Last night I watched an ER episode which opened with a young neo-con standing at his father's emergency room bed and spewing insults toward an undocumented co-worker whom he erroneously blamed for his father's life-threatening condition. As this character's anxiety and stress levels increased, so did his lack of impulse control which ultimately resulted in his pride at murdering the worker's son.
The episode ends when the neo-con's father becomes conscious and tells his son how the non-English speaking cleaning woman, at her own peril, had saved his life. As a sort of a 'no good deed goes unpunished' script, there was plenty of foreshadowing, but the people around this scene were busy trying to save lives and survive themselves.
The nutcase son was excused for his initial violent and inflammatory actions. This decision allowed him to hyper-ventilate unrestrained, escalate his fury and kill. It was a realistic story and one that might even be based on truth, as so many TV episodes are today. The metaphors and analogies to every life's turning points abound, of course, but that particular hate was sickeningly real to me.
I'm white in an area that is slowly gaining more minority members, so I get to hear all kinds of people rage against members of different racial and ethnic groups. Racists and bigots are not only insensitive to those they hate, by the way, they are insensitive to people like me who find them repugnant and an embarrassment to God. (Hey, I can be judgmental.)
Anyway, the plot was pure Hollywood, but media reflects society and vice versa. The portrayal of this stereotypically angry, young, white male was chillingly effective.
Everyone has seen these people in daily life at some time. I've seen them in shackles at the courthouse. I've seen them being arrested in a shopping mall and I've seen them in a van, scoping my old neighborhood, on a Saturday morning. What binds them all together in my mind is the sense I have that they are bad people. I don't know why I know, but I do. Their faces and expressions threaten to hurt if given an opportunity and they blame everyone around them for their misfortunes but never see their own part in things.
I do not know what creates a person who is so disconnected and uncaring about others, as plenty of abused children and children of drug addicts and drunks miraculously turn out fine. I do know that society has a hand in aiding and abetting terrible and absent parents and we like to pretend that very screwed up kids will magically get better without any investment in them.
Nobody can b*llsh*t me, however. Humans have not survived all these millenia without good intuitive skills, though we rarely want to get 'involved' as the good samaritans we should be, even when we know something is wrong. We blind ourselves to the real harm that is happening to others around us and claim it is none of our business, hypocrites that we are. When these same people we have neglected and ignored do the same for us? We are angered and furious at how callous they are.
When I left home at eighteen I had no idea that I would achieve anything grander than escape. Luckily I discovered that I was completely incapable of living an unauthentic life. Oh, I am no saint. It was just much too uncomfortable trying to be someone else and remain in my own skin.
Bitterness was my childhood endowment, but I learned that I could ill afford to be a person who harbored resentment, hatred or rage. What about righteous emotion and all the reasons that justified those feelings? That is nothing more than a spiritual and emotional poison if I start to think that way.
For people like me and in the interest of self-preservation, hating or being violent makes no logical sense. Perhaps this is why I have felt so sad to see the disintegration of our national unity evident shortly after 9/11 rocked our world. Nobody likes to think that out of such tragedy came this hatefulness, but terrible things have happened to our society both emotionally and politically since then.
Families have lost their trust in the safety of American life and our civil liberties are being plucked out of the Constitution by the White House and its army of lawyers. This would not have been possible, however, without self-deceit, ill-placed loyalty, and a highly politicized Senate and Congress lacking any real testicles or ovaries. This time will be viewed by history as the wrecking of America, the unions, the family, the Bill of Rights and the raping of our Constitution.
Using what we used to call "National Enquirer" shock tactics, the White House sends out false and misleading information and the media strives to terrify the public on a daily basis with some other dangerous disclosure, disgrace, or planted story. It is obvious that this is in an attempt to gain our attention, which it does, and distracts us from the real work we should be doing. Forming a consensus and bringing the rule of law back into practice in our government.
