![](\"http:\/\/cyber.law.harvard.edu\/blogs\/static\/dowbrigade\/immigraback.jpg\")
WASHINGTON — The number of illegal immigrants in the United States
\n has grown to as many as 12 million, and they now account for about one
\n in every 20 workers, according to an estimate by an offshoot of the Pew
\n Research Center for the People and the Press.<\/p>\n
Efforts to curb illegal immigration have not slowed the pace, said a report
\n yesterday by the organization, the Pew Hispanic Center.<\/p>\n
Instead, the report’s author said, those efforts are having an unintended
\n consequence: People who illegally enter the United States from Mexico are
\n staying longer because it is harder than ever to move back and forth across
\n the border.<\/p>\n
from the Boston Globe<\/a><\/p>\n The human pipeline bringing working class immigrants into the United These people come here for the same reasons all of our forebears came In addition, most of them are cheated out of taxes and other deductions. The bottom line, besides the fact that this is the way America has always But so what? The bottom rung of the ladder has always been reserved Then, when they get here, the winnowing continues. The weak and the At the bottom of the current controversy is a strain of racism and economic classism. Illegal The Dowbrigade likens the current flood of immigration to the underground We are all immigrants in America. We are all guests on this earth.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" WASHINGTON — The number of illegal immigrants in the United States has grown to as many as 12 million, and they now account for about one in every 20 workers, according to an estimate by an offshoot of the Pew … Continue reading
\n States will never be shut down, as long as the US lasts. It’s been there
\n since the very beginning, served as the lifeblood and savior of the nation
\n time and again, and cannot be shut off like a faucet when the tub is full.<\/p>\n
\n here – to work. And work they do, sometimes two or three jobs, staying
\n afloat here and supporting family members stuck in inefficient and under-performing
\n economies in the Third World. Almost all of them work for low wages, minimum
\n or lower,<\/p>\n
\n For those who use false ID or social security , their payroll deductions
\n are eventually retained by the state and federal governments. They do
\n not get tax rebates or earned income tax credits. Often, unscrupulous employers
\n keep the deductions, and the illegals, off the books and pocket the difference.<\/p>\n
\n worked, is that we need these workers and they need the jobs. The American
\n underclass has found other ways to survive – off family members, public
\n entitlement, disabilities, real and imagined, the informal economy (drugs,
\n sex, gypsy cabs, gambling, Nigerian money laundering, other scams). They
\n won’t take these cleaning, gardening, child care, lifting and loading type
\n jobs.<\/p>\n
\n for strapping, hard-working foreigners. It’s Darwinian. In those
\n dead end economic cesspools these people come from, it is the smart,
\n the ambitious, and the risk-takers who have the guts to give up all they
\n have known and come here. Generally, the young men come first, unmarried,
\n not yet having sunk roots in the old country. Perfect for long hours
\n of physical labor.<\/p>\n
\n wimps wash out, and slink back over the border. But the best and
\n the brightest have found out America’s real secret, that in this country
\n hard work is rewarded, and that when combined with a combination of innovative
\n thinking, self-promotion and pluck anything is possible and the sky’s
\n the limit.<\/p>\n
\n immigration among the middle and upper classes continues unabated as
\n well, and gets almost no attention. We are talking about the millions
\n of aliens who come in every year through the airports. Folks who enter
\n on a 3 month tourist visa and stay 3 years, students on S-1 visas who
\n get jobs after graduating and never change their status, business people,
\n disgraced politicos, international criminals, who arrive here with money,
\n buy houses or condos, and quietly melt into the background.<\/p>\n
\n railroad operating in the United States before and during the Civil War.
\n In fact, in a purely fictional way, the Dowbrigade has served as a way
\n station on that railroad, hosting a steady stream of Norma’s Yvonne’s
\n nieces who are now firmly enmeshed in the American pastiche. <\/p>\n