Designed to Kill

An outstanding "essay" on so called "border security." Please read the whole article.

Border Policy & How to Change It For a number of years now I’ve worked in the desert on the Mexican-American border with a group that provides humanitarian aid to migrants who are attempting to enter the United States—a journey that claims hundreds of lives every year. We’ve spent years mapping the trails that cross this desert. We walk the trails, find places to leave food and water along them, look for people in distress, and provide medical care when we run into someone who needs it. If the situation is bad enough, we can get an ambulance or helicopter to bring people to the hospital. We strive to act in accordance with the migrants’ wishes at all times, and we never call the Border Patrol on people who don’t want to turn themselves in. During this time I’ve been a part of many extraordinary situations and I’ve heard about many more. Some of the things I’ve seen have been truly heartwarming, and some of them have been deeply sad and wrong. I’ve seen people who were too weak to stand, too sick to hold down water, hurt too badly to continue, too scared to sleep, too sad for words, hopelessly lost, desperately hungry, literally dying of thirst, never going to be able to see their children again, vomiting blood, penniless in torn shoes two thousand miles from home, suffering from heat stroke, kidney damage, terrible blisters, wounds, hypothermia, post-traumatic stress, and just about every other tribulation you could possibly think of. I’ve been to places where people were robbed and raped and murdered; my friends have found bodies. In addition to bearing witness to others’ suffering, I myself have fallen off of cliffs, torn my face open on barbed wire, run out of water, had guns pointed at me, been charged by bulls and circled by vultures, jumped over rattlesnakes, pulled pieces of cactus out of many different parts of my body with pliers, had to tear off my pants because they were full of fire ants, gotten gray hairs, and in general poured no small amount of my own sweat, blood, and tears into the thirsty desert. There is nowhere on earth like the place where we work. It is beautiful beyond telling: harsh, vast, mountainous, remote, rugged, unforgiving, every cliché you can think of and more. I have been humbled countless times by the incredible selflessness and courage of the people that I have met there, and I have been driven nearly out of my head with rage at the utterly heartless economic and political system that drives people to such lengths in order to provide for their families. Doing this work has given me a great deal of opportunity to observe how the border is managed on a day-to-day basis, and hopefully some insight into the functions that it performs within global capitalism—the real objectives that it serves. I offer this essay as ammunition to anyone who still cares enough about anything to intervene when people around them are being treated like pieces of meat. The first thing that I want to make clear is that the atrocious suffering that happens on the border every day is not an accident. It is not a mistake and it is not the result of a misunderstanding. It is the predictable and intentional result of policies implemented at every level of government on both sides of the border. These policies have rational objectives and directly benefit identifiable sectors of the population of both countries. It may be evil, but it’s not stupid. If this sounds a little shrill, let me tell you how I’ve seen this play out on the ground. When I started working in the desert I began to notice some very peculiar things about the Border Patrol’s operations there. They would do a lot of enforcement in some areas and very little in others, and this would not necessarily correspond to which areas were busy and which areas were slow. In fact, very often the enforcement would clearly be done in such a way that it would push traffic into rather than out of the busiest areas, where Border Patrol would keep a low profile until the very northern end of the route. At that point there would be a moderate amount of enforcement again, but not really what you would expect given the numbers of people that were moving through. Then they started building lots of surveillance towers. But once again, the towers were not really built in the places where the traffic was heaviest—they were built on the edges of them. If anything, they seemed to be intent on forcing traffic into the busiest routes rather than out of them. What was happening? Meanwhile, I was constantly meeting migrants whose groups had been split up by helicopters. The Border Patrol would fly over them a few feet off the ground, everybody would run in different directions, and soon there would be thirty people wandering lost across the desert in groups of two or three. What seemed particularly odd was that the Border Patrol often made no effort to actually apprehend these groups after breaking them up—they just flew away. Why? And then there’s this. Over the last few years, the organization I work for has developed a pretty comprehensive understanding of the area we cover, which at times has been one of the most heavily traveled sections of the entire border. We’ve formed a fairly clear picture of where traffic starts, where it goes, how it gets there, where it’s busy and where it’s slow at any given time, where the pinch points are, and so on. I honestly believe that if I worked for the Border Patrol I could basically point at a map and tell them how to shut down the whole sector. It’s really not rocket science. Keep in mind that all of our work has been done by untrained civilian volunteers, armed with low-end GPS units, a few old trucks, run-of-the-mill mapping software, cheap cell phones with spotty service, and a very limited budget. Does it seem logical that we could figure this stuff out while the government of the United States of America cannot, despite access to helicopters, unmanned drones, electronic sensors, fleets of well-maintained trucks, night vision systems, state-of-the-art communications and surveillance and mapping technology, tens of thousands of paid employees, and a limitless supply of money to shovel down the hole at every possible opportunity? I don’t think it does. So what’s going on? If you accept the stated objectives of the border at face value, then none of this makes any sense at all. If you accept that the actual objectives may not be the stated ones, things start to come together fast. The task of the Border Patrol—and the actual objective of the policies it is there to enforce—is not in any sense to STOP ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION. It is to manage and control that migration. Trust me on this. But to what end? To whose benefit? Settle in, because it’s complicated.

