Titanic Post

by Ken Nicholson

We have 12 million “undocumented” immigrants because there are 12 million illegal jobs open for them here and none available for them in Mexico. There is nothing in play but an unregulated free market and all your fences and all your Border Patrol will not stop them from coming here.

If you really want Mexicans to stay home in Mexico, write to your representatives and urge them to put pressure on the Mexican government that they do something about the corrupt monopolies, about their destruction of the middle class, about their destroying jobs for poor Mexicans.

Complain to this government about NAFTA and our flooding the Mexican market with crops and products Mexicans should be growing and manufacturing for themselves, such as corn and tortillas.

Quit blaming the victims for Mexican and U.S. political screw-ups and their lack of imagination and concern for working people. If you are for deregulation, this, and the World Trade Organization, is what you get.

Or is it that my friend Denise Lang is right and that this whole thing really IS about race? In that case, continue to blame the victims.

Immigration is real in southern New Mexico. Living only 90 miles from the Mexican border, there is nothing academic about it: they are here. Traditionally, people come and go between Old and New Mexico. There are ties between Mexican Mexicans and Mexican Americans going back for centuries and to them the border is no barrier. What’s more, Mexicans were here before we “Anglos” even thought about gettin’ here, but that’s beside the point. Mexican citizens come here to enjoy the cool of the mountains in the summer time. They visit our Space Museum and our zoo. Some come to visit relatives and others come to work on the ranches and farms. Others work construction jobs such as brick laying, roofing, and cement finishing. This is not only because they work for less, but also because there is a shortage of skilled workers here since the demise of trade schools and public schools’ insistance on academic preparation

Yet illegal immigration is a problem and we have to deal with it. (more…)