At the border, the deployment of 6,000 National Guard troops who aren't going to arrest anybody isn't going to change anything. It's important we all understand that. Even if the rate of illegals coming across the border dropped by 50% that would still mean that 1.5 million people would be crossing every year.
The reason this immigration debate strikes a chord with me is because anti-immigration advocates are pretty much saying that they would rather have a country without people like me in it. And I'm a pretty nice guy. Anti-Mexican forces are also against low prices and the revival of metro neighborhoods like KC's Northeast and downtown KCK which have seen an influx of small businesses catering to this town's mojado community where once these places were pretty much the buttholes of their respective communities.
More than 80 years ago, my Grandma crossed the Rio Grande before there was a single border agent posted there . . . Much like white people coming from Europe, the Southern border was almost completely unchecked. White people, it's always white people, need to understand that immigration policy in this country has always been racist since the days when Black people were forced to "immigrate" (read: enslaved and brought) to this country. The U.S. has little moral authority when it speaks of lawful immigration. As for my Dad's side, they were "crossed by the border" (Americans hate it when you bring that up) and this country came to them . . . Not the other way around.
And that's cool.
I'm not a pessimist. I'm a realist and when the best efforts of the top Republicans can only yield a limp gesture like this, then you know that (as usual) nothing is really going to change. Again, that's cool. True conservatives know that things (markets) always have a way of working themselves out and the worst thing in any situation is massive government intervention. Only two generations after my grandma came to this country most of my cousins are gung-ho Republicans who can't speak Spanish and I sound like Charo if she were to get into a car accident when I attempt to use my family's native tongue. My grandma is 4 foot nothing, she's paid taxes all her life, raised a family, never been accused of a crime, never been in a gang, never smuggled drugs and she nearly single handedly supported the American Soap Opera industry and all the products advertised during the shows that are her only vice . . . I don't see how she or anybody like her could ever be a threat to this nation's safety. Still, if you pay attention to Lou "Dumbass" Dobbs you'd think that she's harboring Al-Qaeda up her skirt. Again, true conservatives know that the market has a way of sorting itself out, free trade = free movement of labor and "these people" will eventually stop coming as soon as there is no demand for their cheap labor in the strip malls, home construction/domestic worker market of Johnson County . . . Which should be some time in the next few hundred years. Are they driving down wages? No, the people who are paying them are driving down wages but those people can vote and have rights in this country so nobody is really going to sanction them. The only thing the fierce anti-Mexican rhetoric is doing is creating unity among all Hispanics and ensuring that Latino voters like me will never support the short sighted politicos who spew that kind of stuff . . . I'm convinced that Krazy Kris Kobach couldn't win an election against Hitler.
So, in the end, this glorious half measure doesn't really do much but drive another nail into the coffin of George W. Bush's presidency. Anti-immigration advocates who pray for a wall are confused and don't realize that the War against Terror shouldn't be waged on the Mexicans . . . It's against the people of Iraq, soon Iran and the liberals in this country . . . Leave all the shitty jobs and lonely (overweight) white women for the mojados. In the end, you don't need to understand macro-economics, free trade policy or geopolitics in order to comprehend that droves of Mexicans willing to work crappy jobs aren't here to hurt you.