-miguel, you seem to be saying that because there are 40mm fewer Americans, there are thus 40mm “empty” jobs available. It doesn’t work that way. For instance, if immigrants are working in a hotel, and there were more Americans, there would be more hotels, thus a greater demand for labor at them. There isn’t a set number of jobs that immigrants are taking from Americans, or that would not be there were there more Americans. I also don’t entirely understand why you’re trying to tie this to abortion, as if it were necessary to be anti-immigrant in order to be pro-child. The Church leadership manages to be pro-life, pro-immigrant, anti-death penalty, and anti-war, why can’t we?
In any case, this is all beside the point, because the fact is that we need the labor and the immigrants are providing it. The question is, shall we continue to tolerate an immoral system that exploits human beings, taking their labor and then throwing them to the side when we no longer need them? Surely this is a moral issue crying out for redress.
And as far as immigrants being freeloaders, that’s complete and utter bunk. They give far more than they take. New York City would completely shut down without the labor they provide, as would California and most of the rest of the U.S. Also, social security would be in far worse shape than it is now were it not for immigrants paying into it and never collecting, just to point out one social service they contribute to. Also, for those who are upset about immigrants “taking jobs from hard-working Americans,” I challenge you to go make the trek yourself and work the immigrant life. Make the trek across the deserts and through the fence to the shadow worlds of our cities and farms, work in the manual jobs with no benefits and no security, and then tell me that it’s not hard work. America is big enough for all of us; we should be welcoming people of such courage and work ethic.
Of course, the sticking point for many people is the a-word – amnesty. It’s really a practical matter more than anything. Let’s say we get successful immigrant reform passed, some sort of guest worker program that brings all these laborers out of the shadows, providing us with needed labor and them with needed jobs all under the full protection and regulation of rule of law. What happens to the millions already here? Do we want to spend millions, or even billions, tracking them all down and deporting the very people who we’ll be welcoming right back? How irrational. It makes much more sense to declare a period of amnesty for the immigrants already here to register as official guest workers. During the amnesty period, get the word out through the churches, community centers, employers, shelters, and every other institution that has contact with immigrants. And keep the level of immigration high – I’ve never understood this desire to keep immigration to America low. I understand wanting to keep it sane, orderly, and legal, but why in the world should we want to keep the immigration level artificially low?
Also, regarding my little rant - I am not at all suggesting that it is wrong to vote Republican. I also don’t think it’s wrong to vote Democrat. I think what is wrong is voting BECAUSE a candidate is Rep or Dem. I voted for Kerry, but it’s not like I didn’t think long and hard about all the issues. What it came down to for me is I just don’t really believe Bush will get much done on abortion, and I agree with the dem approach to governing on most other issues. If I thought that Bush had a serious chance with abortion, then I think I would be morally required to vote for him. But it’s not about parties, and I strongly protest dismissing bishops just because they champion a cause that goes against our personal politics.
