and even as far as California.
Economists with fancy-sounding titles and impressive bylines will eagerly tell you the economy depends on the stock market-and the markets aren't that bad. I have always contended that the economy in actuality has little to do with the stock market and everything to do with if we have a job and make enough to pay our bills. We don't buy groceries with our stock holdings, or pay our rent or put gas in our car or pay the electric bill. Even though the middle-class now owns stocks in the form of mutual funds and IRA's, the fact remains that these are our savings-not grocery money. Globalization and heavily-managed trade has made big profits for the few-and most of our mutual funds have simply provided liquidity for the wheelings and dealings of the monied classes. The many have not benefitted-and that includes those members of other NAFTA signer-nations who hadn't the stronger resources of the American middle-class.
Already disenfranchised by corruption in all levels of government, the Mexican lower classes have been terribly hurt by NAFTA. They and the long-suffering denizens of several Central and South American nations come here because they feel they have no choice. Little do they realize they are simply another tool of the elite used to increase profits and lower our standard of living. Our way of life will eventually come to resemble the one they left-and far more quickly than most people realize.
Most of the more vocal of proponents of open borders do not see that the "free movement of labor" is yet another part of the plans for a globalized economy. When we are sternly reminded by politicians and paid economists that we cannot stand in the way of the "natural course of events", we are being talked down to by elitists who could care less if we all starve, as long as next quarter's profits go up and we don't show up on their doorstep looking for a handout. Propagandists for "free trade" as it is being called, insist business "needs" laborers. This is just about as disingenuous as Bill Clinton's claims that outsourcing would be no problem because we would become a "service economy". In order to keep this charade airborne, government has continually adjusted unemployment figures, market basket contents and job creation figures to reflect the numbers they want it to reflect. The true facts are that there are higher numbers of un-and under-employed than we have seen in generations, and this is reflected in the foreclosure rate, the credit card debt and the welfare rolls. All of this is not, of course, caused by illegal immigration. But when added to the wholesale outsourcing of manufacturing and service jobs, the impact is monumental.
Now enter the huge numbers of illegal alien entrants. Aided and abetted by both our government and Mexico's, we now deal with an estimated 20-30 million illegal aliens.
Business, amoral by nature, loves competition for jobs as it means they can lower wages. Reports that these are only "jobs Americans wont do" begs the fact that these are jobs that Americans have been doing for generations at decent wages and those wages have dropped as much as 50% because illegal workers were willing to do them for less. Anyone who doubts this is an expected result needs only look at Europe where the European Union has encouraged illegal immigration to the detriment of the native population. That this wave of encroaching humanity has become a serious problem is evidenced by the proclamations of several European nations that they will imprison and forcibly deport illegal entrants. Several European countries have faced riots and serious social disruption from huge numbers of unassimilated alien entrants. We can expect the same if nothing is done to bring a halt to it. And we simply cannot assimilate the huge numbers now here who choose to remain within their self-created enclaves of native culture.
The tolerance for illegal immigration has always had a large economic component in the US. Migrant farm workers have been part of our society for nearly our entire history. In times of labor shortage, the government turned a blind eye to increased illegal immigration. When times became tougher, government made serious efforts to reduce their numbers. And migrant farm workers habitually worked for a season and returned home. In truth, seasonal farm work does not pay enough to support a family in the US for the year-and never has. Therefore, short-term farm labor will likely be necessary and unless there are major changes in the way seasonal workers are paid, they will of necessity go home after the growing season. In today's lax enforcement climate, farm labor soon finds they can make considerably more money-enough to survive here-in other jobs such as manufacturing. When government does nothing to stop this such as demanding true proof of citizenship and fails to prosecute the huge number of illegal workers committing identity fraud, it becomes clear to these illegal entrants that the welcome gates are wide open-as long as they don't demand wage parity. Society then picks up the costs for health care, education and social services for these underpaid workers.
Now, however, there is a change; no matter how many jobs are lost, the government scuffs cat litter over the dirty numbers and turns a blind eye to what has become an invasion. There are two main reasons for this: business needs illegal workers to keep increasing their profits so government economic and trade policies appear sound and Government has a vested interest in keeping the current Mexican political structure strong and amenable to trade policies beneficial to large international business interests.
