SOAP BOX: Illegal Immigration

Well it is Monday... first day back to work after a three-day weekend (for me at least). As I was getting the library ready to open, an article in the newspaper that I was processing caught my eye. The Monday edition of the San Francisco Chronicle, that is.

I am, at heart, a pretty liberal person. But this article made me rather mad. The article goes into detail how cracking down on employing illegal immigrants is bad. Harmful to businesses and will hurt California as a whole. The article went on to change the term from "illegal immigrant" to "undocumented immigrant."

Well, just excuse me. My car is white. When it gets dirty I might make a case that it is more of an "eggshell" color, but in the end it still is white. Changing the term does not change the over all fact.

A friend and I got into a heated discussion, which really boiled over when I used the word "criminals." I was told that I should not assume that all of the illegal immigrants, or even a majority of them, are criminals.

Hello? There is a reason the word illegal is in the term illegal immigrant. Means it is against the law. Also seems to mean that the people who fit into that category are breaking the law. Thus, I think, the term criminal fits.

One source stated, about the enforcement policy, "My gut feeling is that the government is going to have a hell of a time enforcing it," said Bruce Hill, chef and co-owner of Bix in San Francisco and Picco and Pizzeria Picco in Larkspur. "But if they can, and do, it will be devastating to the restaurant business."

Hill, who says he goes by the book, said there is no question that undocumented workers are the backbone of the industry.

"We hire hardworking people," he said. "And if he or she is a kick-butt employee, we (the industry) look the other way."

When you start saying the term "look the other way" it kind of implies that the business owner/manager knows what is going on. So why should they not be held accountable?

I have a problem with the whole illegal immigrant issue... actually a few problems.

First- There are people in California who want jobs, but cannot seem to get them. Why not employ Californians?

Second- Since getting rid of illegal help will endanger the business in California, I want to know one thing. WHY? The focus of a business is making a profit. If being forced to use people who can legally get a job would hurt a business... I have to ask why? The only way that it could hurt profits is if the employee you are looking the other way for is making less than you would have to pay someone who is here legally. That really bothers me. If someone is doing a job, pay them the right amount.. minimum wage... whatever! THIS IS AMERICA! NOT A KATHY LEE GIFFORD SWEAT SHOP!

Third- If a business owner is breaking the law, I think they should be held accountable. It's called being an accessory to a crime.

Fourth- In an age where terrorism seems to be a way of life, how responsible is it to allow people access to our country without checking documentation? For example, last September, when crop after crop seemed to be either recalled or trashed before it hit grocery store shelves because they were unsanitary to eat... here you have the illegal immigrants picking and processing those vegetables, and "something" in the water that they were being cleaned with was bad. And that, as far as I know, was an accident. How much easier would it be to spread some sort of bacterial agent on purpose when employers "just look the other way"????

I believe that those who are truly trying to come to America for a better life should be helped. But I also feel that those people should enter our country legally.

After all, if *I* go to Mexico or Canada (not a real country by the way... at least according to South Park) *I* need a passport. If you disembark from a cruise in Mexico or Canada, or just cross by car, the Mexican government checks, the Canadian government checks, why shouldn't we expect the same in return? That people crossing our border show us the same type of respect and documentation? Their governments require it. Why is it suddenly so wrong that our government has the same expectations?

Ok, I will get off of my soap box now.