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Weekly Newspaper and Travel Guide
for Pecos Country of West Texas

Opinion

Friday, April 25, 2008

Smokey Briggs

Sage Views

By Smokey Briggs

Mexican immigration –
good or bad?

Would you be surprised if the local beer store hung a sign out that said, “Free Beer,” and people were lined up for a free 30-pack?

Me either.

I have another question for you?

Are Mexican, illegal immigrants a bunch of freeloading, baby-factory criminals bleeding the United States like ticks on a dog, or are they hard working, God-fearing, freedom-loving additions to America?

Notice, I did not write “Hispanic.” I wrote “Mexican.”

That is because Hispanic means “of Spain.” The people that are at the center of the so-called illegal immigration debate are no more “of Spain” than I am “of Ireland.”

They are from Mexico, which, last time I checked, was not a curse word. So, they are Mexicans, just like I am an American, and Boris is a Russian.

Now, what are these illegal immigrants? Are they locusts here to eat the heart out of America or fresh cement to shore up a crumbling society?

Yesterday I read an article that ended thus:

“Some liberals are trying to tell us to fight a recession by bringing in more immigrants, but that would only raid the pockets of U.S. taxpayers to support more millions of non-taxpayers. It's hard to say which is more outrageous: the diversion of Americans' personal income into cash handouts to foreigners, or the federal government's policy of concealing the fiscal impact of immigration.”

Not very hard to figure out how this author feels about Mexican illegal immigrants is it?

And you can find U.S. citizens with the exact opposite view – people who think illegal Mexicans are necessary to fill low-level service jobs and expand a shrinking tax-base – along with being nice folks just looking for a piece of the American dream.

Here is what I think:

It does not matter.

From what I have seen, both sides are partially right. I worked shoulder to shoulder with illegal and legal immigrants in college. There were some good folks there that I would like to have as neighbors today. (And some, not so much).

And I have spent too many minutes in line at the grocery store behind a family using a WIC card, and then loading the loot into a brand new Cadillac Escalade with $1,000-worth of shiny wheels bolted on.

But, the problem is not the illegal Mexicans, good or bad.

The problem is a welfare state that takes from one group (any group) and gives the stolen goods to another group. Some of the money on that WIC card came out of my wallet, and I did not give it up voluntarily.

The government took that money from me at the rate of about 35 percent of my income in the form of taxes that I can either pay or go to prison.

That is what American democracy consists of today.

If it were not for the welfare state, and public schools are part of it, you would not care who was swimming the Rio Grande. If the only option was pull your weight or starve, there would be no overburdening of hospitals, school districts, police, roads or fill-in-your-favorite-recipient-of-stolen-money-here.

But as long as we support a system that allows one group to vote itself the earnings of another, this silliness will continue.

That is all welfare is – government sanctioned theft.

It is a “Free Beer” sign hanging on America’s storefront

How can we be surprised when that signs attracts a long line?

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