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Illegal immigrants packing up and leaving Arizona
Illegal immigrants in Arizona, frustrated with a flagging economy and tough new legislation cracking down on their employers, are returning to their home countries or trying their luck in other states.
But, but, liberals arguments suggest that's against human nature!
For months, immigrants have taken a wait-and-see attitude toward the state's new employer-sanctions law, which takes effect January 1. The voter-approved legislation is an attempt to lessen the economic incentive for illegal immigrants in Arizona, the busiest crossing point along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Maybe we should install a few one-way doors along what little of the fence exists?
And by all appearances, it's starting to work.
Do my eyes deceive me? Did the MSM use the word 'work' in the proper context?
"People are calling me telling me about their friend, their cousin, their neighbors -- they're moving back to Mexico," said Magdalena Schwartz, an immigrant-rights activist and pastor at a Mesa church. "They don't want to live in fear, in terror."
Neither do I. But since I'm a legal citizen, I figure I have a right to live securely and with a near-maximum quality of life within my country's borders, even if it costs you. Go home and fix your own country up the way you like it and stop leeching off mine lifestyle. I truly wish you well, but your place is there if you're not legally here.
Martin Herrera, a 40-year-old illegal immigrant and masonry worker who lives in Camp Verde, 70 miles north of Phoenix, said he is planning to return to Mexico as soon as he ties up loose ends after living here for four years.
Loose ends? What loose ends? You're illegal. Get in your car with your wife and anchor babies and go. Here's a hint someone should have given you a long time ago: Those speed signs along the way are in MPH, not KPH.
"I don't want to live here because of the new law and the oppressive environment," he said. "I'll be better in my country."
Stick it to the man, baby! Please.
He called the employer-sanctions law "absurd."
Depends on your point of view, I suppose. Try paying all your taxes and insurance for a couple of years and we'll talk again. After you learn how to drive. And speak ingles.
"Everybody here, legally or illegally, we are part of a motor that makes this country run," Herrera said. "Once we leave, the motor is going to start to slow down."
You can be sure you'll be invited back when the motor needs you again.
There's no way to know how many illegal immigrants are leaving Arizona, especially now with many returning home for normal holiday visits. But economists, immigration lawyers and people who work in the immigrant community agree it's happening.
Why don't you just start charting the number of reported cases of "el weeplash" across the state?
State Rep. Russell Pearce of Mesa, the author of the employer sanctions law, said his intent was to drive illegal immigrants out of Arizona.
And into a state nearer to you.
"I'm hoping they will self-deport," Pearce said. "They broke the law. They're criminals."
Simple. Clear. Effective. If it's enforced. I'm sure given the stiff fines that it will be.
Under the employer sanctions law, businesses found to have knowingly hired illegal workers will be subject to sanctions from probation to a 10-day suspension of their business licenses. A second violation would bring permanent revocation of the license.
Err, where are the stiff fines?
Nancy-Jo Merritt, an immigration lawyer who primarily represents employers, said her clients already have started to fire workers who can't prove they are in the country legally.
I'll bet Nancy-Jo can prove she's here legally.
"Workers are being fired, of course," she said. "Nobody wants to find out later on that they've got somebody working for them who's not here legally."
Don't worry, I'm sure there will be a brisk business involving lawsuits against companies who wronfully fired legal workers.
When immigrants don't have jobs, they don't stick around, said Dawn McLaren, a research economist at Arizona State University who specializes in illegal immigration.
Must have a PhD in human behavior, too!
She said the flagging economy, particularly in the construction industry, also is contributing to an immigrant exodus.
Maybe they could take a course or two in remedial arithmetic. If nothing else it would make them able to space the studs properly if the construction industry ever picks up again. And if they take a remedial course in Geometry, maybe they will be able to master the concepts of the right angle, the straight line, and level.
"As the jobs dwindle and the environment becomes more unpleasant in more ways than one, you then decide what to do, and perhaps leaving looks like a good idea," she said. "And certainly that creates a problem, because as people leave, they take the jobs they created with them."
Well, when they leave the job they created by coming here won't need to exist any more, now will it?
Pearce disagreed that the Arizona economy will suffer after illegal immigrants leave, saying there will be less crime, lower taxes, less congestion, smaller classroom sizes and shorter lines in emergency rooms.
Yeah, but what about the translation industry, man? Ever think of that? And what about the forged document industry, eh? Gotcha! Also, won't that help with "no child left behind" scores when they won't have to slow down to teach the newbies basic english?
"We have a free market. It'll adjust," he said. "Americans will be much better off."
Smart man. Pay attention if you happen to be a state rep of another state.
He said he's not surprised illegal immigrants are leaving the state and predicts that more will go once the employer-sanctions law takes effect next month.
Better get a few of them to pave the southbound lanes of the exit routes before the rush starts.
"It's attrition by enforcement," he said. "As you make this an unfriendly state for lawbreakers, I'm hoping they will pick up and leave."
Understatement of the week material?

You know, this gives me an idea where we could have a system whereby we codify expected behaviors, and anybody who violates these codes be punished. We could call it a legal system.
Posted by: gorb 2007-12-23
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=214935