Gangs » Gress... Has Issues

Mutual Corruption with Mexico

Culture, Gangs, Government, Immigration, International Relations

Sep 282010

The U.S. & Mexico Trade Jobs & Cash for Drugs & Votes

Drugs for $, $ for Votes

(Illustration courtesy Photobucket.com and Ronbosoldier.blogspot.com)

CORRUPTION FIESTA

It’s really hard to tell whose form of corruption is worse, the United States’ or Mexico’s. America (del Norte) wants to influence Mexico’s elections (pliancy), use their cheap labor, and farm their migrants for Democratic votes. Mexico, on the other hand, wants to colonize us, keep expat votes, export violent gangbangers to cities all over America, keep huge remittances flowing, and benefit from our drug dollars. Together, the two countries have created the rather well-deserved appearance that nothing will be done to stop the flow of drugs, gangs or aliens – even as we’ve recently reached a critical mass with all three.

Arguably, both countries have (slowly) failing governments, and important elections pending over the next two years. In the meantime, both are losing control over sovereign territory, bodies are piling up in Mexico — with some spillover here — and illegal aliens are being touted here as victimized, legal immigrants. Cartel-related crimes are on the rise in both countries — just ask an Arizonan or Texan — and the response is just expensive, dramatic symbolism. Logrolling gridlock.

MUTUAL COMPLACENCY

Anything more than casual observation of our “neighbor to the South” must lead to what poet T.S. Elliot referred to in “The Love Song of J.Alfred Prufrock” as “an overwhelming question.” The elusive part of this is that none of the actors involved, on either side of the border, dare ask it. To ask, you see, is for this diversity of actors to risk exposing their own inherent interest in having the chaotic status quo continue. And the question? Quite simply: Where does this lead?

With at least 23 of it’s 31 states and the Federal District surrounding Mexico City under siege by DTO’s (Drug Trafficking Organizations — not to be confused with gangs, which are there in abundance and working for the DTO’s) and close to a million of its citizens illegally crossing our border each year, and another half-million or so Mexican gangbangers flooding our cities — why the complacency? Why the political paralysis – on both sides of the border – over the seven million or so Mexicans who’ve illegally invaded our country?

LA CAUSA — TAKE BACK THE LAND!

A lot of ink has been spilled over speculation that Mexico is becoming a “failed state.” Others are concerned that too many Mexicans here legally and otherwise have no intention of ever assimilating into our culture, but are content to colonize us until their numbers are sufficient to use the electoral system to reclaim most of the US Southwest as Mexico, restored to its status prior to the Mexican-American war of 1846-48. In other words, the natives that were once conquered and colonized by Europeans, are colonizing us with a clear plan of re-conquest — The Reconquista.

If this sounds absurd and not a little bit paranoid to you, contact your local lobbyist for the National Council of La Raza, or the National MEChA. They’ll angrily confirm all of the above, and then demand free tuition, medical care, and amnesty. Of course, there’s always the indigenous peoples of North and South America who have organized to take both back from the European (ancestry) “illegals” and their “anchor babies.” That would be the Mexica Movement, a small but determined group that rejects even the names “La Raza” and “Hispanic” due to their European origins.

[These folks aren't concerned about the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo that ended the Mexican-American war in 1848. Nope. They want things restored to pre-1492. They are really upset about Christopher Columbus and the smallpox epidemic that killed indigenous people who had no immune defense against the disease -- hence the accusation of European genocide. As if Columbus invented germ warfare and deliberately killed the people whose labor and cooperation he needed. Sorry, just an interesting footnote.]

POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC MOTIVES FOR STASIS

Harper,Obama,Calderon, Dithering

Our business community is happy to have workers who are used to earning the equivalent of $4.5o/hr in their home country, our unions are eager to have millions of new members (if we taxpayers will foot the bill for the labor contracts that supply fresh jobs), and the Democrats know full well that every naturalized Mexican (and quite a few phony ID’d illegals) will pull the ‘D’ lever at election time.

The Mexican government gets to continue receiving dollar remittances for years to come, while granting dual-citizenship and absentee voting rights to a population of 30 million Mexican-Americans and another seven million or so amnestied and naturalized that won’t have to push up the unemployment stats in Mexico, or angrily lobby for essential Mexican government reforms.

Meanwhile, American consumption of the recreational drugs that Mexico either produces or transports continues unabated, allowing the threats and bribery that go hand-in-hand with prohibition to slowly destroy trust in our institutions and exacerbate racial hostility. Drug money is now funding hundreds of American police departments through legal (but probably unconstitutional) pre-trial property confiscations, and fighting the possibility of addiction is now a massive employment program at every level of our government. So it’s small wonder that you don’t see American politicians voluntarily raising the possibility of drug legalization.

MIGRATION

Unhappy Invaders

The tsunami of folks (sometimes whole families) who used to be called illegal aliens, then ‘immigrants,’ and now “Displaced Foreign Travellers,” (feel free to laugh) is wreaking havoc on our border states, and has been occurring for so long that even a large increase in the pace and volume causes no concern among the American population. Parts of those states have become “no go” zones for American citizens — too dangerous. Gang shootouts occur in these areas regularly. Many are in our national parks, where the warning signs were posted by the United States Bureau of Land Management. Did you know that the counterfeit identification card business is worth in the area of a billion dollars a year?

But maybe our concerns are misplaced. The 195 U.S. cities currently occupied by Mexican street gangs with no known legal occcupation may turn out to be just be a bunch of misguided kids working their way through a bad situation by selling drugs and killing folks you don’t know. It may be that the international drug cartels who earn billions supplying these kids with drugs for resale will never become the murderous problem here that they have at home. After all, we’d hate to have to see our armed forces shooting and arresting our police forces just because the police and the judiciary and the legislators and the bureaucrats couldn’t help but accept the free money offered by the cartels. You yourself wouldn’t, of course, until the cartel mentioned that if you don’t accept the bribe, they’ll torture and kill your family — then, you. A really effective sales pitch. One, by the way, which the army isn’t immune to, either.

