Thomas Sowell points out how Americans are becoming second class citizens in our own country. There are already numerous ways in which laws discriminate against Americans in favor of illegals, but the Senate legislation makes a bad situation far worse.

Some people are worried that amnesty will give illegal aliens the same rights that American citizens have. In reality, it will give the illegals more rights than the average American citizen.

Since most of the illegals are Mexican, that makes them a minority. Under affirmative action, combined with amnesty, they would have preferences in jobs and other benefits.

Those who set up their own businesses would be entitled to preferences in getting government contracts. Their children would be able to get into college ahead of the children of American citizens with better academic qualifications.

Illegals who graduate from a high school in California can already attend the University of California, paying lower tuition that an American citizen from neighboring Oregon.

Under the supposedly “tough” immigration bill in the U.S. Senate, illegals don’t have to pay all the back taxes they owe. An American citizen gets no such break from the government and can end up in federal prison, like Al Capone.

If an American citizen gets stopped by the police for a traffic violation and the cops discover that he is wanted for some other violation of the law, they can arrest him for whatever else he has done.

But if an illegal alien gets stopped for going through a red light and the police discovers that he is in the country illegally, in many communities the cop is forbidden to arrest him for that — or even to report him to the feds.

If an American citizen forges a Social Security card in order to get a job, he can be arrested. Under a provision recently passed by the Senate, illegal aliens who forged Social Security cards not only get a pass, they get to collect Social Security benefits. Bordering on fraud, part III   [May 27, 2006]

Dean Baker at Truthout is publishing about the current plan of the senate to eliminate the cap on immigration of nurses:

The article reports on a provision in the Senate immigration bill that removes the cap on the number of nurses who can enter the country each year. The problem, as described in the article, is that the country faces a large and growing shortage of nurses. In a market economy, a shortage means that wages should rise. This will cause more students to enter nursing schools (presumably creating more incentive to establish nursing schools), and will induce many part-time or retired nurses to work more hours as nurses. It may also curtail the demand somewhat, as some tasks that are performed by nurses can presumably be performed by less-skilled workers.

But, that is not the way things work in the world of the conservative nanny state. The people who set economic policy in this country don’t want to pay nurses higher wages. They have a different solution - bring more nurses from developing countries into the United States. These nurses will be very happy to work for the current wages received by nurses in the United States, which are far higher than what nurses in places like the Philippines or India earn. (Never mind the impact that this drain of nurses has on developing countries.)

Before anyone claims that free immigration is part of a free market, it is important to remember that the United States does not have free immigration in general, it only allows free immigration in occupations where it is trying to depress wages.

……

The key to the story is that our political leaders think that free trade and competition are good only for manufacturing workers, nurses, and other workers lower down the social ladder. They want the nanny state to protect the highest-paid workers from international competition. The huge gap in wages between those at the top and those at the bottom is not because of the market, itís because those at the top got Congress to rig the game.

Now, part of what is important here: Truthout and Dean Baker aren’t conservatives by most traditional measures. As the GOP is showing itself utterly incapable of doing much else other than acting as a lobby for employers, investors and property owners, other voices are coming into take up the slack.

We are also seeing additional left support on this front in an article titled “Here’s a job Americans would do” by Robert Kuttner at Common Dreams.

Outsourcing is killing plenty of American jobs. But nursing is a good job that can’t be outsourced, because the patients are here. Hey, no problem. We’ll just in-source foreign workers.

Kuttner ideas on how to increase wages and improve distribution of wealth via taxation are a bit dated in my opinion-but at least he’s trying.

The US of Guest Worker Visas to attack Software Engineers went smoothly for the plutocrats because software engineers were not an organized profession-and had nothing in the way of things like licensing boards as a tool to use in their defense. Nurses are largely unionized. Many nurses have seen first hand what Guest Worker Visas have done to family members in the software profession. If the union leadership of Nurses can’t stand up to this kind of assault, I suspect we’ll see a rapid reaction in this area.

Sara Kugler reports that:

Republican Mayor Michael Bloomberg thrust himself into the national immigration debate Wednesday, advocating a plan that would establish a DNA or fingerprint database to track and verify all legal U.S. workers.

There is an active discussion of this article on Slashdot.org

My take is that Bloomberg wants this program to support conversion of illegal immigrants to legal guest worker status-and to eventually water down existing American’s citizenship rights to the benefit of his wealthy class.

Just with the existing social security number program, we can easily tell if a number is being used by multiple people. Shouldn’t the government learn to manage that database correctly(and securely) before it takes on the task of handling a DNA database? If Bloomberg wants open borders so badly, why does he want this type of program?

If you’ve read Bryanna and Ed Rubenstein on Mike Pence’s plan for privatizing immigration, you may think it sounds like a joke. I can tell you the specific joke it sounds like:

You read about all these terrorists - most of them came here legally, but they hung around on these expired visas, some for as long as 10-15 years.

Now, compare that to Blockbuster: you’re two days late with a video and those people are all over you. Let’s put Blockbuster in charge of immigration.

Jay Leno on Homeland Security

The problem, seriously, is that you can’t privatize the enforcement parts of government; you either get too much enforcement, or not enough, depending on the incentives. Yes, Blockbuster wants their videos back, but what they really want is to rent a lot of videos, and get your money.

Privatized immigration will focus on letting people in, not keeping them out, just as immigration lawyers do.

Anyhow, enough of the Pence plan, let’s go more from a professional comedian: Jay Leno

Thursday Night May 25

• Mexico President Vicente Fox is in the U.S. for four days. Well that’s how it always starts. Four days, then three weeks, then four months.
• Fox was greeted with a traditional American welcome when he arrived here. He was offered a job at Wal-Mart.