The Real Traitors to America

Goons in Gucci's So where does this sudden, multi-state offensive against the hard-won rights, protections, and democratic power of America's wage earners come from? From the top--from a relative handful of arrogantly rich, right-wing families and corporate chieftains who have long been dedicated to disarming labor, repealing the New Deal, and returning America to the glory days when robber barons ruled. These particular moneyed elites have not idly dreamed of going back to the future, they've been investing hundreds of millions of dollars during the past four decades to assemble a shadowy network of hired political thugs to get them there. [HISTORICAL FLASHBACK: In the fierce labor wars of the last century, industrial barons employed Pinkertons and other goons to bloody the heads of laborers or simply gun down those struggling for a share of economic and political power. It was brutal, but organized workers persevered and eventually gained a share of economic and political power. From their sweat and blood, America's middle class flowered.] Today, the bands of nouveau corporate royalists (with coats of arms bearing such names as Coors, DeVos, Koch, Scaife, and Walton) are determined to take back those middle-class gains of yesteryear. They are working to achieve this through a coordinated, long-term campaign to (1) crush the ability of working people to unionize, (2) bust America's middle-class wage structure, (3) eliminate job security, and (4) emasculate government as a force capable of controlling corporate avarice and arrogance. These latter-day royalists are employing a more sophisticated thuggery than brute force (though don't think they wouldn't resort to it). Instead, their goons are more likely to be in Gucci's than brogans, using dollars and computers rather than clubs and guns. They have been recruiting, financing, training, deploying, and coordinating thousands of political operatives to work through hundreds of front groups, law firms, think tanks, PACs, lobbying offices, media and PR consortiums, faux academic centers, astroturf campaigns, and--of course--compliant politicians. Among the compliant is our covey of hyperactive governors, all carrying basically the same anti-worker, anti-democratic policy ideas. Their unified agenda wasn't produced by telepathy or freakish happenstance, but by AFC, ALEC, IFL, SPN,* and other obscure organizational acronyms unknown to 99 percent of Americans. But Daniels of Indiana, Walker of Wisconsin, Kasich of Ohio, Scott of Florida, and the rest of the covey have these organizations on speed dial. Behind the non-descript acronyms are aggressive and insidious right-wing wonk shops that have been set up and richly financed by the corporatists to prepare and hand-deliver pro-corporate programs to compliant governors and key legislators. Once delivered, the organizations work (usually clandestinely) to get the programs enacted. Let's peek inside a couple of these acronyms. 2. AMERICAN LEGISLATIVE EXCHANGE COUNCIL. "With nearly 2,000 members" explains a brochure of this secretive organization, "ALEC is the nation's largest nonpartisan, individual membership association of state legislators." Maybe your very own local lawmaker is one of them--but you won't get that information from ALEC, which hides its list of legislators from public view. Nonpartisan? Its website lists 22 legislators from around the country who serve as board members and officers of this tax-exempt legislative service organization. All are Republican. In fact, only token numbers of Democrats are allowed in the club, and all inductees are individually vetted to make sure they will adhere to ALEC's corporate dogma. Which brings us to the organization's pose as an association of legislators. The "exchange" in ALEC's