Immigration Reform - It Is What It Is Right Now

Added: (Wed Dec 23 2009)

Pressbox (Press Release) - Refrains of angst are still reverberating across the nation in reaction to the non-passage of the comprehensive immigration package promised during the election.

Even with the non-passage of the comprehensive immigration bill and some other interesting comments and actions on a political plain, the general public is still in hot opposition to the reform bill.

Witness the Speaker of the House commenting that sweeps of illegal aliens is un-American and the recent debacle where the administration removed federal authority from Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio to make immigration apprehensions. This would seem to indicate that the administration is leaning toward passing this comprehensive immigration reform bill.

And yet, there are other things going on in grassroots USA. Things that may have an impact of the final outcome of the comprehensive immigration reform initiative. For instance, the unemployment rate is well over 9 percent and on its way to 10 percent and even higher.

What does the unemployment rate have to do with immigration reform? It goes to the myth that illegal workers pick the vegetables and fruit that Americans won’t pick. The truth is that one in 20 illegal aliens happens to be farm workers. Many of them are instead working construction, in the service industry, or taking care of their children and fulfilling the role of homemakers. The truth also is that illegal immigrants “are” working while many Americans are not. However, the option, seemingly not being taken, exists for Americans to work construction or in restaurants.

Take a good look across the nation and do some reading. Most of the states are just about or are flat broke. This means taxes are increasing. The public is questioning every government expense and is getting sorely vexed at having to pay higher taxes.

Yet even with the economy being the way it is, illegal immigrants still manage to send money home. According to recent statistics, each of the roughly 12 million Mexican nationals each sends home about $4,000/year. Do the math and the figure out that Mexico’s national income from this would be close to $25 billion. This is money the U.S. could use at home rather than having it sent to Mexico.

Put another way, the money sent down south is more than enough to take care of our illegal population living in the U.S. It very much looks like the Mexican government is thrilled to have illegal workers subsidize their country; a country that doesn’t even offer basic care for its people.

This is definitely an issue well worth investigation in the greater scheme of things when it comes to the issue of comprehensive immigration reform.