I appreciate knowing that China, the maker of about 80% of our children's toys, has no quality control. And I want to know if Cheney is saber-rattling again, but sometimes I just want to be a woman with a few good friends who loves to cook, write and sculpt on the weekends. Is there anything wrong with that? But I can't leave the media alone and let all that killing, mugging and bombing news stay unread. What I don't have, like my countrymen, is any real trust or faith that good people will still triumph if I close my eyes for even a second.
No wonder so many of us are on high blood pressure meds, feel cheated by life and can't seem to find happiness with another person. How can we be happy with who we are when society tells us that if we don't have a hot foreign 'ride', the same waistline we had in high school twenty years ago and a fat 401(k), we suck eggs? With 80% of the economy dependent on the American consumer, it seems unpatriotic to consider simplifying life and cutting down on the purchase of unnecessary goods. The problem is, we don't produce anything anymore but political diatribes and the export of death and destruction.
God forbid you express some compassion for the undocumented worker who is both illegally employed and exploited by a 'contractor' who makes money hand over fist. My enemy is Osama bin Laden, not Mr. Nguyen or Mr. Hernandez or Ms. Kim. I don't want to see all this hate between our citizens and other residents, legal or otherwise, and I don't want to see the vulnerable attacked, abused or used. It is unconscionable on every level.
What Americans don't want to face is that our government has been encouraging illegal immigration to provide a low-cost labor pool for business. This also has a chilling affect on benefits and wages by showing American workers that they can easily be replaced.
All these ingredients serve to create a very murky interaction which invites hostility, competitiveness and jealousy. I love my country and I love Americans above all other people, truly, but our attitude sucks lately. Either we don't give a damn at all and ignore the system completely, or we act like spiteful, vicious enemies and attack and slander anybody who disagrees with us. The facts are so clouded they don't even matter. I'm ready to put on my old hippie clothes, grab some flowers from my garden and start singing that old refrain, make love not war.
We have got to stop this hatefulness among ourselves or our country will not be able to recover from this terrible divisiveness. Of course, I've got to stop the hatefulness I feel too. I have become bitter, like everyone on both sides of the political debate, and that makes me feel very sad. That's all I really wanted to say.
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Comments: 32
People often give in to mob mentality. It becomes easier to shout hatefully with the group than to step back and see that this is madness. I can't guarantee success (whatever that means), but it seems to me that a strong, quiet, persistent voice for reason, compassion, enlightened self-interest which is dependent on win/win negotiation, can join with others into anthems we can dance to.
There has been racial tensions, but that is the minority which gets the most publicity, the rise in Militant Islam etc. The vast majority live law abiding lives, and want the best for their families like everybody else.
There has been a growth in problems though caused in part by economic migrants from Eastern Europe, and large numbers of Asylum seekers from Africa, mainly Somalia adding to the racial mix which has caused tensions, not only with the White majority but among the British born Asian and Afro Carribbean Communities.
What is the solution I don't know but problems can not be divided neatly on the grounds of race, we should try and see people as people, good and bad in all of us.
You speak a lot of truths, Elizabeth.
I wonder, sometimes, if part of the reason so many people hate immigrants of all kinds is that they show us so well how a family and/or a community can work together to benefit all its members. My neighbor is readying his little tin box to move it to a piece of land that he and his friends have worked together to save enough money for. They'll get jokes and nasty remarks from the mailman and from their new neighbors, but they will have built themselves a tiny piece of security, unlike the rest of us "every man for himself" Americans.
I have to admit that had I seen that show, I would have focused on something different.
I am increasingly frustrated at the portrayal of conservatives, politicians, and military officers as the bad guys on television and in the movies. Several years ago, a spate of movies came out depicting the president or one of his advisors or some general as being the force of evil in the movie. Yes, our enemies can come from within, but the repeated portrayal of traditional good guys as the bad guys is more than annoying. As a conservative myself, I feel the punch each time another conservative is portrayed as a kook or a criminal or amoral know-it-all. Imagine a child's reaction if the only bad guys he ever saw wore glasses and braces--just like his own glasses and braces. The child might know that not all those who wore glasses and braces were evil, but the images he was exposed to daily would affect him just the same.