name is not between lawmakers, but between lawmakers and such behind-the-scenes powers as Altria, AT&T, Bayer, Coca-Cola, ExxonMobil, GlaxoSmithKline, Intuit, Johnson & Johnson, Koch Industries, Kraft Foods, Peabody Energy, Pfizer, Reynolds American, State Farm Insurance, UPS, and Walmart. These giants form ALEC's "private enterprise board," and they are among the self-interested corporations that put up its money and shape its agenda. State reps pay only a token $50 a year to be members of ALEC, while at least 82 percent of the $6 million yearly budget comes from corporations (ALEC demurely refuses to name its donors, much less report how much each gives, nor will it disclose how it spends the money). What do corporations get for their tax-deductible donations? A greased skid for sliding their wish list into the laws of multiple states. ALEC is something of a speed dating service. It holds three national conferences a year, plus convening issue-specific policy sessions in 20 to 30 state capitols annually. These are cozy sessions that conveniently gather groups of legislators to meet in private with corporate executives. The two groups schmooze together and develop bills to help extend corporate power over workers, consumers, environmentalists, and others--then the lawmakers go back home to pass the corporations' bills. ALEC is the ultimate back room for corporate-legislative collusion. Its promotional brochure describes it as a dynamic partnership "that will define the American political landscape of the 21st century." That's no empty threat. ALEC's tête-à-têtes result in about 1,000 bills being introduced across America every legislative session, and an ALEC official proudly adds, "We usually pass about 200 bills a year." And what pieces of work they are! For example: Even before Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker took office this January, ALEC agents were handing him model bills for clubbing teachers and other public employees. Pushing ALEC's attack from inside the legislature were Wisconsin state Sen. Scott Fitzgerald, the rancorous, union-busting majority leader who was ALEC's state chairman last year, and state Rep. Robin Vos, the house budget slasher who heads ALEC's state organization this year. Likewise, governors in Indiana, Maine, Michigan, and Ohio have backed anti-union legislation this year that closely resembles ALEC's 'model' bills. In 2009, ALEC drew up the Voter ID Act to ban university students from using their college-issued ID's as proof of residency for voting. Seven states have adopted this model law, which is intended to bar eligible students from the voting booth. These kids must be disenfranchised, New Hampshire's house speaker bluntly said in February, because they're "voting liberal, voting their feelings, with no life experience." This model bill has been introduced in 18 other states this year in a rather obvious ploy to hold down the student vote in the 2012 presidential election. Arizona's infamous anti-Latino immigration law was crafted at an ALEC conference. The state senate leader who sponsored the bill was in the meeting, as was an eager executive from Corrections Corporation of America, the private prison operation that stands to get a nice business boost from Arizona's law. Numerous state bills have been filed to kill, dilute, or withdraw from Obama's universal healthcare reform. Many bear remarkably similar wording, perhaps because they were drawn from a special report churned out by the 'nonpartisan' ALEC, entitled "The State Legislators Guide to Repealing ObamaCare." One of ALEC's specialties is developing state laws to stop citizens from interfering with corporate whim. For example, when various communities began outlawing the use of genetically altered seeds in their area, ALEC rushed