Give us your poor, your tired, your huddled masses longing to be free my ass!

Arizona has thrown down the gauntlet with Arizona Senate Bill 1070 signed by Governor Jan Brewer. I have to admit when it comes to immigration I'm really not sure which party I side with. I suppose that's a sign that I side with neither party. Or it's a sign that neither party has done anything to rectify the situation. Nothing seems to change despite the fact that most people I know are irritated by the influx of Latinos.

Demands for immigration reform are nothing new. During the Great Depression Latinos were demonized as lazy, pot smoking, criminals who must be driven back south of the border lest the nation go to hell in a hand basket. In reality, because of the depression and the dustbowl, jobs had become scarse and there was no room for the excessive labor so they became the focus of a nationwide campaign to evict them. The Irish, Italians and Puerto Ricans have all experienced the same kind of blame. As the economy recovered the U.S. slowly got back to illegal labor. Welfare, unemployment and social security were implemented to protect Americans from falling as easily into poverty as they had in the 1930's.

Slowly the economy picked up and immigrants found their way north just as before because there were jobs. The farm workers like to boast that they do a job that nobody else will do. Personally, I find it insulting. Both my paternal and maternal families have harvested fruit, walnuts and hops for more than four generations. We did it for extra spending money, for school clothes, vacations and Christmas money. It was a family affair. I have watched as the orchards have been slowly replaced by vineyards and corporate farms have infested the fields. Hard working Americans have been replaced by illegal workers who do more than pick grapes. They work in many industries such as building, landscaping, maintenance and manufacturing, displacing the American worker. Often they work for minimum wage without benefits and often under the table. In the meantime their meager incomes qualify them for welfare and medical insurance. Their children attend public school and enjoy free bussing, free lunches and extra tutoring. In other words they use resources without paying into the system. No wonder people are pissed off. Now we are experiencing another deep, deep, deep recession (alright I thinks it's a depression) which has crippled the service industry. Combined with automated unemployment, jobs have become scarce and people want those jobs back.

Enter Arizona Sentate Bill 1070. A fence is not going to solve this problem. People will always pursue a better future where there are more opportunities. They will get here one way or another. Besides, do we really want governments telling us where we can and can't go. I don't. I just paid $85.00 to the State Department for permission, in the form of a passport, to leave the country. I could have purchased an ID card too but that just seemed to facist for me. Honestly, I shouldn't need their permission. The U.S. government rarely lets their citizens emmigrate. They don't even publish that data. In fact it is called "renunciation" and it is extremely rare. If they don't want us to leave I'm not sure why they care who comes in. They definitely have control issues.

The only way to reduce immigration is to make sure they can't get a job. You take away the incentive. OR you sign them up at the border , grant them citizenship and punish employers who use undocumentated workers. You ensure that companies are withholding taxes. By the way, no more 1099's either. 1099's are bullshit for the same reason exploiting laborers is bullshit, you undercut the worker. You call them an independent contractor and then don't give them benefits or withold taxes. It seems easy enough to clamp down on business. Let the IRS do the dirty work, it is what they are good at. That should solve the problem.

Nothing is done about it because the corporate world benefits from it. Just like walmart, they exploit labor and the community foots the bill. If you don't want illegals here then clean your own damn house, wash you own damn car, mow your own damn lawn. If that's too much for you, buy a smaller house. Don't buy shit made with exploited labor. After all that is Article 23 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The people that rant the most usually have Maria come in to clean their house once a week for fifty bucks.

So back to the Arizona bill. What's the big deal? We should be deporting nationals that have broken the law. We shouldn't be providing servies to entire families because they had a baby here. But that is not what this bill is. This bill gives law enforcement the authority to stop anyone on suspicion of being illegal. It is the responsibility of the suspect to provide documentation. That is a HUGE step backwards for freedom. Law enforcement only has the authority to stop people when they have just cause, with the exception of check point charlies (DUI and security checkpoints). Checkpoints and random, racial profiling are the beginning of the police state. It's a shitty bill designed to give the government broader authority to detain people. Fuck that.

Anway, long blog. Hope you're still here.

Love, Constance