A Labor Day Look at Immigration

On or about 22 July, I cut out the last paragraph of an edit in the Progressive Populist edited by Pulitzer Prize winner Iowan Art Cullen. That graph begins, “Immigrants contribute everyday to this society…”  Under the guise of benefit op-ed writer Kenia Alcocer listed several jobs Hispanic immigrants typically do, but staunchly—as most of the rest of the U.S. press—ignored other effects of immigration on the U.S.:

1.      the demise of unions,

2.      the tenacious persistence of a minimum wage neither native nor immigrant can live decently on,

3.      the fabulous enrichment of the 1% (primary beneficiaries of low wages) and resultant income inequality,

4.      the burgeoning suicide rate in parts of this society,

5.      the rising death rate of blue collar workers,

6.      the demise of the middle and lower classes in the U.S.,

7.      the election of a demagogue who made affected voters think he would remedy the situation, but hasn’t.

While immigrants to this country are the same decent, desperate people my own great grandparents were, historically, we now know they (yes, our own forefathers) wreaked havoc on the indigenous population. We are told history doesn’t repeat itself; it rhymes—and usually with the bottom line. Follow the money. Ask yourself: Who benefits from immigration? Who loses? You can’t (logically) promise people “life, liberty & the pursuit of happiness” and give them a situation where they lose their houses and can’t afford apt. rent. A demagogue like Trump knows this, but the liberal press and their supporters can’t seem to sort it out.

With Labor Day around the corner, we need to stop ignoring the real effects of immigration—the entitled classes using indigents to undermine the native population for their own benefit—and find real solutions.