Immigrant Day

Tomorrow is supposed to be some huge, massive, immigrant protest day.

This started off when Congress started talking about illegal immigration, and how to stop it. Some of the measures proposed were rather extreme and impractical - like for example bussing up to 11 million people to Mexico.

So the movement started. First it was spread through the illegal community in the USA. Then it moved south of the border, and Mexican media started to encourage Mexican Citizens to not buy American goods on May 1. And so on. As if Wal-Mart cares if nobody shops on May 1 in Mexico City.

The American Media, not to be outdone, decided to turn up the heat on this "story". They put the "May 1 no immigrant day" on active rotation. Every 20 minutes, regular as an old man who eats nothing but prunes and prune related products.

So the door was left open for the "protest" to spread. And it did. Now, everyone who is or was or had anyone in their family who immigrated here is supposed to "show support" tomorrow.

I WILL go to work tomorrow. First off, I do not feel like wasting a sick day for no reason. Also, what exactly would I be supporting by not working tomorrow? And why?

economically, this protest is retarded. Lets say nobody in the USA buys gas tomorrow. And then lets say that everyone drives somewhere to protest. How will they get there? Some will be able to walk or ride a bike, but if you are going to drive you need gas. And forget about public transportation - because "everyone" includes bus drivers.

This means you will buy gas today. Or you will buy gas Tuesday. Or you filled up Saturday. The point is, if you drive X miles a week you need Y gallons of fuel. It does not matter what day you buy the gas on. As long as you use up the same X gallons, not a single gas station will care.

And the same holds true for Wal-Mart. Lets say you shop there and spend $150 a week on food. Does Wal-Mart care if you spend that $150 on Monday or on Thursday? Not at all. Not even a little bit. They will just close the stores, and not pay anyone for the lost day. When they re-open on Tuesday they will have better than usual sales, and still not pay the employees any more money. The "lost day" could end up making large business MORE money. In theory.

Of course, places like Wal-Mart will not be affected at all - it is the small business that will take a hit.

Also, who exactly are the protesters trying to hurt? By not working that means they do not get paid. People who work illegally do not get things like sick days they can cash in when they do not show up for work. And the businesses that will loose sales are the SAME PLACES that give the illegals work in the first place.

Talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face.

Here in Miami, there is all kinds of talk on the street about Monday. What will happen? Will everything be closed? Will people decide to have more "school zone protests" and drive on the expressway at 15 mph or block major roads with "human chains" (pronounced human shanes)?

The major immigrant group in Miami are Cubans. And they have no bitch really. US Law is such that it is impossible to be an illegal Cuban immigrant. The "wet feet dry feet" policy says that if you set foot on dry land, you are in. Only those stopped at sea are sent back. This policy ONLY applies to Cubans. Hatians are sent back. People from El Salvador and Nicaragua are sent back. Mexicans are sent back. No matter how dry their feet are, they are all sent back. Except Cubans. They get to stay.

For this reason, the protest in Miami should be somewhat limited. But I do not think that it will exactly be business as usual in Miami. I have already seen the Cuban flag at rallies on the TV.

And why should the legal immigrants take part? They all followed the law. They may have waited months or even years for their papers. Maybe they came here and had to leave family behind, and begin the process for them all over. As opposed to simply jumping a fence then demanding that the anti-fence jumping law be changed. To hell with the process.

Now I know you are probably thinking "easy for you to say, but how did YOUR family get here!!?!?". Well, they came here on a boat. Some on wooden sailing ships, and others on steel hulled steamers. But at the time they came over here there were either no immigration laws (this place was just a colony of England) or the laws said that as long as your boat landed at Ellis Island and you told someone your name, where you were from, and where you wanted to live, you could get in.

But that was then. Laws have changed.

The thing that separates civilized nations from Somalia is the rule of law. Without the rule of law, what do you have? Lets just look at Iraq - another place with no rule of law.

And we can not exactly pick and choose the laws we want to follow. You can break laws, but by doing so you realize that you may get busted and have to face some sort of consequence.

But people just want to get ahead economically! What do you have to say about that?

To that I say I have no problems with people trying to make a better life for themselves. So long as they do so within the framework of the law. People can make money by stealing my vehicle, or breaking into my home - but that is outside the framework of the law. Not that all illegal immigrants are criminals or anything. I am just making a point. People do not have any "right" to simply make money however they want to. They have to follow the law. Right now, jumping the fence is outside the framework of the law.

And by jumping the fence, illegal immigrants have to operate below the radar. This means they are not protected by the law. If they are not paid by their employer, what can they do? Call the EEOC? Not if they do not want to be deported. How about if they get hurt on the job? If they say anything, they are out of here - and the employer gets a light slap on the wrist.

But immigrants do the work that Americans do not want to do! Not exactly. What they do is drive down wages to the point where people who live here can not afford to work. Illegals do not get public assistance, citizens do. You can not have both - you either have a job or welfare. And nobody really WANTS to live in a housing project. So when someone is here illegally, working for lower than legal wages, where does that leave citizens on the bottom of the economic food chain? They can not compete with the low pay. So they stay on assistance.

And illegal workers who work for below legal pay make it HARDER for other immigrants who arrive, by driving down wages. They also open themselves up to exploitation. Yes, you can find a job mixing concrete or digging a hole for a few bucks an hour - but what you have done is allow someone else to exploit you. If you were here legally, you would get at least minimum wage - and probably more. You would get workplace protections like workmans comp if you got hurt.

I would also like to know what nation treats immigrants, legal or illegal, better than the USA. If I were to sneak into France, then demand that I be allowed to take the driving test in English what do you think would happen? How about if I over-stay a Mexican Visa and then demand that the government print all documents in English as well as Spanish?

I doubt that any of those things would happen. So yes, CBP will deport you if they find you here illegally. This is what CBP does - protect the border. And is it that unreasonable to expect that if you get here by breaking the law you should possibly face a consequence?

Anyway, I will go to work tomorrow. And I will expect for some stuff to be closed. And I will expect for some crazy crap to happen in Miami.

But this could end up backfiring on Cubans in Miami. Here is how. The Cuban political machine has placed Cuba on the list of states that sponsor terrorism. This was done as part of the long standing pissing war between the exiles and Castro. But ANYONE from this "state that sponsors terrorists" can just stay here if they get to dry land? Would this not allow potential TERRORISTS to get in the USA? Would you not think that people that try to sneak into the USA from terrorist states should be sent back, or put under questioning? Who are you? Why are you here? What is your mission? Do you know Bin-Laden?

At any rate, I will be going to work tomorrow. And I suspect that many others will go to work as well. And I hope people who do protest in Miami remember the Ellian fiasco - where protesters decided to block traffic. People got run over, and not by rednecks but by other Cubans trying to do stuff like GET HOME before the ice cream they just got melted.