And I had Thai last night.

Thanks, everyone.

I realize this is an emotionally charged issue. I am not buying this argument, however. Many Americans don’t want those jobs. They believe they are “owed” more and better. I am second generation American from both sides. My grandparents came to this country, and not all legally, from Europe. They took jobs others wouldn’t do in some cases, mining, foundry work. In the case of one of my grandfathers, he became a citizen only in order to go to work in a union foundry. His children, like the children of many immigrants today, became Americans. Few Americans today would do the work they did. So, immigrants do it.
My brother lives in New Orleans. Many contractors had to hire workers from South America to work in construction. Why? Because US workers would not take the jobs. These were not low paying jobs. Even Jesse Jackson put together a much publicized job bus of workers to New Orleans. The obvious intent was to put the right minority to work. Jackson’s bus was a bust.
Canada has quite a successful guest worker program with Mexico. We could do that, but we would rather yammer about how the jobs should go to Americans. They just need to pay more.
Ideally, those who want to come here to work should become citizens. The reality is that some do not want to become citizens, but they do provide a service. So, let’s figure out how to regulate that and make it win win.

As for the low crime figure, I read another article today that cited a study which tied the preponderance of families to low crime. Do you think that there is anything that our government is doing to discourage families? Some 60% of the African American births are out of wedlock. This is an enormous increase since the advent of the “Great Society.”

There was a protest in California yesterday where a bunch of people where screaming about the bankrupt state government withholding payments to illegals. WTF is that all about…takes some serious gall to believe that if your manage to avoid capture at the border then you are entitled to payments by the legal citizens.

Does that mean Mexicans (yes, most who moved this century to PG are Mexicans…meaning from Mexico) are less likely to do crimes than whites or blacks? Hardly. But were there a lot less crimes when it went brown than when it was low income black or aged and decaped white? In this case yes. In other places that has hardly been the case. But I was not singing ‘We are the world’. I was reporting on a unique phenom I have witnessed south of me in the immediate Pleasant Grove area of Dallas…where it was once largely declining white and then became low income declining black and then became lively and jam packed…not an empty store front, lower crime area.

I hesitated to even post this because it’s not something people want to hear. And they likely have no similar firsthand reference to mull. I’d be willing to bet there are plenty of areas nationwide that when they went Hispanic went downhill and became dangerous. Its just that I have witnessed the complete opposite in Pleasant Grove.

When it was either of the first racial demographic incarnations, I seldom went south to shop or eat. The shopping center storefronts were all a ghost town and it felt seedy and pointless in the 90s. In this century, I rather enjoy the scene. It’s like parts of San Antonio (where I spent a ton of time) when I was growing up. In fact I am about to go to Pleasant Grove to eat Mexican food at Cuquita’s on Lake June, where it moved after they sold their very popular location on Henderson Avenue. Their new location on Lake June was a boarded up free-standing hovel for 20 years empty until they gutted it and opened in one week.

You concede that prior waves of immigrants were “mostly” legal; my contention is that the current hoards pouring across our border by the thousands daily are not immigrants, they’re looters siphoning the fruits of 200 + years of American effort.

“As long as there are jobs here that people will perform for less than current residents will, the temptation to come illegally will remain.” Frank

This position usually segues into the canard that “they’re only doing jobs Americans won’t do.”
Where I grew up American citizens do roofing, they build houses, and they pour concrete. The reason you don’t see Americans doing these jobs here is because the wages for such work have been so depressed Americans can’t afford to take them, they’ve been pushed out by the illegals who can live on a 3rd world wage sending half that wage back to where they’re from-while we give them free education and health care.

Rawlins you seem to be saying that the drop in crime is commensurate with the arrival of the illegals. Are we do believe that one who’s mere presence is a criminal offense is an otherwise law abiding “citizen?” Is it just possible that in that time period crime in general was on the decline?

I cannot fathom why the whole illegal issue is an issue. We have borders. We have immigration laws. If someone is in this country illegally, they need deported, I don’t care if they’re from Greece or Guatemala.
If the US Government says we have 11 million illegals in this country today, its a safe bet we probably have double that. When Obama shoves his amnesty bill down our throats, with chain migration we could be looking at 40-50 million uneducated illiterate people within our borders to take care of, with more on the way banking on the next amnesty. Right about the time we’re looking at universal health care.

Don’t shoot the messenger.
(This is the wrong blog to use that line. So let’s say: ‘Don’t castrate the squid’.)

That is a polemic not a study. The premise in the first paragraph is incorrect. The notion that prior waves of immigrants were all legal is false. They were mostly legal, but by no means completely legal.
Seems like both sides of this issue is fond of quoting numbers that tend to cancel out the other side. As long as there are jobs here that people will perform for less than current residents will, the temptation to come illegally will remain.