A mild analogy, I know. And as an adult, I don't have the reactions of a child. But the repeated depiction as evil or amoral of people whose values I share is bothersome to me. It certainly turns me off from some of today's popular entertainment. And it makes me wonder what young, impressionable minds are learning from such purposeful repetition.
A good article that makes us think. Look for this to be featured in The Writers.
Note, I said ILLEGAL, not "undocumented", they didn't "forget" their forged/stolen documents in their other pants.
Also, you may be drawing your conclusions from the wrong show. Try Gangland on History Channel, which shows better the true impact of illegals in our society.
That, and of course, REAL ERs, including the local one, are closed from being overburdened by illegals who can't and/or won't pay!
Health-care is, of course, a commoddity, just like any other, and like any other, shoplifting of it increases prices on all legitimate customers!
Until their leaders (and ours) do something finite to help our immediate neighbors with their economies, we are going to have illegal Canadians, Latin Americans and many other disadvantaged people coming here. Our country happily allows highly skilled immigrants in legally, of course, as illustrated in how we poach other countries' doctors for example.
I don't blame anyone for wanting to live here. Heck, I LOVE it here myself after having lived out of the country for three years many years ago. I would even admit to loving the Northwest the most, after living my first 19 years in New England and almost as long in California.
However, I have a problem with our government over this issue as we have laws on the books against hiring illegal workers but it doesn't enforce them because cheap labor is good for 'corporate' interests (in their view) regardless of what it does to the middle or lower socio-economic classes here.
I think legal immigration is a continual and interesting way to improve our gene bank and innovation, personally, but when we exploit the undocumented worker, this is both callous and inhumane. I don't believe in exploiting the weak or disadvantaged or undocumented (or illegal, as you prefer to call them) worker. I don't believe in exploiting women or children or men either. It is just wrong.
I don't argue with anything you say on the cost of illegal immigration, Eric, as one of my sisters lives in an area with high immigration and she talk/groans about the same issues. I've seen the programs on what is happening in Arizona and Texas as people come across the bordering properties and leave trash and worse as they go.
My personal experience was volunteer educational tutoring of the children of impoverished immigrants and found their problems way beyond the scope of my skills or abilities. It is a crisis for all concerned.
Our health care delivery system is a mess too. I think we all agree on that and when emergency facilities become the ad hoc method of receiving medical care... they break down. The county I live in has been addressing this with Urgent Care clinics, but it has barely made a dent in the emergency room wait. I waited 8 and 9 hours with my eight-year-old mother-in-law for three of the four emergency visits I made with her.
All that said, there are many fine people who came here illegally, who should not have, because it is a criminal act. Every country with a better standard of living than the one next to it has this problem, and I am certainly not the solution gal.
According to the World Fact Book, the US population in July of 2007 was 301,139,947. If illegal immigrants comprise approximately 12,000,000 of that number, it is certainly not this 3.98% of our residential population that is creating havoc with our economy. It contributes, of course, but is not the sole cause or even the major cause. Half of that number, if not more, are probably kids, meaning perhaps 6,000,000 have or are seeking jobs.
Gosh, this is becoming another article... better sign off now.:)
They are not forced to come here by need, it is by GREED. America outsources more and more of our jobs, to India, China, and Mexico, among others, but those jobs, their OWN countries pay (or don't) for their upkeep, rather than having US fund their health-care, food, prosecution, and prison-terms (Not necessarily in that order). Therefore, the only reason they would come here is that they're not satisfied with the jobs American companies (Note the distinction between American companies and AmericanS!) give them in their own companies, or they feel they "deserve" the luxuries of a First World nation, without improving their own nation--that would take too much work or responsibility, or a working knowledge of birth-control!