WAR AT OUR DOORSTEP — BARBARIANS RULE

So the killing in Mexico — which now includes large numbers of random citizens unconnected to the drug trade — has become pervasive, and anonymous, and without accountability. Having a problem in Mexico? Calling the police to complain could be fatal. Practicing journalism, likewise. Oh, and you might not want to actually show up for that office you were just elected to. A lot of deceased Mayors and Governors stumbled on that realization the hard way. Since law has broken down, the country is no longer a safe place for women…for anyone, really. So the Mexican armed forces are fighting the cartels, and there is no fallback if that doesn’t work. Up North, we used to call our harassment of drug users and dealers “the war on drugs; in Mexico it’s actually a war: They’ve had an official count of over 28,000 killed in less than four years, and fresh killing and discovery of bodies from old killings occurs daily.

Maybe a government that can’t protect its citizens hasn’t really failed. Let’s not be harsh. President Calderon assures us that the violence will abate after a while, that it is really occcurring because of the success of the military in putting down what our Secretary of State Clinton referred to as a narco-insurgency. Back in the U.S., we shouldn’t panic that we are in a sort of “drug bubble” in which everyone, ultimately, wants a piece of that free money that you can only get through the sale of illegal drugs. Can’t happen here, right? Or is there some kind of tipping point. A point where all of these diverse agendas come together, separately, with a grotesque unintended consequence that no one knows how to undo. Like, when there’s no one left to trust. Nah!

OPEN BORDER KUMBAYA

We’re probably thinking about this all wrong. We need a positive attitude. Here goes: Mexicans don’t think we stole a huge part of their country. The gangs and cartels really just shoot each other (and an occasional innocent bystander). And Mexicans mostly want to adopt our American culture; read, speak and vote strictly in english, and avoid living in ethnic ghettoes that mimic their home towns in Mexico. Our businessmen will be happy to go back to paying much higher wages, our unions will calmly continue their well-deserved shrinkage, and the Democrats will abandon any notion that they have to import voters (and campaign funds) in order to be successful at the ballot box.

Which bring us to a happier place. The gentle, cooperative merger of the two countries. Given Mexicans’ historical aversion to “Yanqui imperialism,” we obviously couldn’t annex Mexico. Whether they like us or not, we’re certainly not going to war with them again (hell, given the military equipment owned by the cartels, they just might win!) And I don’t think they would volunteer to become a territory, like Puerto Rico — which didn’t, of course, volunteer. What to do…what to do? How about this: The Emily Litella Strategy. We just disband our border controls, say “never mind — and bienvenidos.” I think that would be the world peace thing to do, don’t you?

It’ not as if we were proud of our racist, imperialist, exploitational country to begin with, is it? Nope. Let’s have someone with ancient roots on this continent step in and try to repair some of the damage we’ve done with our greed and ignorance. Let’s just hope that, in time, the proper inheritors of this foolish nation will forgive us. Oops! we’ll be gone; so, please forgive our despised memory.

A FEW ALTERNATIVES TO MUTUAL COLLAPSE

JUST DO SOMETHING!

But that’ll take a while to effectuate; so, while we’re waiting to be replaced, I’d like to suggest a few interim measures to alleviate some of the righteous tension that seems to have accrued on both sides of the Southern border. Let’s join Mexico in legalizing drugs — all of them. Mexico decriminalized personal use amounts of recreational drugs in the summer of ’09. Small amounts of marijuana, meth, coke and heroin are no longer prosecuted. This keeps corrupt cops from filling the jails with small drug-busts and shaking down the already-terrified citizens. But that only helps with that small part of the problem.

Our continuing purchase of their drugs is the unsolved problem. It’s time to man-up as a nation and admit we are responsible for the slaughter of innocents and worldwide devastation because of our drug prohibition policies. I think we are smart enough to create regulations, just as we do with alcohol, to mitigate addiction. The free money created with illegality just unleashes a horde of drug salesmen on society, increasing the addiction we had hoped to prevent. And, because the Black American community stands in the street to sell drugs to the white community, we are exacerbating our race relations as we disproportionately jail the blacks. Abroad, we arm our enemies, as well as armies of criminals, with our recreational drug spending. We really can’t afford to have Mexico go down, or to continue the pretense that prohibition is a beneficial policy. If we don’t change, those currently benefitting from this suicidal policy will act surprised to find themselves living in a world returned to barbarism.

At the border, we need to have a massive, organized, guest worker program, so that most of those people working here — or searching for work, can come in legally, without risking their lives, and being preyed upon by their own people. Then we can take our time fencing the border, because only Jihadis and other criminal types will still have an incentive to cross illegally. We will save billions in both drug and border enforcement, and our government, at every level, will earn their share of the billions in tax revenue to be collected through the sale of recreational drugs (I know…the prohibitionists say there will be no net gain in tax revenue from legal drug sales).

It’s not intelligence that prevents these measures from enactment; it’s self-interest, coupled with political cowardice. The tipping point, though, should be when your policies are arming your enemies, destroying your friends and menacing the democratic institutions that so many have worked and died for. There are other ways to protect borders; other ways to curb addiction; other ways to be virtuous.

Who Will Rule America Next?

Culture, First Principles, Gangs, Government, International Relations, Rule of Law, Social Philosophy

Jul 272010

Collectivists, Gangsters & Jihadis are the Best Candidates

When this supposedly dysfunctional, imperialist nation founded by profiteering, white male slave-owners is finally – however gradually – converted to a truly ‘just society’ that allows all Americans (if that term is still to be used) to live in dignity and comfort — who will be its masters? Who will rule Post-American America? Will it be Transnational Collectivists, Muslim Extremists, or Organized Criminals?

Why bother to speculate on something that is unthinkable for a country as strong and resilient as the U.S? We’ll glance at that later; but first, let’s look at our most likely inheritors. And no, it is very unlikely that, as in the good old days, a nation-state will try to overtly invade the US; stealth is back in style, and subversion – on a naïve population – works like any good lie in history.

COLLECTIVISTS.

America's Largest Socialist Organization

Save the Planet! Destroy Capitalism!

'Revolution' Sponsor George Soros

We’ve all gotten used to the idea that at every international government or corporate meeting of any supposed consequence, there will be staged demonstrations by the world’s Leftist organizations. Many months of planning will go into the ‘spontaneous’ demonstrations, and pledges of peaceful marching and non-violence will be made to the local government officials.

