In all the noise made lately about immigration, I notice that something has gone unsaid. So I will say it.

Now if you notice there seems to be two culprits in this debate. One is the immigrants themselves. The other is the people that offer them aid. But there is a real culprit here, one that doesn’t seem to be getting any heat at all. Those culprits are the business owner that hires these people to do these difficult jobs for inhumanely low wages.

See the talking heads on the cable news are always bitching and whining about the Mexicans who walk through the scorching desert and cross polluted rivers to work for these immoral wages. They keep screaming, “It’s illegal!” Technically it is illegal. What they don’t tell you is why they are so willing to break the law. It is because they are desperate. They have so little opportunity in Mexico that they are willing to risk almost everything to work in the United States.

I know they took it out of the bill before it left committee, but they almost made it as illegal to help these people as the act itself. So all the Catholic churches that offer these people food and have special masses for them would be in trouble. My own church does these things so I guess the feds would have to raid the place. God forbid we offer comfort to those in need. I mean it’s only in the Bible like a million times. Some guy named Jesus seemed awfully fond of the idea but His teaching don’t seem very important in this governments decisions.

Let me get back to the real cause of all this commotion, the business criminals who pay these people squat. You see if there were no opportunity for the Mexicans here, they would not come, because there are business criminals who will hire these illegal immigrants. They come. These criminals care not for the safety or the well being of these poor people. They only care for their profits. They only care that they are paying as little as possible to get the work done so they can profit as much as possible.

I know there’s that tired old argument of they have to have cheap labor to pick the produce otherwise the prices would go up. Don’t you think that if everyone was paid a decent wage we could afford to pay a bit more for our produce?

I live in an area that sees a pretty steady influx of Mexicans to do farm labor and a few other things. They cause no trouble really. In fact if you didn’t know where they were you’d probably miss them. So I really doubt they are a threat to our security. In fact, a good number of immigrants that come up do stay. They seem to become hard working, honest members of the community. Apparently we need less of those.

The government can be bothered to crack down on the real cause of the problem however. Instead of going after the real cause they go after all the easy targets. Just like they do in the war on drugs or the war on terror.

“Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!!”

“The New Colossus”

Emma Lazarus