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“It May Seem Ridiculous To Talk About Mexican Terrorists – But…”

Just when I think I’m out, ODE columnists keep pulling me back in. What subject is almost guaranteed to trigger an angry blog post from your humble correspondent? That’s right, immigrant-bashing. Kirsten Brock’s focus, as I’m sure she would point out, is illegal immigration, but count me as one non-citizen who isn’t terribly reassured by what she does here: take a crucial national security problem and treat it as if it applied only to one particularly vulnerable segment of the population.

And then there is this spectacular money quote:

While increasing security is a step, we must remove the incentives for crossing the border.

This is, to say the least, a novel approach to the issue: removing the incentives for crossing the border. Yes, if only the US economy (not to mention US salaries) were on a par with Mexico’s, if only people didn’t want to come to the US to build a better life for themselves and their families – in short, if only the United States could somehow be made to suck more, we wouldn’t be drowning in all these goddamned foreigners.

Brock deploys every related fallacy in the book – immigration as antisocial behavior, immigrants as drain on public resources rather than as the engine driving a substantial part of the economy, etc – with enough space left over to call ’em all terrorists. After all, she points out, they’ve already broken one law, simply by being here! Why, these fiends will stop at nothing! The moral distinction drawn here between good-guy legal immigrants and nefarious illegals is, to put it politely, nonsense: to pick one obvious example, Mohammed Atta actually received the student visa he’d applied for, six months after September 11. This points to a massive systemic problem, to be sure, but it’s one that can be conveniently disregarded the moment an easier populist target comes along, such as the work visa scheme Brock is busy decrying.

Bite me, Kirsten Brock. And when you’re done biting me, read this.

  1. Gabrielle says:

    Because I can’t let this go……

    I talked to my father about this subject. He brought up a good point. He is recently retired from the construction business in central Oregon. He has seen an influx of immigrant workers, primarily working illegally (i.e. no taxes), in the construction business. His feeling was that they were keeping wages unreasonably low because they were willing to work for less and not be covered by the usual SAFE and social security, etc. Not all jobs taken by immigrants are undesirable to the established population. Construction jobs are considered some of the best if you are willing to take the physical abuse of heavy labor and many are.

  2. Andy D says:

    75 mins is only 80mph..
    I like going fast, luckily we have a lot of unoccupied highway in the US. It does take more gas for me to drive 80 vs 65, but then i get there like 20mins faster..

    When I graduate, the 350z will have a little test drive through albany..

  3. Danimal says:

    Andy: I was coming from Manning, 28 miles northwest of Portland, and not violating the speed limit the entire time. 83 minutes is not the full duration. However, even my personal best Portland-Eugene comes nowhere near your 75 minutes. I am impressed. Although, if German rules governed I-5, I’m confident I could trim that to 70 in the right car.

    AJB: Why would I cry after getting a speeding ticket? I generally just get mad and drive faster, and renew my personal commitment to a more sensible speed policy. It’s been slow in coming but I like where the country is headed on highway speed. Meanwhile, I’ll do what I have to do to get where I need to go as fast as possible while minimizing my getting caught. Just like illegal immigrants.

  4. Andy D says:

    Ha! I can do it in 75mins. They repaved the I-5 portion by the paper mill by millerstown so going 125 is nice and smooth 😉

  5. Tyler says:

    Shit, I thought Bret was talking about Pat Payne.

  6. Tyler says:

    This is off topic, but it’s great to hear that Ben got the Ukiah Daily Journal job. Props.

  7. Timothy says:

    Also, after a good intellectual thrashing, cut some slack to the token conservative ODE columnist — the role has been filled by some unbelievably talented drinkers and thinkers, who will remain nameless

    Who may or may not have been named Bret and may or may not have been as hot as Rebecca Newell.

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