Why are Arizonans So Mad about Illegal Immigration?

With the passage of Prop 200 Arizona has been put center stage on the issue of illegal immigration. The passage of the prop into law the state has become the target of legal action from special interest groups as well as the Mexican government. This is bad enough, but then add articles from the Arizona Republic, and other publications, and passions could start to get out of hand.

Salvador Reza wrote an article entitled “What is it about Mexicans” in yesterdays AZ Republic. The thesis of his essay is that Mexicans are the most abused and discriminated against people in the world. He likens their plight to Native Americans who battled European settlers and Africans who were brought here as slaves. This is, of course, patently absurd. The plight of Mexicans in the US is much better than the plight of Mexicans in Mexico; this is why they come here. Life is improved for these people when they come to the US. Why do “Human Rights” advocates refuse to condemn the abuses people in Mexico are subjected to that cause them to risk everything to leave the country? Mexico is a mind numbingly corrupt society and no one, not even Mr. Reza cares.

In his eyes illegal Mexican immigrants have a RIGHT to come to the US and get hand-outs of tax payer money. I have news for Mr. Reza; no one has a RIGHT to come to the US. They do not have a RIGHT to enter illegally. They do not have RIGHT to a job. They do not have a RIGHT public assistance. This is true no matter what nation the person comes from. The only people who have a RIGHT to public services are CITIZENS and LEGAL immigrants.

Salavador Reza wants desperately to make the issue of illegal immigration into an issue of race. It is not. Most Americans do not have any problem with legal Mexican immigrants. Legal immigrants are vital to the future of the country. There is need for immigration reform but reform cannot take place until our boarders are secured. Without boarder security immigration reform is meaningless and more states will need to follow Arizona’s lead in attempting to deal with the problem. What Mr. Reza and the Mexican government should be doing is trying to stop illegal immigration and then work with the US government to allow more people to come here to work legally.

The dark side of illegal immigration that no human rights advocate will talk about is its relationship with organized crime. Human traffickers, or Coyotes, are the worst type of criminal scum. They charge people huge amounts of money to smuggle them into the US. Many times they force the immigrants to carry drugs across the boarder. Often the Coyotes will abandon the immigrants in the Arizona desert with no water and miles from any town or road. Once the immigrants make it to a city like Phoenix they are blackmailed, and sometimes murdered by Coyotes who are extorting money from the illegal immigrants. Coyotes steal cars from major metro areas to use in the smuggle operations which increase auto insurance rates. Illegal immigrants face death in a multitude of different ways when coming to the US; they can dies in the desert from exposure; they can be murdered by smugglers; they can be killed in frequent, horrific car accidents in over loaded vehicles. All of these things lead to huge problems of crime and health care for the aliens.

In addition to the criminal aspect associated with illegal immigration there is a larger economic issue. Illegal immigrants come to the US for work. US employers love to hire these people because they can pay them under the table at lower wages than Americans are willing to make. This costs tax revenue and causes American workers to be pushed out of jobs. The excuse that people like Mr. Reza might use against this argument is that Americans will not do the jobs that illegal aliens will do. This is totally false; Americans will not work for less than fair market value for their labor. They will not work a job that pays cash under the table for less than minimum wage. In fact, illegal immigration completely undermines the purpose of a minimum wage because employers can always hire an illegal under the table.

All of these issues cause a huge burden on the US economy. The job loss and crime associated with illegal immigration cost money - huge money - measured in the billions of dollars per year. This is money that should be in the pockets of US workers; user for services that benefit US workers. It is time that Americans stand up and DEMAND that our boarders be secured and immigration properly controlled and people like Salvador Reza should shut the hell up!