Where's Pink Floyd?

When you need the band? Their album The Wall should be fittingly played at Texas conservatives' election rallies as they use this campaign to draw up reactionary fear to strike at another scapegoat instead of solve the issue of immigration with dignity, reason and proper economical sense. Read this. I don't know what frightens me the most: the demagoguery of Texas Republicans, the idea of deporting every "illegal" immigrant or the idea proposed of having prison inmates carry out slave labor such as picking fruits and vegetables for the rest of Americans who already see the job of farm labor as deserving for no one but immigrants.
The issue of illegal immigration truly needs to be resolved. It does not, however, need to be resolved in the wake of 9/11 with people's reactionary fears of foreigners sneaking across the borders to blow things up. Terrorists without green cards or those even on the terrorist watch lists are free to waltz into our country to kill by the thousands; why the hell risk crossing into Brownsville, Texas, with a Coyote who you've paid a thousand dollars only to burn to death in the hull of a pick up truck? We've seen throught the Massoui (sp) trial this week that people coming here for a better life risk death; people coming here to carry out inhumane acts risk media exposure. Fact: twelve million people are here illegally, they cost money, money that comes from tax-paying people in this country, which means that people are paying for them to be in this country. Schools, hospitals, housing, et cetera all are more expensive because of the issue of illegal immigration. However, the people who seem to be portrayed in the media as those who cross the border "illegally" do so to provide better lives for their family; they do so to get out of the hell holes their home countries are; they come here because the idea, the myth, the promise of "America" is too alluring to not shoot for. Horatio Algers sure as hell didn't apply for citizenship, wait seven to ten years before making his move and come into the U.S. in order to pull himself up by his bootstraps, either. Now, I'm not saying, "just let everyone in." Something needs to be done. However, the fact is that the people who do come here illegally provide services for us that keep our lifestyles how they are: comfortable. We'd bitch and moan if the prices for our produce were any higher if white middle-class people picked it; we'd surely bitch and moan if our day salons, restaurant dishes, hotel laundry, carpentry or landscaping were any more expensive than they already are and yet we feel entitled to live lifestyles where we don't expect to do anything for ourselves and expect that it all be done by people on the cheap. We enjoy wearing those "made in the U.S.A." t-shirts and clothes? Thank the people from Guatemala who risk their lives getting here, to be paid next to nothing and work ungodly hours to make sure prices are less expensive than "on the rack". We can't deny that jobs and services are provided by hard-working people that want to be here because the economy's better than home. This does not excuse the words or actions of ministers in Mexico encouraging the poorest of the poor to cross the border, neither should we let our guard down in protecting our country, our "homeland", the Fatherland, the Reich or whatever fascist-sounding-fucking-synonym you want to give this place. We need to keep the humanity in this discussion and first and foremost, there is no such thing as an illegal person. Secondly, this country should not create the value of free-, illegal, or imprisoned people based on what they do or provide or give anyone else. I am a citizen and not by choice; I have the rights and privileges of a citizen that others don't and yet I have not "worked for" them nor "earned" them any more or less than anyone else. Why can't we extend the rights and privileges to those willing to work for them, solve the problem to make it difficult for terrorists and the "losers" and in order the country to best benefit. Building a wall between Mexico and the U.S. will only make us the Israel of North America, deporting twelve million people will only make us look like the Britain of North America, keeping our borders porous will only make us look like the Iraq of North America and providing a humane yet just immigration policy will make us look like the "America" of North America. I have faith that the right wing of the Reactionary party will drum up enough support for the minutemen to begin firing on immigrants or something to spark an international conflict only to bring about a band-aid solution to an issue that needs to be addressed in order for this post-industrial economic giant to best work with what its been given. God help us all.