The police will come out with batons and shields and water guns, tear-gas and rubber bullets. The ‘peaceful’ demonstrators will smash retailers’ windows, throw molotov cocktails, taunt the police into reacting violently before the cameras in order to prove to the world that the demonstrators are ‘oppressed,’ and, occasionally, someone will die.

They are ‘oppressed’ by Western Civilization, in general, and the United States (Leader of the Free World) in particular. They think of themselves as ‘revolutionaries’ and think that if they get the ‘change’ they seek, it will look something like the Galactic Republic depicted in Star Wars: planets represented at council, rather than (the archaic, destructive idea of) nations.’

Your Fellow Americans

They generally refer to themselves as “the movement’ – even though they comprise many distinct movements joined to fight a common foe — Us. They do not feel obliged to respect the voting ‘masses’ they say they are fighting to liberate, and they only like elections – not, mind you, the idea of elections – that result in an outcome they can rig, both before and after.

Foregoing any candor regarding their goal of achieving power by whatever means necessary, they have cheated and bullied their way into control of large portions of the planet. And due to Democrats’ embrace of movement principles — and Republicans who believe Global Warming/Climate Change is actually about the climate — they are winning nearly everywhere. They have the numbers and the resources; there seems to be no reason why they won’t continue to prevail.

GANGSTERS.

Who's Behind the Curtain?

We’ve also all gotten used to the gangbangers and the drug cartels, and the casual violence that ensues from their various illegal activities. The notion that free money in the form of drug profits destroys society’s institutions from within, and its citizens from without seems to bore folks who have the luxury of keeping the bribery and executions at a distance, even as they use the ‘recreational drugs’ that are aggressively sold by the perps.

Having gangs larger and better-armed than most police departments, and some armies, is not much different than acknowledging the existence of various sports teams. The violence occurs elsewhere, while we attend church, smug in our ‘drug-free’ world. Who could possibly blame us for all the crap that happens to drug dealers and addicts, somewhere else.

And what part of the Western brain lights up when we hear the phrase “Failed State?” Do we think “Oh my God, the criminals are stronger than those governments, and our drug laws caused it, and it could happen to us if we don’t change our laws?” Of course not. That would mean changing our fondest beliefs. It would also damage everyone who is legally profiting from these wickedly destructive laws, whether through employment, or votes gained, or prestige, or personal virtue. Even the liquor industry, to avoid competing drugs.

Random Citizens are Next

What often happens is that the organized criminals have boodles of cash to spend on government servants, and they are willing to murder said servant and family in the absence of cooperation. This results in an unannounced partnership. The public no longer knows who to trust, and taxpayers, like spider’s prey, are kept alive for the next fresh feeding.

Organized crime has been international for a long time, and our government’s cowardice and pandering in not dealing with this has allowed the free drug money to finance expansion into multiple rackets (slavery, extortion, kidnapping, counterfeiting, piracy, and legitimate business fronts) such that it may be too late to turn the situation around through legislation, or law enforcement, or military action.

Offering to kill you or those you care about, or bribe you (an offer you can’t refuse) is an effective strategy that is not going away. And if your response is “I would just call the police,” you need to know that this brand of corruption will make that a mistake – perhaps your last.

MUSLIM EXTREMISTS. -aka Jihadis

This Freedom Can be Yours

PHOTO NOTE: There is no intention to imply that the ladies pictured above are anything other than normal, devout Muslims – certainly not Jihadis or Muslim Extremists. I grabbed the photo with the intent of reminding Western ladies that they would lose their accustomed freedoms under Muslim rule.

The third thing we’ve also all gotten used to is the “terrorist threat.” I call it that because, while my fellow Americans know we are at war in the Mideast, many prefer to think we went into Iraq under false pretenses (they assume it was to get oil), while Afghanistan is just a mistake incident to our hunt for (the criminal) Osama bin Laden and his cronies.

The Executive Branch of the United States government will not utter the word “Jihadi.” (The President finally said the phrase “Radical Islam,” presumably to at least acknowledge that some of the people killing American soldiers and civilians are doing so out of religious conviction.) The Leftists we talked about earlier admire the Jihadis as “Freedom Fighters” and are their natural allies because of their mutual antipathy toward the West, with Israel and the U.S. as prime targets.

Palestinians are the poster children for U.S. ‘imperialism.’ Since it is repulsive to most Americans to consider anyone an enemy because of their religious beliefs, and since we fear a backlash against Muslims in America because of the wars, the Administration has placed many Muslims in prominent positions in our government (Muslim Affirmative Action?).

Those who take the Jihadis’ word that they are, indeed, at war with us, whether we acknowledge it or not, see the Muslim religion as one of conquest and subjugation, whose primary ‘Religion of Peace’ goal is to force the Muslim religion on the entire human population, killing or subjugating all who refuse to cooperate, including other Muslims. If you listen to the Koranic scholars and understand that there is no possibility of the separation of church and state, or of this religious mission being abandoned, you will conclude that they are the enemy they say they are. The rest is willful blindness.

In the event, there are over a billion of them, and they have been attacking Western Civilization – the heir to what was once known as “Christendom,” off and on for about 1,200 years. We forget that; they don’t. Our society’s dominant philosophy is that we can only have enemies through actions or misunderstandings we ourselves created; diplomacy will work it out. But diplomacy has no effect when there is nothing the other party wants from you except either your demise, or submission to their rule. What is the likely outcome in a conflict between one party who always has an enemy and another who never has an enemy?

SPIRALING DOWN.

But why – you ask – the quasi-paranoid gloom? Well, the non-violent revolutions always take time, and are necessarily cheered-on by a significant portion of the populace; Hugo Chavez’ slow replacement of a free-market democracy plagued by corruption with an explicitly Communist dictatorship is a prime example.

But then, all the Socialists worldwide have caught on to the use of Democratic procedures and gestures to smother dissenting views and interests and gain control over whatever parts of the society are the best leverage for control. The rest, they’ve learned, can remain untouched, including Capitalist taxpayers and voting citizens. The Capitalists that matter will either be ‘captives” of the government – earning their profits from the ‘special relationship’ – or regulated into total cooperation with the government’s aims.

