Illegal Immigrants

I just got an email forward this morning, which I will include at the end of this posting. It's about illegal immigrants. If I can't get up on my soapbox here, then I don't know where else I can. Here's a copy of my reply.
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My wife Cara works at a low-income school as well, where every single kid is on free breakfast and lunch, and out of all her students, there are only two white kids, and the rest are children of undocumented residents. Here's what I think about this lady's points, for what its worth:

She says that these kids come from a culture that doesn't value hard work, and that they are lazy and entitled. That's not the mexican culture, THAT IS OUR CULTURE. We taught their kids to act like that. We have a culture that values selfishness and rewards laziness, a culture where people learn that if they whine enough, they can get anyone to do anything for them. We have a culture that teaches the youth not to respect authority and to be more concerned with MTV Music Video Awards than Nobel Prizes. We have a culture that pays lip service to religion, and expects teenagers to be sexually active.

Cara has parent-teacher conferences with the mothers and fathers of these children, and they are, with one or two exceptions, hard-working and moral people, with both parents holding down two of three of those five-dollars-an-hour jobs, so they can make their ends meet and provide their children with, what they see, as a lifestyle comparable to the ones they see teenagers having on TV. Who told them their kids have to have cell phones, be rude to teachers, and act wastefully? WE DID. Who is telling them that it's normal to have sex at a toung age? WE ARE. How can we be suprised when they live up to our expectations?

Oh, and by the by, sure these families don't pay income tax, due to their low income bracket, but that doesn't mean they don't pay taxes. They pay rent to their landlords, who take part of that money and pay property tax. They pay sales tax on everything they buy. And how are local schools funded? By the sales and property tax paid by people living in the area. So they are not getting a free ride, like the woman below suggests.

Bilingual signs seem to outrage her; how dare the government accept anything other than English? Well, if she has travelled to almost anywhere else in the world, she would notice that almost everything there is posted in two or more languages. How lucky she is that one of them is usually English, so that she doesn't have to put forth the effort to learn a new language, which is exactly what she expects people here to do. Between my wife and I, we have lived in Russia, China, Ecuador, and central eastern Africa, and we have been suprised at how easy it is to get around knowing English. Is it that horrible of a thing to now be in the position the rest of the world has been in for years, one where we might have to know more than one language? In an increasing global society, it is ignorant of us to expect everyone to speak English to us. At the same time, though, I agree that if someone wants to live in a certain country, they should try to learn the language of their new country; were I to move to Mexico, I would learn spanish, for sure. But does this woman realize that these familes ARE trying to learn english? Language learning ability decreases drastically with age, any linguist will tell you that. I've seen Mexican parents in stores, trying out their halting english on the clerks as they check out, and you know what? The clerks get impatient and roll their eyes. Now, how encouraging do you think that is? That's right, make fun of them, while they are trying to learn english. That's a great way to tell them to stop trying.

This women blames every problem facing our country today on these illegal immigrants; "Higher insurance, medical facilities closing, higher medical costs, more crime, lower standards of ed ucation in our schoo ls, overcrowding, new diseases etc., etc, etc." were her exact words, typos included. Do you think, that by turning our southern border into a new Iron Curtain, that all these will be solved? Every wave of immigration into this country has been met with outrage by the people already living here. None of us are old enough to remember the horrors caused by the influx of Irish, or the way that the increasing number of Italians was going to bring about the downfall of the country. Now, maybe those things were bad, but like it or not, those events shaped our country and our culture, and to now be trying to defend that culture from the influence of Mexico seems like an arbitrary line drawn in the sand. Cities look at their Chinatowns and Little Italy's as a point of civic pride and diversity, where the high-class ruling elite can go for authentic cuisine and tourists can go to get souvenirs. Cities look at their Little Mexicos and their Tortilla Flats as slums, and try not to think about them too much. Of course, that's exactly how the Chinatowns and Little Italy's started, too.

Is the system perfect? No. Do I know how to fix it? Not really. I do know, though, that Mexico is dealing with the same problem....their southern border is just as leaky as ours, and their political meetings in Mexico City are all about how to stem the tide of Guatemalans flooding in from the south. Maybe we should follow suit, and all sneak into Canada.

Just because someone is really angry and types in bright purple underlined words, doesn't mean they have the high moral ground. You can't close the door after you get in. These peopel are here illegally only because we say so. Why don't we just grant mass amnesty to everyone who is here, and then re-write the immigration code so that it's easier to become a citizen? Now, think about your reaction to that last statement. Would that be the end of our country as we know it? Yeah, maybe, but maybe if we didn't treat these kids like illegals, they would stop acting illegally.

