I hope my Black Agenda Report colleague Bruce Dixon will forgive this title. He rightly points out “… There are no such people as ‘illegals’ and there are no such things as ‘illegal aliens.’ The terms ‘illegals’ and ‘illegal’ aliens are nothing but good old fashioned hundred percent white American hate speech. . .”
Yet I couldn’t help but give a shout out to a blogger who is new to me. Angry Drunk Bureaucrat hits the nail on the head in describing the nonsensical outrage over “illegals.”
“Let's really focus on the fact that, if there are 140,000 illegal immigrants in the Commonwealth (Pennsylvania) that's 140,000 people that *are being counted* towards things like, oh I don't know, the Census, which keeps us from hemorrhaging population.
So fuck Metcalfe and Readshaw: bring as many goddamn illegal immigrants to PA as soon as possible. Build towns, boroughs, cities. Drive up the population. Drive up demand for services. Increase the tax base. Increase the number of seats Pennsylvania has in the House.”
I always remember the old expression “Be careful what you ask for.” If undocumented workers did leave en masse then this country would be in very deep trouble. There are thousands of undocumented who pay into the social security system but who will never see one dime of that money.
They also rent and sometimes purchase homes. They pay sales tax at the store the way everyone else does. If it weren’t for immigration, legal or illegal, states like New York would lose congressional representation.
So bring it on world! Send us your tired your poor and your huddled masses yearning to breathe free. We need their cash, their taxes and their bodies for census workers to count. Approximately forty percent of New York City residents were born outside of the United States. The city would be poorer literally and figuratively without them and so would the rest of the country too. I for one am glad they are here. Their presence helps us all.