We’ve seen this movie before. The last time, it was titled Fascism, this time probably some variation of The Green Economy. Tyranny, after all, is such a small price to pay for supposedly ‘saving the planet.’ And no one need be uncomfortable, because the tyrants will look just like the Congress you already have, and (rigged) elections with carefully selected candidates will still be held, and everyone will still have the liberty to attend free universities for indoctrination and training for government-approved businesses.

Every one who belongs to a union will have a job, whether the employer needs that person or not. Better yet, those most loyal to the beloved government and its ‘Dear Leader” will be rewarded with the homes and accouterments of the former ruling class. All property will be distributed by degree of cooperation. Years of the drip, drip, drip of leaking liberty, until the roof finally collapses. You see, it can happen here.

Noted syndicated columnist and TV Pundit Charles Krauthammer recently opined that the Obama Administration is interested in control of Health Care, Education and Energy. He thought that the Auto companies and financial industry were just windfalls (I disagree, if he means that they don’t want control of the auto companies in order to preserve union jobs and churn out green cars the government –but not necessarily the people — wants, or that the government doesn’t relish the idea of controlling salary and credit levels through bullying financial regs and administrators.)

Does that necessarily mean that the administration is conducting a slow-motion revolution? No, but remember that if you’re wrong, it’s the founding vision of this country – and all it’s subsequent success — that you’re betting against. Regardless, a huge number of citizens are online, expressing their concern, and voicing their outrage over collectivist policies aimed at replacing a free-market constitutional Republic with a “Just Society.”

I think we already have a “Just Society” in the sense that, if you work within the system, it is still possible to address economic and social issues for which there’s a constituency. It’s admittedly gotten harder as Washington has been gamed by nearly all participants, but that’s a topic for another day.

"You Have a Republic if You Can Keep It"

What I’m concerned about now is, what happens to the United States, it’s founding principles, and its citizens if the eighteenth-century old-white-guy system is dismantled before something coherent is available to replace it? The adage There’s many a slip twixt cup and lip can mean millions of American corpses if society collapses, a la Cambodia – where real people’s lives were made to submit to a radical theory about how a ‘fair’ society should be organized, and the result was millions of dead Cambodians.

Same in Russia. Same in China. The National Socialist Party was mimicking the above behavior in Germany before its own “Dear Leader” decided to commit the nation’s resources to conquest and genocide based on old national grudges. The Italians, who invented Fascism, were much admired for inventing a “Third Way” between Capitalism and Socialism.” Then they wrecked the country by jumping on the NAZI bandwagon. England, after fighting Socialist governments throughout WWII, turned Socialist after the war. Beguiled by their intellectuals into an economic death spiral. We have intellectuals, too. They’re in charge of indoctrination and propaganda.

Well, even if your worst scenario occurs, Gress, who — of the above candidates — do you think would be our new masters? And why?

Can’t know, of course, but running a thought experiment for at least one scenario can’t hurt; might jump-start you into trying out your own. Do that, and you might start looking even harder at what various parts of our government are up to, why, and possible outcomes. Here goes:

POSSIBLE END GAME FOR THE WEST.

As noted above, the Collectivists of all stripes are on a tear, all over the globe. Short term, I think they will definitely erode, then ultimately banish Capitalism as we know it, keeping alive the industries that will play ball and support the government tax programs. Because the Collectivists see Jihadis as US victims, and therefore natural allies, they will initially have many Muslim partners, as both private and National actors. The Muslims will play along as long as their numbers are small and their resources weak.

Must be Allah's Will

The gangsters will take control over many aspects of (formerly) American life from the ground up — through the control of cities. The control will not be overt, just as it is not overt in many world cities now. But the politicians who play ball will prosper, and those that don’t will meet with violent reprisal. The terrified average citizen will not know who is in charge, and will be too scared to express public concern. Journalists who report anything that could possibly offend a capo will meet their maker.

The Federal government, meanwhile, will be in a slightly lesser, but nevertheless real partnership with crime elements until the Muslim numbers are large enough to demand whatever they want from the remaining Collectivists. The Muslims will then kill or enslave the Leftists and go to war with the criminals, a war they will eventually win. Game, Set, Match for Allah. (See Jihadi-improved map of Europe, at right.)

CAVEAT:

This scenario is only the battle for Western Civilization. Once won, there will be a standoff between the Muslims and the Chinese. War will eventuate, and Asians will probably emerge triumphant due to their greater numbers and education levels. After the fall of the West, India will probably have no choice but to either join, or be conquered by, China. Russia has the potential for evolving into a nuclear-armed crime syndicate.

CONCLUSION:

Teach your kids Chinese; leave the Western Hemisphere. We’ve already blown it (but don’t hurry — this stuff all takes time).

Apotheosis

Mexican Immigration Muddle

Culture, Gangs, Government, History, Immigration, Legislation, Police

May 042010

Groundhog Day, aka Amnesty

Distribution of 12M Unauthorized 'guests'

Here’s the controversial Arizona law, SB 1070. The following is just the first paragraph; the actual statute is 17 pages long. What’s important to note, though, is that in the public conversation about this, THERE IS NO LAW; there is only the perception of a law. The perception varies widely depending on group identification. Opponents of immigration laws claim they are inherently racist because, well, their sponsors are racists. A charge of racial profiling follows, borrowed from the worst experiences of African-Americans, who are not, in fact, illegal immigrants.

The problem is that linking historical racial strife with the word “profiling” delegitimizes the act of profiling, which has been an essential part of legitimate police work forever. An explanation, here, from author Paul Schlicta, writing for The American Thinker. Since there was widespread public concern that the law permitted some form of racial profiling (by being ambiguous), a second draft allayed those fears. There will always be lingering doubt, do to the human factor, but the law very closely parallels existing Federal legislation. Here’s an excerpt – regarding the changes to the law – from the PolitiFact blog, in case you wish to read in its entirety:

Critics had said that the original version of the law permitted racial profiling. But the changes signed by Brewer on April 30 were intended to blunt those charges.