America cannot afford to pay for importing more criminals; we have enough of our own, and it gets even MORE expensive when they DEMAND--not request, America's not worth respecting to such people--things in their own language, "free" medical-care, and some even cheat to get on welfare and/or foodstamps!
We have laws, though, that FORCE emergency rooms to treat everyone, whether they can pay or not, and even without checking citizenship (Although, if you've just been mugged, the irony would be that the thief would take your ID papers too, so that might fail...) Ergo, when the illegals ALWAYS use the ER, then skip paying, they have no SoSec number, no traces, they essentially are medical-care thrown into a voracious void. The hospitals thus burdened are faced with three choices:
1.) Eat the cost themselves.
2.) Pass the cost on to legitimate PAYING customers
3.) Close down. Sadly, a number of hospitals have chosen #3, but no self-respecting business would choose #1, and health-care is already expensive enough that #2 would be prohibitive (i.e., raise the costs TOO much, and you won't HAVE any paying customers!)
That's why illegals and their huge broods crowd out REAL emergency cases in ERs...Triage is impossible with the threat of discrimination-lawsuits hanging over the doctors' heads!
There is an Executive Order by Clinton as he was leaving office that forces Americans to provide translations of official documents at OUR cost to all foreigns who want them. Try demanding that in any other country!
But with these two laws, America might go down in history as the first nation to fund its OWN conquest!
As a secondary note, there's a man who came to our college, Roy Beck, who proved mathematically that America is getting full, and can't support (m)any more people, even if it is our Noblesse Oblige (Obligation of the greater to take care of the lesser)!
There's also something about the ecology...If Americans truly DO consume more resources, wouldn't it behoove us to make sure there are less foreigns consuming resources "for" America, that Americans will get blamed for? And let's not forget the effect on greenhouse gases that 12-40 million (depending whose stats you read) FEWER drivers would have.
One solution that has been proposed is FORCE all illegals to participate in America's wars (On America's side, that's the sticking-point!). The ones that survive would get amnesty; the ones that don't feel like helping America would just die in combat!
While this sounds like a bad idea at the forefront, the very same qualities that make illegals bad neighbors (Noise, obnoxiousness, violence, unlimited breeding), would make them a near-perfect invasion-force...after all, look at their invasion into America!
But in all seriousness, the only practical solution would be to force large companies to pay for ALL their employees' health-care and housing. All of a suden, the "cheap" parasitic ILLEGAL "laborers" would become more expensive than the largely self-supporting Americans!
Or, of course, we could just sit back and treat our burglars as honored guests and HOPE that the "invisible hand" of Adam Smith still works when some parties cheat?
I think your hostility would be better directed to the political and corporate powers that allow the illegal immigration in the first place. Your description of bad neighbors, however, seems to cover quite a few native-born Americans too.
There are lots of immigrants who do join our military, by the way, and are granted citizenship when given an honorable discharge at the end of our service.
The real problem with illegal immigration is that once families develop and we have natural-born citizens, do you then throw their families out or discriminate against the children? Unfortunately, the recent emphasis on allowing in mainly labor immigrants, rather than immigrants with a family tie to people already living here, creates a lot of the problems we have now. They have no support system, etc.
Since Reagan's amnesty illegal immigration has increased because there is always hope of another amnesty. If you really think people leave their country not in need, but because of greed, I don't think anything I say will change that. I disagree, as I have seen poverty in other countries, have lived with it and even had a period in my life when it was hand-to-mouth and I worked two jobs to survive. I didn't have children then, and survival was just taking care of myself. Luckily I developed skills and education and was able to rise above those hard times. Obviously you have never had 'nothing to lose'. There is no other way people leave their hometown, their homeland and their culture. Believe me, I moved to California which was about as alien to New England as it could get. I spoke the language, but all I wanted to do that first six months was save enough money to go home. By the time I had saved enough I was adjusted.