Americans are notoriously self-absorbed when it comes to world events. For one thing, we have a large country and there is much here to keep our attention. For another, we are spoon-fed carefully-screened news on cable media . . . Pravda looks positively truthful compared to what we now see at six and eleven. So, Americans can almost be forgiven for not having the foggiest as to what conditions are like below our southern border. The US government has shoved huge sums of money at Mexico under a variety of programs, aid treaties and collaborations. In most cases, it has disappeared like cheese down a rat hole without affecting any semblance of change except more lip service and unkept promises. The only thing the rich and powerful in Mexico have learned from this is that, if they tell enough lies and make enough threats, the silly gringos will pay them off with more money. Meanwhile there is open warfare in the streets between drug cartels and federal forces, with heavy weaponry used on both sides and unbelievable loss of life.
Mexico has always been a nation of have and have-nots. Corruption is so ingrained into the fabric of Mexican life that it is generally accepted that the poor will always be exploited and that the rich will get richer. Elections become a power-struggle between the vastly differing ideologies of Marxism and global business interests. For the past twenty years, the Free Traders have been winning to the detriment of the poor. NAFTA succeeded in disrupting the one thing that most of poorer Mexico had to keep them going-subsistence farming. Without subsistence farming, most can no longer feed their families. These are for the most part, the people who have come here.
Mexico has three large pools of cash that keep its economy operating; Pemex Oil, emigrant remittances and narco-dollars. Government-owned Pemex hands over sometimes more than it makes to government. Mis-management, entrenched systems of pay-offs and dwindling oil supplies are reducing those amounts yearly. Remittances and narco-dollars keep cash circulating in the economy, with the upper classes getting a sizeable cut from drug-related corruption. As long as dis-enfranchised Mexican citizens come to the US for jobs, they not only send remittances home to support the economy but relieve pressure for change on the entrenched and corrupt officials. It is questionable, given the amounts of money involved, if Mexico will ever seriously attempt to kill the cash cow that is the drug smuggling business. Watching the posturing of Mexico would be almost humorous if it were not so deadly serious; Mexican leaders are well-aware of just how heavily invested in globalization our leaders have become and regularly take liberties, push the limits and demand concessions and our apologies for the consequences of their own behavior. Constant and worsening incursions into the United States by Mexican military in support of drug traffickers should make it clear just where the country as a whole stands in regards to us, and their contempt of our weaknesses is shared by an increasing number of the illegal aliens they encourage to come here.
In this undeclared war our-and Mexico's-poor and low-income become increasingly victimized. Business, never moral and always profit-hungry, demands more and cheaper workers as they know that surplus lowers wages. Government ignores the pleas of the people as the grand plan for the North American Union takes precedence over American citizens. The "enlightened" upper-middle class self-righteously declares immigration is a "human right"-because it isn't their jobs or their neighborhood that are disappearing-and they hate having to mow their own lawn. Many of them believe globalization to be a good thing-because they are garnering the benefits of it and they have invested years of ideology in a belief system that is rapidly proving to be false. As job losses move farther up the rungs of the ladder, however, such liberal largess becomes victim to the need for self-preservation and more voices are added to the chorus demanding enforcement and reduction.
Not only are the poor displaced farmers of Mexico and Central America coming here; experienced veterans of the drug cartels and violent gangs have come to what is truly the land of opportunity. Their cost to the economy is enormous in terms of policing, victim costs and human life. They have little to fear when, if they are caught committing crimes, they can simply change their name and disappear into the vast hoards of illegal native countrymen who have taken over entire large portions of our major cities. The invasion is so vast, the numbers so large and the populations so dense that finding these perpetrators becomes impossible without uprooting a full half of entire neighborhoods and deporting them all. And even these gang members ordinarily have jobs here-jobs Americans used to do.
So, yes, illegal immigration DOES negatively impact our economy. It is NOT the only thing impacting the economy, however. Illegal immigration is part and parcel of the larger picture of Globalization. One side benefit of the headlong rush to remove our jobs and lower our standard of living is the fact that a beaten-down and homeless population is far less likely to organize a cohesive defense and will likely become much like those citizens of Mexico and Central America who come here-unable to defend their rights and representative form of government. Perhaps we should send them home with a good working knowledge of running a democratic country. When we refuse to defend our borders, we are failing them even in that.