Dwayne, Dwayne. eBay isn't keeping you busy enough. Why don't you pick yourself up another job so you don't have to while away the hours here, pushing your agenda.

See a decent and thoughtful article on the issue:

Do you understand why you must press 1 to speak English?

"...the late Mexican-American columnist Richard Estrada captured the essence of the problem:
"The problem in which the current immigration is suffused is, at heart, one of numbers; for when the numbers begin to favor not only the maintenance and replenishment of the immigrants' source culture, but also its overall growth, and in particular growth so large that the numbers not only impede assimilation but go beyond to pose a challenge to the traditional culture of the American nation, then there is a great deal about which to be concerned."

http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0226/p09s01-coop.html

Have you contacted your legislator and told them EXACTLY what you expect from them in regard to ending this invasion? Please, do so! Time is short!

Noob here. I read the article and attended the event in question, namely Julian Cardona's dissertation on the consequences of NAFTA for the mexican economy. Opinions here have ranged from 'they're law breakers, hang 'em', to 'boo-hoo pluck at your heartstrings journalism' and other variations like 'circle the wagons! they's gonna take our country from us!'.
C'mon people. First things first, an alternative summary that Brittani Lusk's article missed.
Julian Cardona is a fearless photographer based in Juarez City, across the border from El Paso, Texas that for many years has documented the exodus of the mexican peasant into the Land Of The Free & Wealthy (TM) to the North. Why exodus? It sure ain’t a trickle, because only the connected, already wealthy and educated have a country there. The rest see a place up North where they can make a life, IF they were to be gutsy enough to risk all and reach for it.
Julian Cardona sees hordes of people trampling each other to death to cross, many thousands dying in the attempt, anonymously, with no one to mourn or give them a second thought. What is the reason a mexican can’t hope for a comparable lifestyle in that chaotic country? My first guess is the corruption that puts people in office for life, where they entrench the wealthy in their place and squeeze out any attempt of a middle class to form. You guys forget we have here something rather rare, a class of people that are neither wealthy nor destitute, we read the news in our laptops and pay taxes, abide by the law in all things, mostly because we're idealists.
Julian Cardona tells that the mexican economy collapsed to a new low post-NAFTA, to the point that the mexican corn tortilla that they're so fond of is now made with cheap american corn. NAFTA made it possible for american corporations to setup assembly plants on the mexican side, but in all aspects be replicas of what would've been crazy expensive to put, say, in Utah County. They dodge paying american wages to americans, and paying american taxes on their earnings, yet the products are sold to americans and built by often underage Mexican teens only too happy to make five bucks a day, unlike their parents' single dollar for a day's wages.
Julian Cardona shoots pictures of the cardboard and tin shacks that house families in the mexican desert, yards away from the bubble of running water, power and sewer that the assembly plant's require. Julian Cardona gets death threats and lives day-to-day because the drug and human traffickers that help put politicians and law enforcement in office need him *silent*, lest the federal mexican government send the army, or worse, the americans start paying attention. Even before we can consider why the immigrants don't follow the rules of lawful migration, we need to address the fact that a mexican that can get a job doing whatever IN Mexico is a mexican that won't have an incentive to come across to our backyard.
A mexican that has a fighting chance to be in the middle class, I propose, will stay there and grow that economy not ours. We can armor the border and require more of our law enforcement, but anyone that looks hard at this issue notices that to stem the tide, law enforcement is a finishing touch, not a comprehensive strategy. Back to Julian Cardona, he is at risk because like all good journalists, he and they risk their personal safety exposing the corrupt and making their bloody deeds known. In Mexico, the mafia deals swiftly and efficiently with those people that don't play the game. The game rules are that the mafia does what they want (be it move drugs, people, murder, whatever) and all that see it or suspect it remain silent.
We americans have no concept of fearing to slow our car for a red light, and having (often) a police car pump yours full of bullets, while people drive by in horror.
Julian Cardona has a police scanner and photographs these everyday events, knowing he could be next. Then the story can be reverse engineered. Like who was this person dead in this photo, or this other one. Who did he anger, who were his siblings, etc. Needless to say, there aren't very many living Julian Cardonas in all the border long. When journalists like him tell it like it is, they meet a violent and often gruesome end.
Frankly I don't know who exactly, came out ahead with NAFTA. I do know that canadians aren't coming en-masse to take bottom-end jobs from americans, though. For that matter, the mexican farmer ended up with dirt cheap corn that wasn't even worth bringing to market, so they go on strike and complain the fields are worthless. The blue collar american worker didn't do so hot either, with manufacturing jobs fleeing to these assembly plants across the border. I guess it would be a matter of following the money trail. The bottom line here is that shrill complaints for law enforcement to do their job, (i.e. arrest those pesky illegals) seem inadequate, or at least puny in comparison to what is needed.
Moment of disclosure here: I buy food at places that are staffed almost completely by Spanish-speaking crews. And I’m not talking about returned missionaries either. I live in a house that was built (at least a good part) by Mexican hands (and I don’t say undocumented Mexican ‘cause I didn’t check). I suspect many of us aren’t in the construction business, or in the food industry, or have farms anymore. But yet we expect some things to hold steady. Take my lunch for example. I eat a $.99 Jr. Bacon Cheese and $.99 small vanilla Frosty. Care to guess what that would be worth if there were an All-American crew in that kitchen? Blonde and blue-eyed baby blues collect a premium out there. I suppose that choice meal would set me back a fiver before long, maybe a ten if cheap labor couldn’t be rousted. Our houses would be worth a fair bit more, if a contractor paid more than fifteen bucks an hour to the anonymous dude that can’t say more than a couple of words in English, but works quickly, rain or shine and can cut a board straight. I sure can’t pay more mortgage than I currently carry, so many of us would (gasp)…rent? I want this issue resolved, but at what cost.
So there you have it. The border is a bloody business, and yet Julian Cardona remains at his post. He still shoots pictures of the predator, the prey, the disappeared, the innocent and the silent. And tells us that there are humans down there too.

