Dear Editor,
Oh, Super Taqueria, however shalt thou survive? Alack! My heart doth ache for thee, oh sweet, sweet mistress! Scrumptious tacos, voluptuous nachos. . . And yet some knave writes in saying he doth plan to deprive $12 from your oh so deserving coffers! But why?
Now I’m sure Mr. Ian Garrott’s heart is in the right place. But come now, dear sir, dost thou actually believe the sole cause of illegal immigration is lazy Mexicans?
Ooh! I know! Let’s go back to 1846! That was a fun year! The Mormons were heading West, Iowa became a state, Americans were immigrating to the Mexican province of California. Mr. Garrott – you’ll love this: some were immigrating illegally! Isn’t historical irony fun!
But I digress. You see, Manifest Destiny was all the rage. We were Americans, by God, and the Good Lord wanted us to own the continent, Mexico be damned. Let’s be clear here: California was a Mexican province. It was their land, but its plains were oh so fertile. So what did we do? We provoked a shooting war. See, we didn’t agree with Mexico on where the actual border was, so we did the only reasonable thing: sent troops into the contested region, provoked an attack, told Congress Mexico invaded, and declared war. A few sensible folk, Abraham Lincoln and Henry David Thoreau, for instance were skeptical of the circumstances leading up to the war, but screw them! They dared to question the government in a time of war. Traitors.
In the end? Mexico lost half it’s territory. The U.S. got California.
So yeah, this was a while ago, but since then we really haven’t been the best of neighbors. Like, you know, plotting the coup that put Victoriano Huerta in power in 1913. Huerta wasn’t a nice dude. Military dictatorships aren’t fun.
And yet during the Cold War, the U.S. backed them all over Latin America. We had this thing about overthrowing democratically elected leftist governments and replacing them with hard line military people. Domino Theory. Can’t let the Commies win. Lots of the governments we put in were corrupt, horrible at economic development and liked killing their own citizens. This is part of the reason the Latin American economy ain’t so shiny now.
And of course it’s always been easier for American companies to move factories across the border so they don’t have to do pesky things like pay minimum wage. This does mean that Americans are out of work. And some 16-year-old girl spends 18 hours a day making your Reebok’s for 17 cents, but it’s all cool. Cheap shoes!
So, what does this have to do with immigration?
First of all, hopefully it makes Mr. Garrott realize that Mexicans don’t come here just because their country is full of lazy folk. Secondly, maybe Mr. Garrott will stop and think a bit about that 16-year-old making his shoes.
She can barely make enough to survive, so she dreams of coming to America, the land of opportunity. It’s the same reason your ancestors came here, Mr. Garrott. Now you’re saying, “But sir! My great grandma came here legally!” I know she did. But that 16-year-old can’t. See, work permits are hard to come by, and she will have to wait years. She can’t do that, so she really doesn’t have a choice. But it all comes down to one crucial factor. Without this important element, there would be no illegal immigration.
She will come because she can get a job here. Why? Companies like undocumented workers. They’re fun to exploit ’cause they can’t complain. If you run a company and need unskilled labor, do you hire the legal immigrant who you have to pay $6.75 an hour or do you hire the illegal, whom you can pay whatever you feel like?
So, forget all this build-a-wall-and-deport-them talk. Try punishing companies that hire illegal immigrants, reform current immigration policy, and invest some money in building Mexico’s economy. The IMF and World Bank were created for a reason. They just kinda suck at it. So let’s un-suckify them, shall we?
Oh and Mr. Garrott, instead of boycotting Super Taqueria, try Wal-Mart instead. I hear they hire lots of undocumented workers.
