Angry and depressed

I haven't been so angry and depressed since the weeks following September 11, 2001. I'm starting to lose faith in democracy. Watching the clowns in the US Congress trying to shove the amnesty for illegal immigrants down our collective throat is a sorry spectacle. Why are they doing this? I can't figure that out. It's hard to imagine that this is just to gain a few measly "Latino" votes. Did they look at the polls and decided that, hey, since Congress is one of the most disdained institutions in America, what do they have to lose? Let's show these disdainful Americans that we can still spite them and pass a law that may, in the long term, destroy this country, and there is nothing they can do to stop us! I don't get it, I really don't. Nothing sensible comes to mind.

I'm an immigrant myself and have nothing against immigration. If this country needs millions of low-skilled workers to do the jobs that Americans allegedly don't want to do - by all means, bring them in. There are millions all over the world, who would gladly accept an invitation to come and work in America. But why reward those that broke the law to come here? One of the great things about democracy is that it is - presumably - based on the rule of law, rather than a whim of a dictator and his cronies. But what if our democratically elected "representatives" make a mockery of our laws? You are not supposed to sneak accross our borders and stay in this country however long you please, get a job, send your kids to school at our expense - but if you do, we will not only make it easy for you by not asking too many questions, but will eventually give you an expedited path to citizenship. And those suckers who wait for months and years to go through the legal, bureaucratic channels in order to emigrate to the US - well, screw them! Hell, some even say that there is nothing wrong with people from Mexico breaking our laws - after all they are Mexicans, and these are American laws - get it? - so why should they be obligated to obey them?

Oh, the myriad of ways logic and truth are getting twisted in this "debate" about illegal immigration! We're told, for example, that the illegal immigrants pay more in taxes that they get back in services. How is this possible? These people are here illegally, afraid (presumably) to be discovered, but they fill out tax returns?? What the hell for? And with what - fake social security numbers? Besides, most of them make so little that they wouldn't pay any taxes anyway. Oh, maybe their employers pay taxes on their behalf, like the 7.5 percent of the Social Security tax? Again: with fake SS numbers?? They can get busted and fined by the INS, so why would they risk getting discovered? I'm certain that most of them pay their illegal employees under the table, often below the minimum wage (another thing they would rather keep hidden from the authorities) - no tax witholdings. Pretending that it is otherwise is as stupid as the question on the tax forms that asks you to report income obtained through illegal means. How many drug dealers do you think will avail themselves of the "opportunity" to declare income from selling dope?

Or the other ruse, that the illegals take the jobs Americans don't want to do. Sure, not at the wages being offered, which, unless you share a rented room with five other men and eat regularly in charitable soup kitchens, you won't survive on. And why are the wages so low? Because the availability of dirt-cheap labor of the illegals keeps them down. So if you're a low-skilled American worker looking for a job, you can go screw yourself - your elected "representatives" don't give a rat's ass. (You probably don't vote anyway.)

We're told that it would be impossible to send the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants back to where they came from. And why not, pray tell? Nobody's proposing packing them in train cars and tranporting them en masse to Mexico (or wherever). All that's required is to start enforcing the damn laws, like making it difficult and costly for employers to hire undocumented workers. At the same time, opening a way for people to apply for work permits in the US, but only from within their country of origin, and awarding those permits fairly and expeditiously. Nobody would have to deport the illegal immigrants - I predict that most of them would rush back to their home countries and apply for those permits.