Someone forwarded this to me - my reply follows...
CHEAP LABOR? Isn't that what the whole immigration issue is about? Business doesn't want to pay a decent wage Consumers don't want expensive produce Government will tell you Americans don't want the jobs But the bottom line is cheap labor. The phrase "cheap labor" is a myth, a farce, a lie...an oxymoron. There is no such thing as "cheap labor."
Take, for example, an illegal alien with a wife and five children. He takes a job for $5.00 or $6.00/hour. At that wage, with six dependents, he pays no income tax, yet at the end of the year, if he files an Income Tax Return, he gets an "earned income credit" of up to $3,200 free.
He qualifies for Section 8 housing and subsidized rent He qualifies for food stamps He qualifies for free (no deductible, no co-pay) health care .
His children get free breakfasts and lunches at school.
He requires bilingual teachers and books .He qualifies for relief from high energy bills.
If they are or become, aged, blind or disabled, they qualify for SSI.Once qualified for SSI they can qualify for Medicare.
All of this is at the taxpayer's expense.
He doesn't worry about car insurance, life insurance, or homeowners insurance.
Taxpayers provide Spanish language signs, bulletins and printed material.
He and his family receive the equivalent of $20.00 to $30.00/hour in benefits.
Working Americans are lucky to have $5.00 or $6.00/hour left after paying their bills and his.
The American taxpayer's also pay for increased crime, graffiti and trash clean up.
Cheap labor? YEAH RIGHT! Wake up people! Kind of scary, isn't it when you think about it?
My Response:Actually, illegal aliens don't really qualify for many of those "incentives". For one thing, to "apply" for any number of those benefits, they would end up having to show proof of citizenship, thus tipping their proverbial hand that they're here illegally.
However, the most compelling issue for me is the one that comes from Jesus. Actually, there are many issues, but let's talk about just two. For one, I'm forced to ask where's my first loyalty. To country? I like the U.S. alot. But no. It's to God. So we're really dealing with an issue of what is the greatest commandment: love the Lord with all your heart, mind, soul, etc. From there, the issue moves onto the second greatest commandment: love your neighbor as yourself. Now, here's where the guy who orginally asked caused this issue got into a mess. He asked Jesus who's his neighbor - the Bible says he wanted to justify himself. Jesus used a parable that I think is succinctly at the heart of this anti-hispanic message: Jesus uses several characters; the first, a Jew, who's traveling between Jericho and Jerusalem. The second (group), a bunch of robbers and thieves. The third (group), a priest, a levite, and a scribe. And the fourth character, a Samaritan.
For those who don't know, the Samaritans were a despised people, and the Jews considered them at best half-breeds, and at worst, heretics and squatters. It's for this reason that Jesus uses the character of the [Good] Samaritan as the one who rescues the Jewish traveler after he gets beaten up and left for dead by the robbers - not the priest; not the levite; not the scribe - all very religious and upright people.
The bottom line for those of us who even remotely consider themselves Christians, we should care about our neighbors, whether they're from "south of the border" or not, and whether they speak english, spanish, or spanglish.
Oh, and maybe a refresher history lesson would help, too. It wasn't until the mid-19th century, that is the mid-1800's that California, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, and Texas were under the authority of the United States. All of that belonged to Spain, and subsequently Mexico. And then it was only taken away by a most immoral, if not illegal war whose only purpose was to provide for new slave states at the congressional urging of Southern Democrats.
If that's the attitude you want to align yourself with, by all means, go ahead. It's a free country.