out a model bill to remove local control of seeds--11 states have passed it. Also with such climate-change deniers as Koch and Exxon funding ALEC and sitting on its board, you can guess why this corporate policy front has produced more than 800 draft measures against regulating global warming emissions--and, at least six states are considering bills nearly identical to ALEC's draft resolution for "state withdrawal from regional climate initiatives." The big lie Something unconscionable is at work here, something that is shameful, unworthy of our people, and directly contradictory to our country's founding ideals. The richest, most powerful, most privileged people in our land--in cahoots with a horde of the least principled, most venal political opportunists in civic life-- are intentionally savaging the well-being of America's majority and aggressively suppressing the democratic rights that make America America. And for what? Solely for themselves, for the aggrandizement of their own wealth and power. To pull off this grand political larceny, the narcissistic right has manufactured a huge lie that has largely been accepted as truth not only by the GOP and tea partiers, but also by the mass media, nearly all of the mainline pundit class, and too many fraidy-cat Democratic leaders, including the one in the oval office. The lie is that extreme budgetary measures (they call them "coura- geous") simply must be imposed now, this instant, in order to slay the looming deficit monster that is gorging itself on government spending at all levels. "In the name of your grandbabies," they cry, "teachers must be fired, rights smothered, pensions abrogated, Medicare tossed aside, little kids cut off from Head Start, and the bright promise of America's shared prosperity dimmed. We have no choice but to slash and burn." No choice? One hedge fund hustler pocketed $2.4 million last year. Not for the year--$2.4 million AN HOUR. Yet he and his ilk pay a much lower tax rate than you and I do. In recent years, huge corporations like GE, ExxonMobil, and Bank of America have pocketed billions of dollars in profit, yet paid not a dime in federal income taxes. Indeed, far from paying taxes, these three have even been handed millions of dollars in "refunds" from our public treasury in some of their profitable years. Sliding through loopholes created by their lobbyists, two-thirds of corporations in the US pay no income taxes to help cover the priceless benefits they get from our national government. America does not face a deficit crisis--we face a multi-billion dollar annual tax dodge by the most elite of moneyed elites. The money our society needs is right there--in the coffers of flagrantly rich Fortune 500 corporations and Wall Street banks, in the personal accounts of absurdly wealthy CEOs and fast-buck speculators. America is hardly a poor country. It's the richest in the history of the world, and it ought to have the very best public education program in the world, the most advanced infrastructure network, and the finest system of health care for all. Yet our 'leaders' only talk of what they can't do, of what must be cut, of how the middle class and the poor must sacrifice, of how Americans must adapt to the new normal of diminished expectations and shriveled democratic power. The ugly truth is that these despicable governors and lawmakers are willingly trashing teachers and butchering our public budgets simply to spare the privileged and plutocratic few from paying what they owe to sustain a just, democratic, and truly prosperous society. This is ridiculous. Let's tax the super-rich! We the People must join together, stand up, push back, and shift the focus in this fight from hardworking teachers to these disgusting deadbeats and their political puppets. - Jim Hightower