Conan O’Brien

• Mexico President Vicente Fox is in the United States. He’s been here three days and already has a job and a social security number.

Wednesday Night May 24

• Mexico President Vicente Fox arrived in the U.S. today. It’s official he’s the last one. Turn off the lights. They are all here now–don’t let the door hit you in the ass.
• The Senate has passed a resolution to make English the official language of the United States. In fact today, President Bush said, “It’s the goodest news he’s heard in a long time.”

According to a poll, 84% of Americans approve of making English the official language. I would be happy if we would just make English the office language of 7-11.

Monday Night May 22

• President Bush has proposed sweeping immigration changes; which is pretty amazing when you consider that before he became president, Bush thought immigration was the sincerest form of flattery.
• As you know, President Bush signed a huge tax cut. He’s hoping that these tax cuts for the rich will attract a wealthier more affluent group of illegal immigrants.

Friday Night May 19

Leno

• The Pentagon announced today that Iraq’s border is now 90% under control. Which is pretty impressive when you realize that San Diego’s border is only 20% under control.
• Immigration continues to be the big story. President Bush is insisting it would be cruel to take a hardworking person reaching for the American dream and just send them home. Hey “American Idol” does it every week.
• President Bush went to the border yesterday in Arizona. White House Spokesman Tony Snow said it was not a photo opportunity. Apparently Bush was just looking for some guys to do some landscaping around the White House.
• The president is serious about border enforcement. In fact before leaving the border Bush left a scarecrow of Dick Cheney with a shotgun.
• President Bush said today that he has nothing but respect for Mexico and it’s people and he will always speak the truth to them. Here’s my question, when can we get that deal? That sounds pretty good.
• The Senate has voted to make English the national language. More bad news for President Bush. Now he’s got to learn that.
• The Senate voted 63-34 to make English the official language of the United States. They say it’s a largely symbolic amendment with no real effect. You know like the congressional ethics bill.

The Christian Science Monitor recently published this letter I wrote their editors:

Regarding the May 17 article, “Guard’s impact at border”: Using the National Guard to seal the border will never be enough as long as there is incentive for employers to dangle a green card in front of illegal aliens rather than pay them cash. The existing and proposed fines on employers are simply too low and too laxly enforced. If the IRS and Social Security administration would crack down on fraudulent use of Social Security numbers and tax deduction of wages to illegal aliens, another big gap in the border would be closed.
Randall Burns
Washougal, Wash.

I think the CSM is an especially important publication, because it has a strong reputation for neutral journalism–and has been a leader among Mainstream Media in reporting on immigration issues. I’ve written dozens of letters to them-but this is the first one they’ve published(although I’ve gotten several responses from their reporters).

Ginger Thompson has a story today in the New York Times about Fox thanking Bush for all his help:

A White House spokeswoman, Jeanie Mamo, said, “The two presidents reaffirmed their commitment to work together to secure the border and build economic prosperity in both countries.”[Mexican President Thanks Bush for Support on Changes in Immigration ]

I have no idea about what they mean by working “together to secure the border” since both Presidents are opposed to border enforcement.

There’s also this quote.

But they said Mr. Fox achieved his goal of making Mexico’s views heard by the conservative forces opposed to them, without appearing to meddle in American affairs.

That’s without “appearing to meddle in American affairs,” not without actual meddling, since

Andrew Selee, director of the Mexico Institute at the Woodrow Wilson Center, said he did not believe that those messages had been heard in Congress. But in the meantime, he said, Mr. Fox had succeeded at beginning to build a political base for his cause from the bottom up.

“What the Mexican government can do effectively is to build support for its cause at the state level,” Mr. Selee said. “It’s a longer-term effort, but if you want to change votes in Washington, it’s important to reach their constituents. That’s where the real debate lies.”

Of course, as Allan Wall has written, an American, or any foreign politician, doing this in Mexico would cause a firestorm of media and diplomatic reaction. Sam Francis wrote a column in 2003 called “Vicente Fox Should Be Arrested And Thrown Out Of U.S. For Good.“

There are a couple of little problems here. The most obvious is that the head of state of a foreign government, which is about to enter negotiations with the United States over the issue of immigration, is actively and openly seeking to apply political pressures within this country to influence both the negotiations and the internal politics of the nation. Back in the Cold War, when foreign nations did this sort of thing, it was called "subversion," and foreign agents who engaged in it were either kicked out or locked up.

That’s still Vdare.com’s position, but it’s fairly rare among American politicians. Some signs of resistance were seen in California, probably hardest hit state in the US. While what the NYT called “Democratic and Latino members” of the California assembly “embraced” Mr. Fox, some Republicans boycotted his speech, while others attended wearing buttons that said “No Más ,” showing that they have been learning Spanish:

Assemblyman Chuck DeVore, Republican of Orange County, refused to attend Mr. Fox’s speech because, he said in an interview, a foreign leader has no right to come to the United States to lobby openly on a piece of domestic legislation.

“I do not at all appreciate a foreign head of state telling my nation how to deal with its own sovereignty and the issue of immigration,” said Mr. DeVore, an aerospace executive and a lieutenant colonel in the California Army National Guard.[In California, Fox Gets Warm Embrace and a Cold Shoulder By John M. Broder, May 25, 2006, New York Times]

Congratulate Assemblyman/Lieutenant-Colonel Devore, and check out his blog on the Fox visit.

Well, that was interesting. Seriously, I can remember when this whole punditry thing was done with yellow typing paper, mechanical typewriters, and delivered to newspapers by hand.

That we have blogging at all a miracle, in 1970s or 1980s terms, but you can see how we miss it when it’s not working.

More actual bloggage in minutes. Much has been happening.