For as long as I can remember people have been coming into our country without going through the proper channels. Historically we think of these "illegals", or "undocumented workers" if you prefer, as being Mexican, although many come from Latin America, too. Today we're hearing more about Muslim immigrants, but by the numbers, it's still overwhelmingly an Hispanic issue. Point is, they are here among us now.
There's a lot of hot air being spewed by our political candidates this election year telling us we need to "get all the Mexicans out and take back our country!" It makes for a good 30-second sound bite, which coincidentally is about the limit of the average voters attention span. The more simple minded say all 11,000,000 (?) illegals should be rounded up and deported, just like that. Easy peasy.
Just think about that for a second. Who would be doing the "rounding"? Do we have enough law enforcement to pull some off crime detail and charge them with stopping all brown-skinned people on the street and demanding proof of citizenship? Correct answer: No. And if we did, how long would it take for someone to challenge said roundup in court? Correct answer: Maybe 15 seconds.
But lets assume we did have the manpower to round up all brown-skinned people and the courts looked the other way. How many could we round up per day? 10,000? Do we have enough spare holding areas to put up 10,000 detainees a day, every day for years? Correct answer: No.
But assuming we did, do they get their day in court? We just can't assume brown skin = illegal....many are no doubt native born or naturalized US citizens. After we determine which brown-skinned people are US citizens and which aren't, do we have enough lawyers to represent the undocumented, or enough judges and courts, to hear 10,000 cases a day? Correct answer: No.
But assuming we did, do we have enough guards, or food preparers, or doctors, etc, to look after 10,000 more people a day who are in our custody? And if we did, can we afford them? Can we afford 30,000 meals a day? Correct answer: No.
But if we could afford it, and if our legal system could process 10,000 cases per day and order them returned to Mexico (or Guatemala or wherever they were from), do we have enough buses to actually transport them all? At 55 seats per bus, that would require 82 buses a day, every day. And you can't get from Chicago, or Oregon, or New York to our southern border or beyond by bus in one day....it might take 6 or 8 times that many buses. (Hmmm....wonder what the gas mileage of a Greyhound Bus is?)
And if, after 3 years of intense round-up we could deport all 11,000,000 undocumented workers, and assuming no new illegals crossed the border in the meantime, who would pick our crops, or pave our roads, or roof our houses, or bus our tables, or mow our lawns? Are we all of a sudden going to get industrious and do all those things for ourselves? Correct answer: Not a snowball's chance in hell! (And if we tried, we'd realize fast we need them as much as they need us.)
I rest my case. There is NO WAY we're going to deport 11,000,000 people! So the next time you hear a political candidate say he "wants 'em all out", just know they're blowing smoke up your ass skirt, and then ask yourself, what ELSE are they blowing your way?
Yes, we need a workable plan to bring our undocumented workers here now into our system and make them honest taxpayers, and to control who crosses our borders into our country, but this hair-brained scheme isn't it.
And besides, the overwhelming majority are just like us, decent people simply trying to make a living. Think, my friends.
S