Job Opening

We Don't Need No Stinkin' Papers! By RON JACOBS The new anti-immigrant law in Arizona (SB 1070) is more than a racist law. It is a device designed to divide and conquer. It's not designed to just divide white-hued folks from brown hued ones; nor is it designed to merely divide citizens from non-citizens. It is also designed to divide Latinos. If one looks to previous such laws, say in Nazi Germany or apartheid South Africa, they will find stories of Jews who turned in their fellow Jews and South African blacks who turned in their fellow Africans. A common motivation for this behavior was the belief that by turning in a supposedly illegal person, the forces of the law would not turn their wrath on those who were doing the turning in. This scenario rests on the very supposition that a person can or can not be illegal. Illegality is a human construct. It can be given and taken away at the whim of those in power. Laws such as Arizona's SB 1070 utilize the suppositions inherent in this construct by labeling a certain type of person as illegal. It then takes this supposition and applies it to everyone, no matter whether they are legal or not in the eyes of the state. In Arizona, it works like this. There are many Latinos in the state of Arizona that do not have the necessary documents that would make it legal for them to live in Arizona. Most of these Latinos are brown-skinned. There are also many Latinos who live in Arizona that are either native-born US citizens or have documents that state they are in Arizona legally. SB 1070 mandates that the police in Arizona check the documents of everyone whom they suspect of being in their state illegally. This means that either the police are to develop a special sense to determine who is living there illegally before they ask for identification or they are to ask for the required documents at their whim. Furthermore, if a citizen thinks someone is without documents stating their legal status and the police fail to investigate this citizen's belief, those police will be in violation of the law. Secondary violations of any part of the law by any party are considered to be felonies and will result in prison time for the offending party. The response to this law from politicians, the media and other self-appointed societal guardians has been mixed at best. Some have come out against it while others have come out strongly in favor. Most, however, seem to be waiting to see which way the political winds blow. We are told by many of the politicians that are against SB 1070 that this law is "un-American." This is categorically untrue. The historical record of the United States is filled with laws whose only intention was to maintain a second class status for certain immigrants. From the laws enforcing the slave status of Africans to the Chinese Exclusion Acts; from laws institutionalizing racial segregation in the US South to the various employment schemes designed to control the flow of Latinos into the fields and other workplaces of corporate America, there is very little that is so profoundly "American" as legalized discrimination against immigrants, especially those labeled non-white. Of course, most politicians speaking out against SB 1070 are unlikely to share this understanding of history. This doesn't render their opposition irrelevant. Instead, it provides the more radical wing of the movement for a humane immigration policy with an opportunity to gain the ears of these politicians and their supporters. The opportunity to challenge the idea that some people can be illegal merely by their presence has never been greater. Indeed, Arizona's attempt to codify that idea has the potential to expose anti-immigrant sentiment for the ultimately racist sentiment that it is. Getting back to the point made earlier in this piece, this law is about creating division. National borders are reinforced to control wages of workers of all nationalities and to create and maintain divisions. Laws like SB 1070 are merely internal extensions of those borders. Just like imperial war, immigration control is a tool of the imperial elites in their pursuit of domination and profit. If the immigrant rights movement wants to be truly successful, it must keep this perception as its basis. While opposing laws like SB 1070 is crucial, the movement's essential demand must be the eradication of borders--especially those borders that restrict humans from crossing them.

I'm against borders of any kind. As animals of this planet, we have the right to go anywhere we please.

Sorry, I just couldn't pass this one up:

I Used to Respect Canada

Robin Long became the first U.S. war resister since the Vietnam War forced to leave Canada and turned over to the U.S. military. Even though on June 3rd 2008 Canada's House of Commons voted in favor "to allow conscientious objectors" to "remain in Canada".

Let's add Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper to the long list of bu$h lapdogs.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper may be set on embracing George Bush and his occupation of Iraq, but on Tuesday, June 3, the Canadian members of Parliament extended their embrace to the war resisters. By a vote of 137-110, the House of Commons called on the Canadian government to “immediately implement a program to allow conscientious objectors and their immediate family members… to apply for permanent resident status and remain in Canada.” The motion also called on the government to “immediately cease any removal or deportation actions against such individuals.” All the opposition parties — Liberal Party, the New Democratic Party, and the Bloc Quebecois — came together to reject the policy of the ruling Conservative Party. The motion, however, is non-binding and the Conservative government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper may choose to ignore it.

There are still many "war resisters" trying legally to remain in Canada and stay out of a war they view as unjust. However, with the deportation and jailing of Robin Long it does not look good for these soldiers who wanted to take a legal avenue. I hope his penalty is light.

There is blog up called Courage to Resist. Some of these soldiers have been to Iraq and Afghanistan, some are in Canada, others are awaiting trials in the U.S. They all have one thing in common... they are sick of war, fighting and the military. They are a diverse group; religious reasons, female soldiers who have been threatened, sufferers of PTSD, and others who have been there, seen the inhuman treatment of other human beings.

I hope Long tells every prospective troop who wants to sign up to be sure of what they are getting into. Once they sign the contract, give their word... it's too late to say, "Oops, my bad."

