File under "Duh."

[digitaldiscipline]

http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/01/26/mexico.tunnel/index.html?section=cnn_latest

Authorities have found what they call the largest tunnel running into the United States along the U.S.-Mexican border.

About 2 tons of marijuana were inside the tunnel, the Drug Enforcement Administration said, indicating that it appears to have been used to transport drugs.

These are the folks conducting the war on drugs, kids. I'm glad it's in such capable, keenly-observant hands.

Frankly, my issue with border security has more to do with illegal workers, not illicit substances. The drugs should be legalized, and the illegal immigrants (fuck that "guest worker" doublespeak bullshit) sent packing. The fact that the latter can then be given health care when honest to goodness American citizens can't, due to both the drain on services that comes from treating non-citizens, as well as the reluctance of employers to provide it because they can get under-the-table labor from the selfsame border jumpers). . . yeah, that chafes me a little bit.

The human rights weenies screaming about the shoddy treatment of these folks really gets up my nose. Hello, they're breaking the fucking law, why shouldn't they be treated like criminals?

Illegal immigration is Mexico's second-biggest business, folks. They have government-sponsored programs on how to do it. And yet people are up in arms when the United States has the temerity to try and secure its borders.

Comments

[rachellll.livejournal.com]

Cool. Always exciting to see another liberal who feels that illegal immigration is a problem that needs to be combatted.

[marchenland.livejournal.com]

Well, that's a bit of a vicious cycle, though.

If doing Y is illegal, than people who do Y are criminals. In this case, the criminal action is of sociopolitical nature, which renders them not precisely the same thing as criminals of the more usual sort -- you know, rapists and thieves. Of course, some of them ARE rapists and thieves, but so are some people who are here legally.

The stuff you mention chafes me, as well, but of course, i'd like to see larger overarching fixes as opposed to... whatever the Border Patrol is currently doing. Universal Healthcare, for example. Drug Decriminalization. etc.

[marchenland.livejournal.com]

Hey, I made that icon! Neat! :)

[etcet.livejournal.com]

Maybe this is the latent Confucian in me, but I'm one of those "get your own shit together before trying to save the world" types. There are serious systemic domestic issues that need to be addressed (the deficit, healthcare, energy dependency, rampant corruption, et freaking cetera) that ought to be Job Numero Uno for the boobs inside the beltway.

Once our ducks are in a row, then, sure, we can try to help others. Kind of hard to help someone with a broken leg if you've got both arms in a cast, you know? In one sense, it's the "glass houses / stones" thing - if we can't take care of our own shit, why would anyone expect us to not fuck up trying to take care of theirs (aside to Paul Bremer: you kicked a lot of butt on the daily show, and look amazingly youthful for someone north of sixty, but you never should have had to be over there doing what you were doing).

I am pro-gun, anti-helmet, and pro-drug. However, if, in the course of doing any of these things, you fuck yourself up, you're no longer entitled to the community-at-large repair programs; my insurance premiums won't pay for your helmetless or seatbelt-free injury costs, my taxes won't pay for your OD-induced health care. Welcome to the wildturkeyparty's platform.

Stupidity should be painful and expensive and, in some cases, fatal. ikilled007 calls the proliferation of the people nature would have selected against "mispopulation," and I think I agree with him.

[ivy]

Yeah, this is my take on it as well. I do think illegal immigration is a problem, but I think our immigration laws (or rather, their implementation) are appallingly ill-managed. I can see why people subvert laws that are so bad; it's far, far easier to do it illegally than to do it legally, and more profitable, too. That doesn't make it right, of course, but it makes it more explicable. If I were a Congresswoman, I'd try funding INS much better, and getting a lot of their process into a more automated form. That would expedite immigration processing, get the data into the hands of people that need it more, and clear out backlog. Right now, it takes about two to three years to get a provisional green card. (Or at least, that's how long it was the last time my sigoth and I did it.) Very few people are going to be fortunate enough to have a partner that's willing to fully support them financially for that long. It would be better to issue the provisional work visas earlier, and then treat them like other H1-B legal immigrants. With a two or three year wait before you can legally work, no wonder people break the law. (Doubly so if they're from somewhere where job prospects are much dimmer.)

The employers who won't provide health care because they're taking advantage of illegal labor and can work people without needing to compensate them properly -- they're just fuckers. The same sort of people run sweatshops.

Agreed on drug legalization.

[thepassionate1.livejournal.com]

well i had a long post but accidentally went back...so the basics : I agree, Huge problem with illegals, Feel bad though, Whit supremacy government in Mexico, No white Mexicans here because they are all in Mexico making an average income, unlike the mexicans who are "indian blooded", Lee says if we can go to Iraq and take over government, can do the same to Mexico, Would it cause a lot more problems with "World POlice" issue, This effects us a hell of a lot more that liberating iraqis. Just a thought. I need to get out of Arizona...or new new mexico.