-David

(p.s. Personally, I am always doubtful of the authenticity of email forwards anyways, expecially those that urge you to pass them on to everyone you know. It gets to the point where the message is from a complete stranger, with no accountability for the opinions therein and no way to check sources or find deeper information. Which is just another way of saying, don't forward this to everyone you know. Form your own opinion, whichever side you land on, and have personal conversations about it instead)

(p.p.s. I didn't mean to offend anybody, and I didn't mean to write such a long email. Sorry.)
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And here's the original forward that sparked this diatribe:
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Cheap Tomatoes

This English teacher has phrased it the best I've seen yet.
Tomatoes and Cheap Labor

CHEAP TOMATOES?
This should make everyone think, be you Democrat, Republican or Independent
From a California school teacher - - -

"As you listen to the news about the student protests over illegal immigration, there are some things that you should be aware of:

I am in charge of the English-as-a-second-language department at a large southern California high school which is designated a Title 1 school, meaning that its students average lower socioeconomic
and income levels

Most of the schools you are hearing about, South Gate High, Bell Gardens , Huntington Park , etc., where these students are protesting, are also Title 1 schools.

Title 1 schools are on the free breakfast and free lunch program. When I say free breakfast, I'm not talking a glass of milk and roll -- but a full breakfast and cereal bar with fruits and juices that would make a Marriott proud. The waste of this food is monumental, with trays and trays of it being dumped in the trash uneaten. (OUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK)

I estimate that well over 50% of these students are obese or at least moderately overweight. About 75% or more DO have cell phones. The school also provides day care centers for the unwed teenage pregnant girls (some as young as 13) so they can attend class without the inconvenience of having to arrange for babysitters or having family watch their kids. (OUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK)

I was ordered to spend $700,000 on my department or risk losing
funding for the upcoming year even though there was little need for anything; my budget was already substantial. I ended up buying new computers for the computer learning center, half of which, one month later, have been carved with graffiti by the appreciative students who obviously feel humbled and grateful to have a free education in America . (OUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK)

I have had to intervene several times for young and substitute te achers whose classes consist of many illegal immigrant students here in the country less then 3 months who raised so much hell with the female teachers, calling them "Putas" (whores) and throwing things, that the teachers were in tears.

Free medical, free education, free food, day care
etc., etc, etc. Is it any wonder they feel entitled to not only be in this country but to demand rights, privileges and entitlements?

To those who want to point out how much these illegal immigrants contribute to our society be cause they LIKE their gardener and housekeeper and they like to pay less for tomatoes: spend some time in the real world of illegal immigration and see the TRUE costs.

Higher insurance, medical facilities closing, higher medical costs, more crime, lower standards of ed ucation in our schoo ls, overcrowding, new diseases etc., etc, etc. For me, I'll pay more for tomatoes.
Americans, We need to wake up. The guest worker program will be a disaster because we won't have the guts to enforce it. Does anyone in their right mind really think they will voluntarily leave and return?


It does, however, have everything to do with culture: A third-world culture that does not value education, that accepts children getting pregnant and dropping out of school by 15 and that refuses to assimilate, and an American culture that has become so weak and worried about " political correctness" that we don't have the will to do anything about it.

If this makes your blood boil, as it did mine, forward this to everyone you know.

CHEAP LABOR? Isn't that wha t the whole immigration issue is about?

Business doesn't want to pay a decent wage.

Consumers don't want expensive produce.

Government will tell you Americans don't want the jobs.

But the bottom line is cheap labor. The phrase "cheap labor" is a myth, a farce, and a lie. There is no such thing as "cheap labor."

Take, for example, an illegal alien with a wife and five children. He takes a job for
$5.00 or 6.00/hour. At t hat wage, with six dependents, he pays no income tax, yet at the end of the year, if he files an Income Tax Return, he gets an "earned income credit" of up to $3,200 free.

He qualifies for Section 8 housing and subsidized rent.

He qualifies for food stamps.

He qualifies for free (no deductible, no co-pay) health care.

His children get free breakfasts an d lunches at school.

He requires bilingual teachers and books.

He qualifies for relief from high energy bills.

If they are or become, aged, blind or disabled, they qualify for SSI. Once qualified for SSI they can qualify for Medicare. All of this is at (our) taxpayer's expense.

He doesn't worry about car insurance, life insurance, or homeowners insurance.

Taxpayers provide Spanish lang uage signs, bulletins and printed material.

He and his family receive the equivalent of $20.00 to $30.00/hour in benefits.

Working Americans
are lucky to have $5.00 or $6.00/hour left after paying their bills and his.

The American taxpayers also pay for increased crime, graffiti and trash clean-up.

Cheap labor? YEAH RIGHT! Wake up people!

THESE ARE THE QUESTIONS WE SHOULD BE ADDRESSING TO THE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES FOR EITHER PARTY. 'AND WHEN THEY LIE TO US AND DON'T DO AS THEY SAY, WE SHOULD REPLACE THEM AT ONCE!'

THIS HAS GOT TO BE PASSED ALONG TO AS MANY AS POSSIBLE OR WE WILL ALL GO DOWN THE DRAIN BECAUSE A FEW DON'T CARE
AMEN!!!
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