When I enlisted, I never relized it would end up being the single biggest decision of my entire life. I figured a few years serving during a time of peace, get some college money, get out in good health, I'd be set for life. It does work for some... if it all goes according to plan. To enter during a time of war and expect all things to be rosy is idealistic to say the least.

These soldiers have my utmost respect. Canada not so much.

Racism: Alive and Well in Arizona

It's the same old hate here in Phoenix: Racist whites and the nauseatingly humorous, few, long-time resident, wait until it happens to them, misguided Hispanics: Against realistic-thinking Whites, Hispanics and the impoverished, persecuted illegal immigrants who will do any job for minimum wage yet are accused of every crime known to man.

No one understands how much this will cripple the local economy here if the scumbag, sheriff Joe, and (new stance on immigration because he was on Lou Dobbs for 10 minutes) Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon get their way on enforcing this new, racial profiling, immigration law. Basically what the new law means is they can hold anyone who looks Hispanic for an unspecified period of time until they can prove they are a citizen or here legally! Welcome to the police state of Arizona.

I pity the racist idiots who don't relize how much the underground Hispanics pump into the local economy. Who do these 'uppity white folk' think washes their cars, cleans their offices, serves them fast food, mows their lawns, buys their products and helps to pay the taxes of this state? Seems like it's back to the late 1800's and Chinese immigrant labor and laws all over again.

As far as local crime goes, we had a policeman killed by an illegal immigrant this year. So now, every crime that happens, it's illegals.

Two other local officers were killed by white men. The Baseline Serial Rapist and Murderer was a black man. The Phoenix Serial Shooter: two white guys.

In the last 3 years there has been an upswing in the theft of copper from new home construction and installed construction sites. News media outlets claimed illegals were suspect. Turns out, a man was found to be electrocuted with his hands still on a live line; yep, (toasted) white guy. Two more theives got caught when they took their copper to a recycle center; yep, two (dumb) white guys. I guess those illegals are so smart, they don't get caught with copper.

Why don't these racists admit: Crime crosses all ethnic barriers. We don't even need to talk about who commits corporate white collar crime: The most profitable and least prosecuted of all crimes.

In my honest opinion, I think U.S. Customs and Border Protection should be investigating more human smuggling operations (coyotes) and big businesses who profit from cheap labor.

Please people, start treating all human beings with respect for one another and follow "The Golden Rule". And if you're the religous sort, the ever popular saying, "What would Jesus do?", applies most wholeheartedly.

"We will cross Mountains, Deserts, and yes... even Borders to feed our families! Wouldn't you?"

"Remember Manuel Cordova"

Not exactly what I was expecting in an Op-Ed representing the Arizona Republic. However, it is outstanding when a major media outlet will recognize that illegal immigrants are human beings.

I am proud of the fact that my Congressman, Democratic Rep. Raul Grijalva, (District 7 - AZ), feels that this man should at least be allowed a work visa.

What do you think?

Illegal immigrant. Fighting words. Unwelcome people. But people, nonetheless. The act of one of those people on Thanksgiving Day saved a little boy's life. You've heard the story. Manuel Jesus Cordova, 26, was walking across the desert when he came across 9-year-old Christopher Buchleitner, whose mother died in a car crash. The child was alone. The man had been walking for two days, on his way to find work. Illegally. He stopped. Gave the child his sweater, built a fire and stayed with the little boy through the night. They didn't speak the same language, but he made the child comfortable. He watched him as he slept. Authorities said if it hadn't been for this illegal immigrant, the child might have died. Help came. The child was rescued and Cordova was returned to Mexico. He came to the border Tuesday to pick up a certificate of appreciation for what he did. He talked of the night he became a hero. He said he'd been afraid that nobody would come to help the boy. Before he met the child, his fears had been precisely the opposite. He didn't want to be found then. His goal then had been to evade detection and get to a job. Funny, isn't it, how human beings change their plans to help each other? Funny, too, how the current debate over illegal immigration focuses on the negative and forgets the human. Remembering that illegal immigrants can be decent human beings doesn't change the need to reform a broken immigration system. But it could change the tone of the diatribes about the problem. It should do that. Rep. Raul Grijalva plans to introduce legislation that would allow Cordova to get a special visa and come here to work. That probably won't happen. But Grijalva deserves credit for trying. As Arizona works through the challenges of being a border state at a time when the federal government's failure to deal with illegal immigration has resulted in crisis, Cordova - this illegal immigrant - has already done important work here. He saved a child. He reminded Arizona that undocumented immigrants are people with the same range of good and bad attributes as any other group of people.