Anyway, I'm selfish enough to want my country to stay the same, even though I know with our own 'breeding', it won't. Oh, and just for information? Most Latins assimilate into the culture within one generation, so nobody could change our culture ultimately. Too bad in some ways as the Latins with whom I have lived and am now acquainted are particularly gracious and treat their children lovingly. Something we could learn from them.
Again: I have nothing against immigrants, who want to assimilate and become American. "He who fights WITH me [as opposed to against me] shall be my brother."
Ancient quote, the part in brackets and the capitalized emphasis on WITH are mine.
And you're right, America does CHOOSE to let in mostly the best and brightest of other countries; some have called it "cherry-picking" other countries' people, but companies do that to each other, and heck, every privately-owned building from nightclubs to single-family houses are allowed to pick who they want to let in and who they want to keep out.
I mean, you don't open your door to ANYONE who knocks, right? And if your house is broken into, do you adopt the invader, or incapacitate the intruder, and call the police?
I have GREAT issue against those who sneak in, demand "rights" they haven't earned, then start popping out children just so that Americans will keep them here, out of sympathy for the children. Isn't that the ultimate exploitation? Having a child just to use as a political pawn?
If illegals are truly only here to work, then they should wait until they can afford the financial burden of children before having it. Back when schools had sex-ed classes, my sex-ed teacher told me a cute poem that sums it up: If you can't feed it, don't breed it!
Also, if we don't send the illegals' children with them when we deport them, we'll be "breaking up families" *Cue sad Italian violin music* We don't want that!
And as I explained before, the pawn-children are only citizens here by a very broad interpretation of the 14th Amendment, namely:
"All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside."
But if they break our laws to get in, then they clearly do not consider themselves under the jurisdiction of the United States in any meaningful way!
I explained the need vs. greed bit already: Companies already export their jobs to other countries, INCLUDING Mexico, so if they wanted a job with an American company, they don't even have to sneak into our country to do it! MUCH more convenient for all involved! So they must be sneaking in here for our "free" medical care, right?
And if other countries have poverty, then those countries should deal with it. And by "deal with it", I do NOT mean send their excess population to the US, and wait for them to drag our country down too.
Illegal immigration is NOT a victimless crime, as jobs that should go to Americans go to illegals instead, and LEGAL immigrants and other HONEST workers have to take pay cuts, both from the implied threat that their OWN company might replace them with cheaper, less-effective illegals, and/or competition with the other companies who DO "cheat" and hire illegals.
There's also 2 spiral effects:
1.) With reduced wages, Americans are FORCED to seek out the lowest prices, which usually means MORE buying from companies who cheat. This encourages companies to cheat, which in turn, results in MORE illegals getting hired, and MORE Americans getting laid off or taking pay-cuts!
2.) Since illegals already here have learned they won't be punished--and will even be rewarded with all America's freebies--they help other illegals to enter, and hide them, and send back more money, which instead of improving that country, is used to send MORE illegals into America!
Illegals are something like the professional burglars who "avoid harming victims", and just steal material goods, so they can get guest-shots on talk-shows. They harm America(ns) indirectly, a long slow, bleedout, rather than risking war on America.
As to their culture, I can show you a few neighborhoods locally where American language does not apply, let alone law. And it looks more like a third-world slum than American suburbia. They are bringing their language, poverty, and crime--their "culture"--with them! If their culture's so great, why'd they leave? American companies will soon hand-deliver them our jobs, or are those jobs "not good enough"?
Don't bother looking to the police for protection if you go to those neighborhoods, either. Their first question if you are beaten/shot/robbed isn't "Can you describe the perpetrator", it's "What were you doing in that area?" As if it is I, not they, who willfully went into an area where I wasn't wanted. Then again, I guess that kind of neighborhood is so overcrowded, they couldn't have honest people hanging around!
As an side-note, if they're so good to their kids, and such hard-working, "harmless" and/or "honest" people, how have groups like MS13 and La Eme flourished? (Those are Central American gangs, and the Mexican Mafia, respectively)? Perhaps the old stereotype of foreigns, legal and illegal, banding together to fight off the Big Bad American Government might not be so far-fetched after all?
