Elves, Or "Who Works For You?"

I've been hearing a lot of noise recently, about illegal aliens, and I have a thing to say.

Some are criminals, who commit their crimes and high-tail it back over the border, returning later with a new ID and the same MO. I'm not talking about them. Trash is trash, and comes in all colours and citizenships.

That said, the vast majority of immigrant workers who come here "unofficially," from Mexico and Central America are hard-working, tax-paying people who are obeying the old injunction that "the Lord helps those who help themselves."

Somewhere along the line, a few generations back, somebody convinced them that they could come to America, work their fingers to the bone, and, in doing so, create a life for themselves and their families. They came, and it was true. When they retired to the lands of their birth, they extolled the virtues of life in the USA, and the members of their families still here help further generations.

Many work three jobs, most work two; a person with only one job is considered a slacker. They work for your landscaper. A lot of restaurants in which you eat employ illegals. Cleaning services. Construction crews. Day care centers. Laundries, including cleanroom laundries. Dry cleaners. Why don't you inquire the next time you frequent one of these establishments, whether all their workers are documented? Are you ready for the huge increase in the price of all these goods and services? That's what will happen, if the folks who work very cheaply can't come to work any more.

Few of the employers of these immigrants will tell them about free English language lessons at the Community School. Or the programs at the library to encourage library use by Latinos, including a fairly large selection of books, newspapers and periodicals in Spanish. People who do tell them of these things get fired.

Many of these jobs give the workers normal pay cheques, from which are made the standard deductions that come from our own cheques. They buy food, cars, gas, and pay rent, utilities, and phone bills, with their attendant taxes. Very few of them ever collect the Social Security thay have paid into all these years. Many return to Mexico, Costa Rica, Colombia, or wherever else they came from, and those that do stay are afraid to try and collect their benefits.

It occurs to me that we are actually coming out on top of this most inequitable arrangement. If we weren't, it would not continue.

Be careful what you wish for.