"A Lambasted Landscaper's Lament"

From E.J. Montini's blog at the Arizona Repulic:

He's been a Valley landscape contractor for years; he pays decent wages and provides health benefits; he considers himself a loyal, patriotic American. But he asks that I keep his name out of the paper because some of his employees are illegal immigrants and because, he says, “People are nuts. They don't want to talk about this. They just want to yell at you and string you up.” Arizona's employer sanctions law will not kick in until next month, assuming it doesn't get tied up in court. The landscaper says that he'll comply with the new rules. For now, however, he wonders if he could make a few points without getting shouted down. Only if there were no one around to hear you, I say. He begins by discussing the notion that illegal immigrants fill jobs that Americans don't want. “When I put ads in the paper that we have openings, there is not one white guy busting down my door asking to push a lawnmower,” he says. “It does not happen. Same with the guys I know who do roofs. Same with other contractors. Why does Arizona have to be a cowboy and go after the businessmen here?” Some would say that it's because the federal government isn't doing anything, I tell him, and that someone has to take the lead. “That's a joke,” he says. “This is going to hurt Arizona. I have painting contractor friends. Framers. Roofers. When this law takes effect and they have to fire people – like I will – do you think those employees will go away? No. They'll start working for themselves and everything we put into them, all of the training, will be used against us. Only they'll be working for cash and paying no taxes.” He pauses and then adds, “And what happens then to Social Security?” The landscaper says that his average employee makes about $400 a week. From that, each pays the federal government over $30 in taxes. He matches that amount. “When the government gets the money and finds that it can't match an employee's name with a Social Security number, does it send me back a check saying, ‘Sorry, we don't know what to do with this money?' No,” he says. “They keep it. Why? Because they need it.” The Social Security system has received billions from illegal immigrants who will never collect benefits. Some suggest that without that money, the system would collapse. “We need a program where people can be identified and can work here,” the landscaper says. “Maybe a system that says if you don't have a job you have to leave. But as it is, I might have to fire a guy who has worked for me for 10 years. He is married to a U.S. citizen. He has never been in trouble. Owns a house. A truck. Has two kids who are citizens. He's been paying a lawyer 10 years to get citizenship and still hasn't got it. Now I'm supposed to fire him because (Gov.) Janet (Napolitano) and some others got on a bandwagon and are mad at Mexicans? That's not right. Why not punish everybody else who deals with illegals or makes money from them?” He includes those who might sell supplies to such people. And groceries. And clothes. As well as individuals who use their services. And everyone who benefits, directly or indirectly, from illegal immigrants. Every business with a “se habla español” signs in its window, for instance. Or those who own Spanish language newspapers, TV stations and radio stations. “What would happen if we punished everyone who has benefited from illegals?” he asks. “What would it be like then?” For one thing, I say, there'd be no one left to shout down a frustrated landscaper.

You really should read some of the vitrolic comments in this thread. Everyone will understand how touchy a subject illegal immigration is in Arizona.

But... but... what would Jesus do?

UDATE: Phoenix Officials Feel Heat Over Migration as Protests Continue

As protests and arrests of undocumented workers continued near a Phoenix furniture store over the weekend, a Washington-based think tank is researching whether to sue Phoenix over its immigration policies. Judicial Watch, a 13-year-old conservative think tank best known for its lawsuits against the Clinton administration, sent its chief investigator to Phoenix on Friday to review public documents related to immigration...

The Latino Comedy Project's "300" Parody