Hispanic hate groups like La Raza (Translates to "The Race"), and the National Hispanic Council, due to the huge numbers of Hispanics in America, have gained more clout than the Americans they're displacing. As a telling mark, Hillary Clinton has an "advisor" from the Hispanic Council, who is advising her on "immigration reform"...Note: a foreign invader gets better access than most Americans, which will probably lead to more illegal-friendly bills in the future!
I have met some Hispanics (By genetics only, they could speak English, and had attended college--paid for it themselves!--etc.) who recognize illegals as the greatest threat to ALL immigrants, as certain groups of Americans--including LEGAL immigrants--are starting to launch counter-protests, but not in as great of numbers (Legals have jobs and mortgages and responsibilities, they can't just pop off and wave a flag--our country's or another's--upside-down anytime they feel like it, and as such, the protests are doomed by scheduling-conflicts!)
Again, though, to make real progress, we must distinguish that legals are good, and illegals, regardless how good they act once they've done the initial crime (Border violation is only a misdemeanor, but coming back after deportation is a felony...Doesn't stop them, of course, it must count as trivia, since there's one illegal who got caught AGAIN in Missouri here...THE FOURTEENTH TIME!)
What really disturbs me is that we don't have a national data base so that it would be quick and efficient to cross the border and not just a 'who looks innocent' and who doesn't determination.
Legal immigrants make a great contribution to our society, admittedly, yet they are lumped in with illegal immigrants when the hate comes out. That vigilantism is what really scares me, as I have seen mobs do terrible things.
Your last paragraph is quite telling, but this also is encouraging as at least that illegal got caught again on the 14th try. All of it is sad. Wish I could write more but I have an appointment. Thanks for sharing your point of view so vividly, Eric.
As to "adjudicating their status", what's to adjudicate? They came WILLFULLY into a country that doesn't want them. Our only options are:
1.) Amnesty, which will make the problem worse, as per your Reagan comment.
2.) Deportation, which, without some kind of mark, or infliction of pain, they'll come right back in! Again, see above.
3.) Execution. This option would leave EVERYONE aghast--friend and foe alike--but sometimes force is the only thing they'll listen to. Diplomatic and economic pressures have failed, and Mexico is no longer offering to join America.
(Some intellectuals IN AMERICA--not on the Mexican side--have offered annexation as a possible alternative. Bringing them "up to code" would cost several billion, but it would supposedly stop the slow financial laceration caused by supporting the parasites. BUT, Mexico doesn't want to be annexed anymore...Why join, when you can have all the benefits, none of the responsibilities, AND shift most your problems to another country? Win-win-win for them, lose-lose-lose for us!)
Better border-enforcement would be great, but it's expensive, and the cheap&easy methods either don't work, or have been rejected as "unethical".
The "virtual fence" of sensors and drones they were going to have, they found a HUGE software bug in it, rendering it already useless. (Maybe the man in charge of it should get a "virtual paycheck" until it actually gets working?) And sensors and/or drones aren't going to stop illegals any more than the border itself, unless either the sensors control automated turrets or the drones are armed. This is NOT simply sci-fi writing, Popular Mechanics and Popular Science both showed off unmanned tanks/aerial drones, BUT the ones not controlled by a human have trouble distinguishing friend or foe. Out in the Arizona desert, that concern would be eliminated. Anyone coming into America OTHER than through designated crossing-areas called "checkpoints" is obviously a foe!
Also, the drones are RIDICULOUSLY expensive! So much for expendability of robots!
Land-mines, another proposed solution, are cheap, and reasonably effective, and you don't have to worry about friend/foe issues, since mines have VERY limited mobility! HOWEVER, land-mines are horrifying because of their irresponsible use by poorer countries and/or terrorists--they have a "bad rap", if you will...But regardless of that, they are a simple if-then: IF you don't go where you're not wanted, THEN you won't get blown up! Even though the Mexican education system makes ours look futuristic, they should be able to understand that concept...in another 160 years, right?