The new version of the law says: “A law enforcement official or agency of this state or a county, city, town or other political subdivision of this state may not consider race, color or national origin in implementing the requirements of this subsection except to the extent permitted by the United States or Arizona Constitution.”

The prior version had said that an official “may not solely consider race” in such circumstances.

(“Solely,” above, was removed in the final bill.)

S.B. 1070

- 1 -

1 Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Arizona:

2 Section 1. Intent

3 The legislature finds that there is a compelling interest in the

4 cooperative enforcement of federal immigration laws throughout all of

5 Arizona. The legislature declares that the intent of this act is to make

6 attrition through enforcement the public policy of all state and local

7 government agencies in Arizona. The provisions of this act are intended to

8 work together to discourage and deter the unlawful entry and presence of

9 aliens and economic activity by persons unlawfully present in the United

10 States.

MEXICO’S TREATMENT OF IMMIGRANTS

And here, as described by investigative journalist Michelle Malkin, is how immigrants and visitors can expect to be treated in Mexico. Note that everyone, native-born or visitor, has to carry ID; it’s jail time for failing to do so. (For obvious reasons, tourists are left alone.) Political demonstrations are totally forbidden in Mexico. Read the whole thing for perspective – then skip to the bottom of this post for the skinny on how Mexicans view our national sovereignty.

IMMIGRATION LAWS ARE NECESSARY.

If you want to make sure there are enough jobs for all Americans, you have to carefully control the number of people who come here for jobs. America has been called a “beacon,” usually meaning for liberty, but certainly for financial opportunity as well. We have the largest job markets, and we hire on ability. If you can pool together a little money (family, friends and credit cards are the usual paths for beginners), you can start or buy a very small business and build it through hard work and imagination. People from all over the world clamor to get from where they are to here, and we have formal national procedures for controlling this demand.

In other words, there is no possible way to not have immigration laws and procedures, as well as quotas and qualifications. Many are waiting for visas and “green card” work permits, others for their approval for citizenship. If people find a way to enter the country illegally (many overstay their visas and disappear into the population, for instance), they disadvantage all of those others who use our legal procedures. We are, indeed, a land of immigrants…legal immigrants, most of whom have become citizens and were proud to assimilate into American culture.

They didn’t do this to derogate their former culture which, after all, still remains in the land of their birth, but to celebrate, with us, the idea of belonging to a nation dedicated to the protection of the individual from the state. And the idea of free markets, where the individual chooses a job, a career, a business to start. Where a single human being’s idea can be owned and developed into a product or service that provides a livelihood for that person, as well as opportunity for anyone hired, and more choices for their customers. Something that could be grown and shared. Or a job as a career path or stepping stone/learning experience.

They now could belong to a country, and a culture, that extends or withholds permissions to their government, not the other way around; not as in the country they left. This is why immigrants gain citizenship and assimilate into our culture, and they want others to follow the same rules. (I’ve heard that the actual bureaucracy that controls this is awful, and the waiting times and screw-ups are legion, but that’s a subject for another post.)

So… there’s not just some arbitrary rule that say’s “Don’t cross our border without permission,” there’s a principle that precedes and underlies the rule: ”We need to provide for our own citizen’s safety and opportunities first. Also, by knowing who has entered our country, and for how long, our police and homeland security agencies have essential investigative information in case of a serious problem. By knowing how many have entered, we can keep an eye on the job markets, as well as a fair distribution of visas for visitors from anound the globe.

It follows from the above that we simply have to control our 2,000 mile long border, determine our quotas, issue work permits before admitting non-citizens, and supply procedures for obtaining US citizenship. Would it were so. The border is porous, quotas and work permits become meaningless among a flood of illegal entries, and people who take the legal route are forced to wait many years to become citizens. EXCEPT –anchor babies. A child born in America is an American citizen, regardless of whether the parents arrived legally. There are legal interpretations of this, but for another discussion.

Like the drug war, something as screwed up and persistent as this can only survive when it has a lot of active beneficiaries. And that’s not even counting the illegal immigrants. If you’re reading this for a solution, move on – we are way beyond solutions. (I’ve often been taken by the thought, expressed elsewhere, that it is impossible for most of us to accept that there are some problems for which there is no solution.) In this case, the can has been kicked down the road so many times – by the governments involved – that to do something timely and effective is no longer possible, a situation that undoubtedly gladdens the heart of those benefiting from the gridlocked status quo.

THE ONGOING DILEMMA

It would be nice to have a complex description of all the sociological factors which contribute to the lack of gainful employment in the Mexican economy, but that’s not what this blog is about. We’ll have to settle for the explanation that a lot of semi-literate, rural Mexican peasants see no opportunities in their own communities or, indeed, in their own country. A parallel, more contemporary and probable explanation is that most illegals simply left a low wage Mexican job for a higher wage in the US. American wages are high enough, apparently, to offset the risks involved in illegal border crossing, as well as the expense of paying a Coyote to facilitate the trip.

We can assume that most Mexican villagers by now are aware that you can be killed or seriously injured, and still find it a risk worth taking. The reward is grinding work and deprivation in the US while sending money back to the family in Mexico. (Remittances are said to be about 2% of Mexican GDP, and the third largest source of foreign exchange, after oil and manufacturing. The linked web site incorrectly states in its text narrative that remittances are 2nd largest.)

The map above is self-explanatory, with approximately 7 million of the total originating in Mexico. There are a lot of reasons for the Mexican laborer to come here, including the complicity of his own government in laying off their economic and political problems on the US, and the US government tacitly helping business, as well as eventually broadening their base of voters. (Both parties vie for the Mexican votes, and each is afraid of offending that community, even when some of the offended are officially criminals!)

But that doesn’t explain why, in a country with a 10% or higher unemployment rate, there are so many jobs available for the illegals to fill. The Western US agricultural jobs that fostered the creation of the Braceros programs are the oldest and easiest to understand, and are probably the source of the canard that Mexicans fill jobs that Americans won’t take. Well, if we’re only talking about stoop labor in the fields in a modern economy in which farming is only a tiny, but vital, part – no problem. But what about all those manufacturing, construction, landscaping and service jobs scattered all over the country?

