Bol in print

[Byron Crawford]

I don't usually write for print publications, but the EIC of Rime Magazine invited me to write a 500 word piece on why I'm in favor of H.R. 4437. How could I resist?

It would be cool to publish something like this in XXL, but I don't think they're really into politics like that.

I'm not sure when (or if) this will be published in Rime, but here it is for your reading pleasure. Don't republish it anywhere yet.

Why I'm in Favor of H.R. 4437
By Byron Crawford

For far too long now the United States' border zones have been one big free for all. I'm in favor of H.R. 4437 because finally someone's attempting to do something about it.

In an ideal world, there'd be no need for borders between nations. We wouldn't have to worry about violent rapists, crazed Arab terrorists, and pro-life Catholics sneaking into the US, because there'd be no such thing as violent rapists, crazed Arab terrorists, or pro-life Catholics in the first place. Ah, wishful thinking.

Meanwhile, those are about the only people who would even need to break into the US. The delicious irony of illegal immigration, to witness the so-called immigrants rights protests, is that basically all of the people breaking into our country are people the government decided they don't want here. These people aren't risking life and limb jumping over barbed wire fences and running through hot, arid deserts because they need the exercise, after all.

Indeed our government already provides avenues to safe, legal immigration for people it feels would be an asset. In an age when our economy is becoming increasingly information-based, would it not follow that our country would want to import people - human resources, if you will - with skills that lie in these areas? Inviting this kind of people into our country would make us that much more competitive on a global level.

The average illegal immigrant, meanwhile, is primarily an asset to himself, his home country, and possibly Allah. While it's true that many, if not most illegal immigrants come here to work, the vast majority of them come here to work jobs that require little or no skill and pay very little. In a country that already has such staggering levels of poverty and income inequality, what sense does it make to import yet another lower class?

Would it not make more sense to try to bring the lower class that we already have up by providing them with the same opportunities that were once offered their grandparent? It's the middle class, after all, that makes the US the great nation that it is. According to the US Labor Department, illegal immigrants depress wages for US workers by as much as $200 billion a year. A meat-packing job that paid $19 in 1980 only pays about $9 today.

Illegal immigration also places a tremendous burden on social services such as schools and hospitals. Schools in California, according to reports, are beginning to resemble... um, prisons in California, complete with brown-on-black, Jim Morrison-style races wars. Hospitals that have been forced to treat uninsured illegal immigrants, meanwhile, have been thrust into financial turmoil. Many have even been forced to close down.

As such, I can only be glad to see the government finally do something about this. Illegal immigration is already, as its name would suggest, illegal. Hopefully, H.R. 4437 will provide those charged with this task the strength necessary to actually enforce this law.