As to north, why would Canadians want to come to America? They already HAVE socialized medicine...You just can't choose your doctor...And allegedly 50% or higher tax-rate to pay for it all! (I haven't been to Canada, but friends who have were boggled by those high taxes--Which America may have to have also, if Mexico and the other countries don't pay for the hospital, school, welfare, and jail resources their rejects take up!)
They are restarting the national database. Problem is, it's 1980s--EARLY 80s--technology, which won't be Vista compatible! Seriously, though, they'll have to spend a LONG time overhauling the database, and making it as compatible as possible; yet secure as possible. (Hint: Creating a SEPARATE, secure hardwire line rather than using existing Internet trunks would go a long way toward the latter!) The current problem with the current database is that it flags some allegedly "innocent" people who have the same Social Security numbers, or "certain other problem variables", and the flagged people have to prove they belong here. However, it DOES give a quick&easy way to check if someone's legally allowed to work in America or not!
And they DO have a database as to who's allowed to cross or not, but it's opt-in, rather than opt-out. It's called SHIELD...not sure what the acronym stands for, but even that has holes: They caught a woman who had a SHIELD pass, transporting illegals...Apparently, she thought it was a free pass once earned?
As to "Who looks innocent", I already touched on that. Illegals are such a pervasive problem that even SOME Hispanics are coming forward and complaining about them!
However, the problem with legals and illegals getting conflated is largely due to ambiguous language in the media...Terms like "undocumented immigrant" instead of ILLEGAL ALIEN, or "immigration reform" instead of amnesty make everyone confused!
Is a burglar, then, an "undocumented guest", or a rapist an "undocumented husband"?
This is obviously ridiculous, but see above.
Illegals WANT this confusion, since that makes it so they can paint any anti-ILLEGAL as anti-IMMIGRATION, and therefore obviously a bigot/racist/nazi/fascist hater (If I missed any adjectives, simply add them in and continue as if that sentence had always had them)
And yes, frustrated Americans might lash out at the nearest thing that LOOKS foreign, regardless of how it acts. This is counterproductive to all sides, as an effective punishment needs to make clear WHO is being punished and for WHAT! If America punishes illegals, legal immigrants will start helping, but they will be turned off quickly if they come under fire for being foreign. As I heavily implied earlier, there's a difference between being born foreign and STAYING foreign.
If one LOOKS different, one will have to work TWICE as hard to fit in (Adjust for inflation, if you like). That means speaking English in public, NOT blaring music excessively loud, especially in the hours close to midnight, waving an AMERICAN flag RIGHT-SIDE-UP, limiting your family to 2.4(TM) children...Maybe a few other minor concessions?
Oh, and NOT complaining and demanding "justice" if you're an international tresspasser about to be deported...Deportation IS justice--in fact, it's the lightest kind of "justice" America can exercise on you! (See list above) Remember, if you didn't come in LEGALLY, then you're still an "agent of an enemy country", on American soil and as such, American law-enforcement agencies have QUITE a bit of leeway in dealing with such incursions!
Joining into the culture and economy of the country you want to be your home is assimilation--a GOOD thing! Coming in and making demands you can pay for is tourism--on balance a GOOD thing! Coming in and making demands you can't pay for, but you outnumber the target is called extortion--a BAD thing, but the latter is the general form illegal aliens' dealings with America take these days!
And mobs DO do terrible things, but by and large, the mobs aren't American (Have you Googled MS13 yet?) There's a general feeling of powerlessness, as calls to ICE go unheeded...and more and more things in America, from food to "Social Security Benefit Supplemental Insurance" ads, are provided in both English AND Spanish now, but no other countries' languages are represented...Are Spanish-speakers the only ones too stupid to learn English, or are they the most populous/obnoxious about NOT learning our language while taking advantage of our services and resources?
