Stop the Evil Greasebacks!

Well, government is just short of saying it, anyway. President Bush's comprehensive immigration reform bill died today in the Senate, in a 46 to 53 vote. VOA News has more.

What burns me about all of this immigration fuss is that it's based on hysteria. Government figures put the number of illegal immigrants in America today at 11-12 million. That number increases by half a million each year. To add to that, about 12% of Americans are foreign-born.

Now, a common argument is that Mr. And Mrs. Frito Bandito are taking jobs from the poor. This is unsubstantiated nonsense. According to the US Department of Labour , America's unemployment rate has remained at about 5%. If illegal immigration were really stealing the poor's jobs, wouldn't the unemployment rate be in the 10s, 15s, 20s?

Walls were meant to divide people. The Chinese built the Great Wall to protect themselves against the Mongols. The Berlin Wall kept Communism out of West Germany. And, in 2006, people started getting enthusiastic about building a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. But, how will this border fence be built?

700 miles of double-layered fence with access roads, lighting, cameras and sensors, to try to block five heavily used crossing points along the 2,000-mile border.

WHAT? 700 miles of fence is supposed to cover a 2000 mile border? What's going to stop the illegals from just crossing the open points? Even Reuters is skeptical of this one.

And how much is all of this supposed to cost? 2.2 billion dollars. Goddamn, that's a lot of taxpayer money for an incomplete fence.

And, what's to stop those crafty illegals from getting around it? Nothing really. No fence system is foolproof. They could burrow under the fence, climb over it, or just, you know, go through it. it doesn't take much effort to get through a double-layered fence with some clippers. Hell, you can try it at home. Illegals who want to come into the country will be restlessly innovative in their efforts to get in.

So, why exclude Mexicans from the American Dream? Well, as a country, North Americans are afraid of people who we think don't look like us. This is a RACISM issue, not a terrorism issue. And this isn't the first time this has happened, either. In 1880, the American government passed the Chinese Exclusion Act. The Gentleman's Agreement kept out the Japanese. Germans, Italians and Poles were kept out in the '20s. The very same arguments that are being used now to combat immigration were being used in the early 20th century. The fact is, people become American pretty quickly, regardless of their native tongue, or the colour of their skin.

So, let's get past all of this, okay, please? I'm sick of all of this hysterical nonsense. Can't we all just get along?