I can’t answer that here, but we can get some valuable help from the sources I’m excerpting and/or linking below. We will have to return to this topic, as there are too many salient aspects to be covered in a short post. I particularly want to explore more of what is happening on the other side of the border to exacerbate and perpetuate this dilemma. Meanwhile, a Cato Institute study shows that immigration has no negative impact on American job markets, and a study at Australia’s Monash University argues that increased legalization of the immigrant work force will benefit American workers higher-up in the job market, and grow the economy. Here’s the Executive Summary of their report (below). The entire report can be read on Cato’s site, here, and is 24 pages in length.

Restriction or Legalization? Measuring the Economic Benefits of Immigration Reform

by Peter B. Dixon and Maureen T. Rimmer

Australia's Largest University

Peter Dixon is the Sir John Monash Distinguished Professor and Maureen Rimmer is a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre of Policy Studies at Monash University in Australia. Their USAGE model of the U.S. economy has been used by the U.S. Departments of Commerce, Agriculture, and Homeland Security, and the U.S. International Trade Commission.

By the latest estimates, 8.3 million workers in the United States are illegal immigrants. Proposed policy responses range from more restrictive border and workplace enforcement to legalization of workers who are already here and the admission of new workers through a temporary visa program. Policy choices made by Congress and the president could have a major economic impact on the welfare of U.S. households.

This study uses the U.S. Applied General Equilibrium model that has been developed for the U.S. International Trade Commission and other U.S. government agencies to estimate the welfare impact of seven different scenarios, which include increased enforcement at the border and in the workplace, and several different legalization options, including a visa program that allows more low-skilled workers to enter the U.S. workforce legally.

For each scenario, the USAGE model weighs the impact on such factors as public revenues and expenditures, the occupational mix and total employment of U.S. workers, the amount of capital owned by U.S. households, and price levels for imports and exports. This study finds that increased enforcement and reduced low-skilled immigration have a significant negative impact on the income of U.S. households. Modest savings in public expenditures would be more than offset by losses in economic output and job opportunities for more skilled American workers.

A policy that reduces the number of low-skilled immigrant workers by 28.6 percent compared to projected levels would reduce U.S. household welfare by about 0.5 percent, or $80 billion. In contrast, legalization of low-skilled immigrant workers would yield significant income gains for American workers and households. Legalization would eliminate smugglers’ fees and other costs faced by illegal immigrants. It would also allow immigrants to have higher productivity and create more openings for Americans in higherskilled occupations. The positive impact for U.S. households of legalization under an optimal visa tax would be 1.27 percent of GDP or $180 billion.

Ralph Peters of the New York Post has spent a lot of time on these issues. All of us are aware of the state of siege Mexico seems to be under by the narco-gangs who are killing their own citizens by the thousands and have been emboldened to kill some of ours, lately. He has a lot to say about that, here, in an article entitled Border Disorder. His piece on the Arizona immigration law dilemma is called Blaming the Citizen, which I’d encourage you to read, here, or stay here for some Ralph Peters advice:

As the left’s blame-the-citizen demands for special privileges for all immigrants only intensify an anti-immigrant backlash, let’s apply some commonsense maxims:

* It is always the responsibility of the immigrant to conform to the laws and social norms of the host society. It is never the responsibility of a society to alter its traditions and values to please immigrants.

* The primary responsibility of government is to protect its citizens and territory. That demands robust border security.

* Illegal immigrants are entitled to basic human rights, but have no civil rights: no right to an attorney, trial or “sanctuary.”

* Washington must remove current incentives to illegal immigration. This means relentlessly pursuing both those who hire illegals and illegals themselves, doubling sentences for illegal-immigrant offenders, and a constitutional amendment eliminating the automatic citizenship granted to children born on our soil to illegals.

* At the same time, we must reform our legal immigration system to recognize the need for temporary workers, as well as for qualified new citizens.

* Turning 10 million illegals into US voters is not the answer.

Here’s a quick summary, and access, to a 26 page immigration proposal put out by the Senate Democrats. It has a peculiar provision for a permanent immigration commission that bears an eerie similarity, in intent, to the Health Insurance Exchanges.

Democrats Unveil Outline for Amnesty

The proposal, which the Senators dubbed the REPAIR (Real Enforcement with Practical Answers for Immigration Reform) plan, did not come in the form of a bill, but a 26-page narrative describing what would be the main components of so-called “comprehensive immigration reform.”

The plan contains many of the provisions that made up the 2007 Bush-Kennedy amnesty bill (S.1639). It contains a mass amnesty program (called a “broad-based registration program”); a guest worker program with a path to citizenship; AgJOBS; the DREAM Act; an employment verification proposal based on a biometric social security card; and massive increases in legal immigration.

Unlike S.1639, the Reid proposal includes a commission on employment-based immigration to recommend policies that promote growth “while minimizing job displacement and wage depression and unauthorized employment”- a description that seems to concede that these are the natural result of our current immigration system.

This commission would be able to declare immigration emergencies, meaning a situation in which our employment-based system “is either substantially failing to admit a sufficient number of workers for the needs of the economy or is substantially admitting too many foreign workers.” After declaring an emergency, the commission would submit recommendations for changes to Congress and Congress would then be required to approve or vote down the recommendations. (See pp. 21-22 of the proposal).

Finally, we’d be remiss in not putting up the proposal by the two Arizona Senators. Enjoy.

SENATORS McCAIN AND KYL ANNOUNCE BORDER SECURITY PLAN

10-Point Plan To Better Secure The U.S.-Mexico Border In Arizona April 20, 2010 Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Jon Kyl (R-AZ) were joined today by Arizona Sheriffs Larry Dever, Cochise County and Paul Babeu, Pinal County in introducing a 10-point comprehensive border security plan to combat illegal immigration, drug and alien smuggling, and violent activity along the southwest border.

Senators McCain and Kyl’s Ten Point Border Security Action Plan:

1) Immediately deploy 3,000 National Guard Troops along the Arizona/Mexico border, along with appropriate surveillance platforms, which shall remain in place until the Governor of Arizona certifies, after consulting with state, local and tribal law enforcement, that the Federal Government has achieved operational control of the border. Permanently add 3,000 Custom and Border Protection Agents to the Arizona/Mexico border by 2015.

