It's Always Somebody Else's Problem

On this technically non-blogging day I have time only for one brief comment on a Post editorial taking Virginia governor's candidate Jerry Kilgore to task for objecting to a local day-laborer site that will help expand the infrastructure supporting illegal immigration:

Mr. Kaine [Kilgore's opponent] stayed out of the Herndon dispute, which he correctly called a local matter. He grasps that immigrants, documented and undocumented, have become an integral part of the state's labor market, especially in Northern Virginia, where there is almost no unemployment. He has placed the blame for the problem and the burden for its solution where it properly belongs: with the federal government. Mr. Kilgore, by contrast, prefers posturing on illegal immigration, without regard to the resentments that may be stirred up toward immigrants generally. In seeking to crack down on and evict undocumented workers, Mr. Kilgore should bear the burden of explaining how the employment market would replace them.

Kilgore need not explain much about how the employment market will replace illegal workers, since capitalism has already done so: Wages go up, attracting other workers to a previously neglected market.

But let's talk about posturing. The Post has effectively given up on requiring that people obey the law, not that I can tell it was ever interested in seeing them obeying it when it comes to border control. It's a federal problem, let them solve it...someday.... But oh! Using local law enforcement to "crack down" on illegals will generate resentment against immigrants generally! Grasp this: Most of us resent immigrants whose first interaction with the nation is to break the law. It kind of goes downhill from there.

Comments

[Charcoal]

Why does everyone ignore the obvious? To say that a day laborer site should not be built because it might attract illegal workers is like saying a Wal Mart should not be built because it might attract illegal workers and shoppers.

What percentage of day laborers using such a site are estimated to be illegal? Answer: no one knows. You will never find that number.

Kilgore is using the typical Repukelickin tactic of playing on fear. Citizens fear illegal immigrants. They fear crime. They fear more Spanish signs posted.

For Kilgore to claim that a day laborer site should not be built because of illegal immigration is pure fear mongering. And racial fear mongering at that.

And, your economic arument is bogus. If you want to eliminate the hispanic worker population (legal and illegal), then the Average Joe won't be paying anyone to cut his grass or for that new addition because the price will be sky high. Our economy rides on the backs of cheap laborers.

So stop being so fearful.

[planetmoron]

Say Charcoal, if PW here is engaging in "racial fear mongering" how is it that you are the only one talking about race? I don't see any mention of Hispanics in his piece. I don’t see any mention of Hispanics in the Washington Post piece either. Or did you simply assume that all illegal immigrants must be Hispanic? There's a word for making those kinds of assumptions... give me some time... it will come to me...

[Christopher Fotos]

I'm fearful of dodging machetes, which is a new sport among Northern Virginians.

If you want to eliminate the hispanic worker population, legal and illegal...

Re-read the post. Emphasize arguments I actually made vs. the ones in your head.