I was born and raised in Texas and my family has been here since before the Revolution. (It was Mexico back then. Does that make us Mexican?
)
DSis and I were discussing this "they do jobs Americans won't do" line, which I don't buy for a minute. Americans will do the jobs, but they're going to want a bit more money, be eligible for worker's comp, etc. NEWSFLASH: When illegal aliens become citizens, they're going to expect that too. Ooops, businesses.....Your cheap labor vanishes! Anyway, she's several years older and I asked her if she remembered any Mexicans being around when we were growing up, because I didn't remember seeing any until around the early to mid-80s. In Texas.....not the valley, though. She said I was remembering correctly.
Well, our yards were mowed, our houses got built, our children had sitters, the crops were planted and picked, the roads were maintained and the chicken factory kept shipping out drumsticks. Our world ran quite smoothly. It did not grind to a halt, yet there were no illegal aliens to "do the work Americans won't do" because Americans DID THE WORK. And if every illegal alien disappeared tomorrow, yes there would be an adjustment period, but we'd adapt and Americans would do the jobs again. Artificially depressed wages would rise and we'd pay more for some things, but I think that would be offset by what we're now spending on programs for illegal aliens. Grass would not be 2 feet tall in our yards and hotel rooms would indeed get cleaned. We would figure it out. If we can put a man on the moon, we can manage without illegal aliens.
After DSis and I talked, I wondered
WHY there had been no (illegal) Mexicans in our part of Texas for so long. I mean, we're a border state. After the 1986 amnesty, illegal immigration snowballed, but why was it so limited
before that, especially in my sister's and my youth? I started researching and also came across the program mentioned above, with the mega politically incorrect name of Operation Wetback, instituted by Eisenhower. Suddenly, all was explained.
Not even the most rabid anti-illegal immigration candidate will
EVER mention Operation Wetback because of that name. But it does blow "it's not realistic to think we can deport them" right out of the water. Eisenhower didn't even deport that high a percentage. He made it unpleasant enough to stay in the US and took away the incentive to be here so that many self-deported and others decided not to come in the first place. The illegal immigrant population plummeted in a short time.
I'm not a racist, I'm a realist. If we're talking about Mexico, Mexico will never have any incentive to solve its problems so long as it can foist off its poor on the US. And as long as it can send its poor to the US, it will avoid solving its problems. The elite there have no reason to change things. They're doing fine. In 100 years, the situation will be the same. A true favor to Mexicans would be to seal that border and force Mexico face its problems and treat its own citizens decently. It has plenty of natural resources and there is no reason so many of its people should live in such poverty. Crossing into the US is a bandaid on a cancerous lesion. Mexico's presidents chuckle every time one of their citizens crosses the US border because it's one less headache for them and more money coming back to Mexico. I believe Mexico treats people who enter Mexico illegally....mainly from the south.....quite harshly and locks them away for a few years. Seems they only like illegals going in ONE direction.
At any rate, who can blame someone for wanting to go where they can make enough money to help their family? Probably no one. But it is not OUR problem to fix, because the problem lies in their own country, wherever that may be. In the case of Texas, we have Mexico right next door. Illegal immigration from Mexico will never (almost) stop until Mexico improves the living conditions for its own people and it will NEVER do that until its hand is forced. It is high time that happened. The US cannot keep taking on an endless number of illegal aliens from Mexico (in this case) and Mexicans deserve better from their own government. They shouldn't have to flee their own country to be able to live a decent life.