2) Fully fund and support Operation Streamline in Arizona’s two Border Patrol Sectors to, at a minimum, ensure that repeat illegal border crossers go to jail for 15 to 60 days. Where Operation Streamline has been implemented, the number of illegal crossings has decreased significantly. Require the Obama Administration to complete a required report detailing the justice and enforcement resources needed to fully fund this program. Fully reimburse localities for any related detention costs.

3) Provide $100M, an increase of $40M, for Operation Stonegarden, a program that provides grants and reimbursement to Arizona’s border law enforcement for additional personnel, overtime, travel and other related costs related to illegal immigration and drug smuggling along the border.

4) Offer Hardship Duty Pay to Border Patrol Agents assigned to rural, high-trafficked areas, such as the CBP Willcox and Douglas Stations in the Tucson Sector.

5) Complete the 700 miles of fencing along the border with Mexico and construct double- and triple- layer fencing at appropriate locations along the Arizona-Mexico border.

6) Substantially increase the 25 mobile surveillance systems and three Predator B Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) in place today along the Arizona/Mexico border and ensure the border patrol has the resources necessary to operate the UAVs 24 hours a day seven days a week. Send additional fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters to the Arizona-Mexico Border.

7) Increase funding for vital radio communications and interoperability between CBP and state, local, and tribal law enforcement to assist in apprehensions along the border.

Provide funding for additional Border Patrol stations in the Tucson Sector and explore the possibility of an additional Border Patrol sector for Arizona. Create six additional permanent Border Patrol Forward Operating Bases, and provide funding to upgrade the existing bases to include modular buildings, electricity and potable water. Complete construction of the planned permanent checkpoint in Arizona. Deploy additional temporary roving checkpoints and increase horse patrols throughout the Tucson Sector.

9) Require the Federal government to fully reimburse state and local governments for the costs of incarcerating criminal aliens. Start by at least funding the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program (SCAAP) at its authorized level of $950 million.

10) Place one full-time Federal Magistrate in Cochise County and provide full funding for and authorization of the Southwest Border Prosecution Initiative to reimburse state, county, tribal, and municipal governments for costs associated with the prosecution and pre-trial detention of federally-initiated criminal cases declined by local offices of the United States Attorneys.

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OH, BY THE WAY… THE MEXICANS WANT ALL THOSE SOUTHWESTERN STATES BACK, AND THEY HAVE A PLAN. DO YOU?

Shores of Aztlán

As an important footnote, and possibly the subject of future posts, it’s important to note that many Mexicans feel quite strongly that a good portion of the American Southwest (all/pt. of 10 states) was stolen from them by the Gringos. They don’t feel that our presence in those states is legitimate, or that there should be a border at all. Their goal is to have many children, flood the area with their own people over time, and reclaim – in deed – what was supposedly taken from them.

The land they are slowly reclaiming is called Aztlán. Legend has it they originally migrated South from there, a spot that has been identified as on the border between Utah and Arizona, near Lake Powell (pictured,left). Their migration stopped near current Mexico city. They like this story a lot, because it gives them a sense of provenance as an indigenous people that preceded the Europeans that ‘stole’ their land.

They call their plan for re-occupation of the Southwest the “Reconquista,” the re-conquest. I mention this as a clue to the seemingly irrational behavior of people who we have declared illegal. They regard us as irrelevant; a passing nuisance. Here’s a map of Aztlán – temporarily occupied by the United States of America. Note the flag on the lower left designating the map as the “United States of Mexico.” (This is not some peculiar cult; it’s embedded in Mexican culture!)

Reclaiming their "stolen" land

From the “Gringo” side of this equation – and border – we regard the Southwest territories depicted above as the spoils of war, ceded to us in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo(1848), following Mexico’s loss to American forces (1847) in the Mexican-American War (1846-1848.) If every nation on the planet gave their country back to the original (conquered) indigenous peoples, a) nation-states would cease to exist, and b) You would spend a lot of time trying to determine the legitimate descendants, if any, of civilizations long gone from the planet.

You can only take the idea of “roots” so far. It wouldn’t be unfair to compare the above map to the Palestinian map that is notably absent the existence of Israel. It’s a cultural fantasy that is dangerously shared by the Mexican Mafia (here) and Latin gangbangers everywhere. In other words, an ignorant, heavily armed and violent force that exists in large numbers in the US. You can click to read a large database regarding gang activity in the US, including Mexican gangbangers. This was a 2009 collaborative effort between the National Gang Intelligence Center and the National Drug Intelligence Center.

Here’s a summary of their findings:

National Gang Threat Summary

Gangs pose a serious threat to public safety in many communities throughout the United States. Gang members are increasingly migrating from urban to suburban areas and are responsible for a growing percentage of crime and violence in many communities. Much gang-related criminal activity involves drug trafficking; however, gang members are increasingly engaging in alien and weapons trafficking. Additionally, a rising number of U.S.-based gangs are seemingly intent on developing working relationships with U.S.- and foreign-based drug trafficking organizations (DTOs) and other criminal organizations to gain direct access to foreign sources of illicit drugs.

Key Findings

The following key findings were developed by analysis of available federal, state, and local law enforcement information; 2008 National Drug Intelligence Center (NDIC) National Drug Threat Survey (NDTS) data; and verified open source information:

Approximately 1 million gang members belonging to more than 20,000 gangs were criminally active within all 50 states and the District of Columbia as of September 2008.

Local street gangs, or neighborhood-based street gangs, remain a significant threat because they continue to account for the largest number of gangs nationwide. Most engage in violence in conjunction with a variety of crimes, including retail-level drug distribution.

According to NDTS data, 58 percent of state and local law enforcement agencies reported that criminal gangs were active in their jurisdictions in 2008 compared with 45 percent of state and local agencies in 2004.

Gang members are migrating from urban areas to suburban and rural communities, expanding the gangs’ influence in most regions; they are doing so for a variety of reasons, including expanding drug distribution territories, increasing illicit revenue, recruiting new members, hiding from law enforcement, and escaping other gangs. Many suburban and rural communities are experiencing increasing gang-related crime and violence because of expanding gang influence.