LexAmicus wrote:
Noob here. I read the article and attended the event in question, namely Julian Cardona's dissertation on the consequences of NAFTA for the mexican economy. Opinions here have ranged from 'they're law breakers, hang 'em', to 'boo-hoo pluck at your heartstrings journalism' and other variations like 'circle the wagons! they's gonna take our country from us!'.
. . .

Take my lunch for example. I eat a $.99 Jr. Bacon Cheese and $.99 small vanilla Frosty. Care to guess what that would be worth if there were an All-American crew in that kitchen? Blonde and blue-eyed baby blues collect a premium out there. I suppose that choice meal would set me back a fiver before long, maybe a ten if cheap labor couldn’t be rousted. Our houses would be worth a fair bit more, if a contractor paid more than fifteen bucks an hour to the anonymous dude that can’t say more than a couple of words in English, but works quickly, rain or shine and can cut a board straight. I sure can’t pay more mortgage than I currently carry, so many of us would (gasp)…rent? I want this issue resolved, but at what cost.
So there you have it. The border is a bloody business, and yet Julian Cardona remains at his post. He still shoots pictures of the predator, the prey, the disappeared, the innocent and the silent. And tells us that there are humans down there too.

Yes, we need a slave-labor class to maintain your cheap junk food lunch budget! Ever notice that scum always rises to the top in a melting pot? You made a good argument against gun control, why Mexico won't let the common people own guns, and why Americans should never surrender their guns.

Yes, we need a slave-labor class to maintain your cheap junk food lunch budget! Ever notice that scum always rises to the top in a melting pot? You made a good argument against gun control, why Mexico won't let the common people own guns, and why Americans should never surrender their guns.

Other than squeal that I support a slave class that makes cheap food, what are you saying, the keeper. Scum rising to the top of the melting top is a metaphor for what, your foam-in-the-mouth discourse didn't specify. I'm sure your next post will have the conclusion to that cliffhanger. Then you say I made an argument against gun control, what nonsense is that, babe?
I think having guns and being a competent shooter is way cool. I enjoy it a lot. Americans should elect good and decent people that will keep the constitution the way it is, with the right to keep and bear arms not infringed. Except if you're a loon and can't tell reality from fiction. Oh and are you sure people in Mexico can't have guns? I'm told they kill each other all the time with guns, legal or no. Let's get real. What we need is to kinder to each other. Aiming a loaded gun at someone is a heavy, heavy burden to carry.