Did you make it to Goth Cruise 3? Lee and I came up short on money this year...too bad they wont have it next year :(

[etcet.livejournal.com]

I agree with you on the degree of criminality; however, I'm still provincial enough to say, "hey, wait a minute, our obligations ought to be needy Americans before needy non-Americans."

[marchenland.livejournal.com]

I should have said, sociopoliticoeconmoic," actually. Heh. And I agree with you. I just think we have some fucked up (and racist / ethnist) ways of deciding who's an American and who is not, and why.

Our need -- as a country and as a planet -- seems to outstrip our abilities and responibilities, unfortunately.

[etcet.livejournal.com]

hey you. :-)

I agree; I'm sure that if there was some sort of larger incentive than "basic domestic security and economic well-being for average citizens" [read: "mediapathic terrorist threats and opportunities for big business, as opposed to sources of cheap, easily-terminated labor for big business concerns"], that the government would take more direct (which isn't necessarily to say productive, good, or meaningful) action.

and, yeah, we were on the boat. there was some speculation about whether you and lee were coming, at least among those of us who didn't know who-all had signed up.

[etcet.livejournal.com]

I do think illegal immigration is a problem

That's because they keep infringing on your marital bliss. Congratulations, by the way. :-) [heyyyy.... shouldn't you be out consummating or something right now? ;-)]

I can see why people subvert laws that are so bad

It blows my mind that so many make it onto, and are seldom struck from, the books.

The employers who won't provide health care because they're taking advantage of illegal labor and can work people without needing to compensate them properly -- they're just fuckers. The same sort of people run sweatshops.

Bingo. Which is why, as alluded to in my reply to TP1 below, nothing meaningful will be done about the situation as long as corporate interests hold sway in Washington.

[etcet.livejournal.com]

The well-hidden anarchist liberal commie in the back of my head read your last sentence and insisted on shouting, "If the rich weren't generally such selfish assholes, we wouldn't be in this fix."

NPR had a report from an economist a couple of weeks back, the gist of whose bit said two things: one, that yes, the usual economic indicators (GDP, etc) were on the upturn, but two (and more damningly), the average/median income was going -down.- The country is doing better and better, but the average citizen is doing worse and worse. . . which means that, quite literally, the rich are getting richer, and doing so by sticking it to the rest of us.

[marchenland.livejournal.com]

Huh. That light-vs-dark Mexian thing is an interesting dichotomy; I hadn't thought about it, but I bet you're right. It certainly makes sense based on a few legal and rather wealthy light-skinned Mexican families I know, vs the majority of the dark-skinned Mexican migrants of unknown legality who live in my neighborhood. (My Mexican friend's stepmother was my Real Estate agent, in part becuase I was interested in buying in Hispanic communities for various reasons, and needed an agent who could speak to the sellers and occupants. I ran up against an interesting kind of racism, because some sellers, both Anglo and Hispanic, assumed I was an illegal just because of who was representing me!)

[marchenland.livejournal.com]

Yep, yep, and yep.

[ladysoleil.livejournal.com]

I'd probably think you have something there, based on what my Dad used to tell me about how various members of his family got treated in various geographic locations. (I'm 1/4 Mexican on my father's side, and no, you can't tell, nor could you tell from my blue eyed, very lightly tanned father, either.)

[stompymink.livejournal.com]

Incidentally, "skin-tone" or "coloration"-based racism is a sad but true part of Latino culture throughout Central and South America as well as Mexico. It is a centuries old holdover of the Spanish Conquistadors and the wonderful brand of chauvinism imported therewith.

A co-worker of mine is Ecuadorian, and we've discussed at length a number of stupendously baffling prejudicial fixtures of his former society. He still experiences elements of that same racism here, within the Latino community in Chicago

It takes a lot to kill ignorance. :(

[rachellll.livejournal.com]

And in fact, you are credited as such in the description :-)

[marchenland.livejournal.com]

Awww, cool!

[kungfugimp.livejournal.com]

It's nice to know I'm not the only freak that thinks this. It's one qualm I have with Libertarianism - open borders. Nice idea, but, with our current system - it's like having Outlook for your computer. Open legs saying "Hello boys, come infect me."

[analmuch.livejournal.com]

I tend to think of America as the school bully. "Hey, I am bigger and stronger than you are, therefore I can do whatever I damn well please." The problem with bullies is that they are so messed up that they want to be the king of everyone else before they solve their own shit. It doesn't do any good though because their decisions are so corrupted that little good comes out of it.

I have heard the "America has only good intentions" argument when we butt into other countries' problems. Wel how about this cliche, "The road to hell is paved with good intentions."

Do I feel bad for the illegals that flee here? Yes. Should they have the right to take jobs away from people born in this country because they will work for low wages? Hell, no. I am so sick of the greedy corporate envirnment that will hire anyone who will work for low wages.

By the way, I like the comment comparing the US to having Outlook on your computer. Very apt.