Criminal gangs commit as much as 80 percent of the crime in many communities, according to law enforcement officials throughout the nation. Typical gang-related crimes include alien smuggling, armed robbery, assault, auto theft, drug trafficking, extortion, fraud, home invasions, identity theft, murder, and weapons trafficking.

Gang members are the primary retail-level distributors of most illicit drugs. They also are increasingly distributing wholesale-level quantities of marijuana and cocaine in most urban and suburban communities.

Some gangs traffic illicit drugs at the regional and national levels; several are capable of competing with U.S.-based Mexican DTOs.

U.S.-based gang members illegally cross the U.S.-Mexico border for the express purpose of smuggling illicit drugs and illegal aliens from Mexico into the United States.

Many gangs actively use the Internet to recruit new members and to communicate with members in other areas of the United States and in foreign countries.

Street gangs and outlaw motorcycle gangs pose a growing threat to law enforcement along the U.S.-Canada border. They frequently associate with Canada-based gangs and criminal organizations to facilitate various criminal activities, including drug smuggling into the United States.

So, here – for your delectation…is the Treaty that got us the great American Southwest.

Spoils of War

In case you’re disturbed at the thought that you can’t really read this document and, in fact, have no way of knowing what’s behind the elegant red cover, you can see the document itself in the National Archives, here. You can also read the history of the Treaty and the war that preceded it.

Filling the Government Void

Since I’m not yet out of pictures, I’ll close with this one, that probably reflects the frustration of the 70% or so Arizonans who approve of the new immigration bill, and are tired of the really serious problems that come with being a border state and not being able to get the Federal Government to do its (non-exclusive) job of protecting the borders and enforcing immigration law.

Politicians are notorious for their fecklessness and opportunism, but sometimes they go further than citizens are willing to tolerate. That’ll do ’til next time.

Thanks for reading this far.

Prohibition Stupid & Immoral

Culture, Gangs, Government, Health Care, Legislation, Markets, Rule of Law

Mar 172010

Funding Enemies; Subverting Civilization; Incentivizing Crime

We Just Never Learn

An Investor’s Business Daily editorial on Monday, March 15th regarding the previous Saturday’s massacre of American citizens in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, just across the border from El Paso, Texas:

President Obama expressed outrage Sunday over the broad-daylight massacre in Juarez of a pregnant American U.S. consular employee and her husband, which left their 1-year-old baby wailing in the back of their car. Within 10 minutes, a second attack by machine-gun-toting thugs killed the husband of another U.S. consular employee and injured his two children, ages 4 and 7, traveling in a separate car. All were returning from the same child’s birthday party.

Killings like this in the border city near El Paso are so numerous the State Department cautions against assuming it was a targeted hit — “although we are not discounting anything,” said spokesman Charles Luoma-Overstreet.

The death toll in the Mexican drug war has hit 19,000 now, with Juarez the worst-hit. Over the weekend, 50 people were killed elsewhere in Mexico.

The editorial goes on to rail against the violence directed at Americans, and calls for a tougher approach, on both sides of the border, to back up our inadequate $1.6 billion in equipment and training funds to fight the cartels.

While I am normally in agreement with the IBD editorial board, on this issue we part company. It is outrageous, immoral and delusional that, given the obvious carnage caused by prohibition – American prohibition – anyone can write with sincerity that the solution to the problem is stronger prohibition. It doesn’t work. It hasn’t worked. It will never work. Passing laws against human nature in order to enforce a social preference couched as a moral crusade against addiction is – in light of the observable global consequences – immoral. We have the addiction anyway, because the prospect of illicit earnings propagates armies of drug salesmen looking to create new addicts. That’s the incentive system and unintended consequence of law that we knew was bad when we were forced to repeal the 18th amendment to the Constitution.

Further consequences, without even trying to be comprehensive, are: 1) Funding our enemies in the War on Terror, 2) Exacerbating a sense of racial isolation among American minorities, esp. Blacks and Latinos, by stuffing our prisons with drug offenders, 3) Propagating criminal cartels and gangs all over the world, many of which are better armed than the police or army – and have no regard for the lives of other citizens, 4) Undermines the rule of law and the viability of our institutions by the use of bribery and intimidation – as well as huge shadow-economy profits that distort the economic life and incentives in any communities affected.

There comes a point in any large system where – regardless of its desirability or outcomes – so many people have a stake in its maintenance that it cannot be voluntarily changed. At that point, only catastrophic collapse is possible. We’re getting close to that conclusion, but I would like for our editorial writers to at least acknowledge that – so that we at least have the possibility of saving ourselves from this monstrosity in some more rational way.

Even just since the Nixon years, when the latest chapter of this ongoing debacle was written, shelves of largely ignored books have been printed, warning of the wrongheadedness of the scheme and its horrible consequences to individuals and whole societies. The bad consequences of addiction under legalization and regulation don’t even come close. And I assume that the journalist who wrote the article sincerely believes that the effort formerly called “the drug war” is correct policy, probably because, as William Bennett – one of our former Drug Czars believed – we simply cannot have a society that tolerates widespread drug use. Moral decay followed by chaos and economic collapse. And, of course, there’s really no such thing as ‘recreational drugs.’ Really?

That would be a fitting end to this rant, were it not for your all-time favorite feature:

FREQUENTLY UNASKED QUESTIONS

As drug cartels become more common – in your community and mine, with violent intimidation and bribery the norm (plata o plomo) – who will you be able to trust?

Do we tolerate the midnight raids on the wrong addresses and the resultant harassment – and occasional deaths – of our fellow citizens because it’s always happening to someone else; maybe someone you would never personally be associated with?

If millions of people routinely used marijuana in the 70′s and are currently productive members of society, how is it a “Gateway Drug?”

Did you know that most of our burglaries are caused by junkies trying to get money to support their habit, and that England briefly had a successful program that allowed heroin addicts to get their drug by prescription – not to get high, but to maintain themselves in order to function in normal jobs (a program, I hear, that was stopped by pressure from the US government)?

How are our unemployment statistics skewed by the existence of such a massive Black Market?

How profoundly does this affect the family and societal dynamics within Black and Latino communities?

Other than the cartels and minor drug pushers, who is profiting from the status quo, and why should we tolerate it?