I do not intend to make a long winded speech about the actions of our governor, nor of those politicians that slam us with the rhetoric of “we’re doing everything we can”, or “we are acting in your best interest”. It is difficult for individuals who do not use public laundry mats or send their children to public schools to understand our mundane little lives. Our lives are not worth much since they are based upon our salary caps; for most of us this is below $60,000.00 per year. In fact, according to Los Angeles News “tax returns filed before this year’s recession began showed that the average Californian earned $35,390 a year, the California Franchise Tax Board reported Saturday. Average home prices in the region, of course, are many times that — in the $600,000 range. The average married couple reported a joint income of $66,810 per year in 2006.” However, most of us possess a level of common sense that our governor and other legislators do not. Perhaps, this is because we are forced to deal with our problems with very little money or influence.
Despite what has been said, we do not have to utilize billions of dollars to resolve our issues in California. First, let’s consider our immigration policies; if we were to actually enforce them, it would mean creating a split within the Left and siding with the Right. Personally, I could care less about the Left and its bizarre policies of justified white guilt, paternalism and back pedaling. In Cost Rica, an individual that is not a citizen is not allowed to work for two years, and even then must receive special permission to do so. Costa Rica has created this law to protect its people from being displaced by foreigners who may possess higher levels of education or technical skills. There are other countries in South America that also possess various laws dealing with immigration, legal or illegal. Yet, the Left never speaks about these laws; it never speaks about the attempts of South Americans to protect their countries from unwanted immigration from the U.S. or any other country. Why is that; could it be because they are afraid that once U.S. citizens realize their stance on immigration that we would be less sympathetic towards illegal immigrants from South American countries.
But, what if we were to enforce those laws, what are the most humane and inexpensive ways to do so. Could it be that if we were to place the faces of illegal immigrants on various communication devices accessible to the U.S. public businesses who state that they had no idea that they had hired an illegal immigrant would find themselves without excuses, or that if we were to circulate these images throughout our social service systems it would provide social service workers with an valid reason for denying services to individuals that are totally incapable of speaking English; after all how do you spend more than 3 years in California and not speak English. Since it is, or was the dominant language of our institutions and government; in fact, don’t most U.S. citizens speak English even if they do speak another language. Oops my bad, I live in California and don’t speak Spanish, but then again, California is not Mexico or South America – it’s the U.S. and its dominant language is English. Wow, I’m an English speaker by birth how about that. Isn’t it possible that simply by utilizing the computer telecommunication systems we currently have in place to expose illegal immigrants that this would enable us to practice attrition – denial of services and resources to illegal immigrants thus forcing them to return to their countries of origins. In short, identify them as we identify U.S. born or naturalized citizens who have chosen to become criminals. Don’t we refuse to provide U.S. criminalized citizens with aid from social services, college educations, and even black ball them from employment as punishment for breaking the law. Don’t we expose them as criminals through shows like America’s Most Wanted and on photographs placed in post offices. Yes, we have; and without becoming a police state. So, why would I treat a foreigner who has willingly broken international law by transgressing U.S. borders any differently from how I would treat a U.S. citizen whose broken a domestic law. Why would I reward someone for doing what they know to be wrong in the first place. Maybe, if California didn’t have so many mouths to feed it would be able to afford to take care of those people who really live here.
According to the Center for Immigration Studies, “it may be true that illegal immigrants provide the cheap labor that keeps many industries afloat; however, in 2005 illegal workers displaced American workers and depressed wages at a cost of $133 billion. When tax money provided by illegal laborers is subtracted from the cost of services they utilized while present within our borders it is discovered that a net loss still occurs despite their tax contributions. Cost for illegal persons living within the US amount to: $2.5 billion in Medicaid, $2.2 billion in medical treatment, $1.9 billion in food assistance, and $1.6 billion in prison and legal, and other miscellaneous costs creating a net fiscal deficit of $10.4 billion for the federal government”. The overall costs break down to about $2,700 per illegal household per year and these losses must be covered by tax money from American citizens or by our government borrowing more money, and further increasing the national debt. I mean, I don’t know is it possible that if we were to – kick them out that we may actually decrease our deficit.
In terms of labor, construction and social service projects, don’t we have students/interns and marginalized individuals who have enrolled in various training institutions that need actual work experience in their elective field of study in order to build respectable resumes; if so, why can’t we enlist them to assist in creating: housing for homeless individuals, repair and maintain our state’s physical and administrative infrastructure; while providing various social services to legalized Californian residents (umm excuse me, those who were legalized residents without any rule bending; cough, cough amnesty). Just expand the AmeriCorp, Californian Corps and Job Corps programs into real volunteer programs open to all native born and naturalized U.S. citizens regardless of age who are taking various courses in both community and four year colleges that are preparing them to fill the types of occupations listed above; in return for service we could offer “amnesty” to those who are delinquent on their student loans, and offer to decrease or eliminate the student loans of those who are just starting college, or are recently enrolled in some form of training requiring financial aid. Oh and you wannabe flower children stop coming here the 60’s is long dead; unless you got some money, we don’t need you here. We’re hurting like everybody else. We’ve got nothing for ya. In short, why we can’t we solve our problems in California by just being real about them.