MOST Americans seem to be waiting for some spark of war between America and Mexico or other authorization that it's ok to stop the foreign criminals "by any means necessary", but I agree that the patience DOES seem to be wearing thin, and at that point, legals who haven't done enough to distance themselves from illegals will probably get caught in the backlash. Our current "vigilantism" is the Minutemen, who unlike their namesakes, carry CELLPHONES, rather than guns (Even muskets, despite being ridiculously primitive by modern standards, would be a step up in offensive power!) Rather than shoot the invaders, they call in reports of invasion...and wait for the REAL Border Patrol to do something...Which they can't afford, financially (or politically, nowadays), to do!
In case it was unclear to anyone, the muskets thing was just a joke, and even if it wasn't, it would be QUITE suicidal, since illegals carry MODERN full-autos to defend their "cargo", both human and narcotic! There are even reports that the Mexican army has a division set aside to escort illegals through the "dangerous" border--and I don't see how it's dangerous, with an undermanned Border Patrol, who are NOT authorized to shoot-to-kill! Or do they believe that the Navy will start using the Mexican border as a bombardment-practice-ground, now that the traditional ground of Vieques (Puerto Rico) is closed to them? Or are they afraid Americans might wake up one day, leave their jobs, and hunt illegals instead of less dangerous game, like deer or ducks?
As a final telling blow, on the way home, I saw a bumper-sticker that read, "Hurry and pass me on your way to work...Millions on welfare depend on you!" Ouch. Cynical, but true, so do we really want millions MORE on welfare? (Note, I'm not just talking about illegals, but also the Americans they displace will have to be fed&cared for)
I do believe that one of the reasons we don't have problems with Mexico, even though there are many societal differences, is because we allow the illegal immigration. That is a very good outlet for them as their lower socio-economic classes don't revolt. They come here. There is always a price for having stable governments in neighboring countries, and that steam valve for Mexico has been working for decades, if not longer.
No matter how many ways we devise to keep non-legal residents out of the country, we have a lot of unguarded borders and we have a lot of people savvy and sophisticated in smuggling drugs and people into the country. Then we have our own homegrown opportunists. Again, there is a lack of political will to keep illegal immigration down, and I believe it is our love of cheap labor and goods. Until we are willing to give that up, nothing else will matter or change.
As to them letting off steam, why don't they send their excess to China instead? I hear they have a system for dealing with rioters in their streets...And why don't we send the invading countries a bill for the upkeep of their parasites?
Seriously, though, I believe the problems we've had recently may be due to their infiltration of America reaching a critical mass...Sort of, "There's enough of us here, and reinforcements constantly on the way; we no longer need to obey America's laws!"
But as you mentioned, MOST of the other groups have stayed in the shadows...Parading through the streets and shouting slogans in Spanish, plus displaying the Mexican flag ABOVE the American flag--and putting the American flag upside-down--was a strategic error: turned more Americans against them than anything else they've done yet--including not learning the language of the country they're invading!
Since the upside-down flag is a symbol of distress, they might have been inadvertently admitting that Mexico is causing America distress--Or were they trying to say they'll turn America upside-down? The latter is more likely, given the slogan of "We can bring America's economy to it's knees"...Isn't that supposed to be Bin Laden's schtick?
As to keeping illegals out of America, that can be greatly reduced by land-mines, or even our existing Border Patrol if they were given authority to shoot the invaders (And not put in jail when they did--that particular travesty has already happened!)
Over 70% of the American people want something to be done about the invaders (Including 67% of the Hispanics in America--now THAT is surprising!) , but our laws count killing invaders as murder unless they actually get into OUR houses--at which point, it will be too late!
Sadly, as you said, America fighting back will only happen if American GOVERNMENT is threatened and gets out of the "Siege is hard, goto the mall!" mentality (As you implied), and into "Get off my land...or else!" mode. I guess fighting back when invaded by a foreign power is an obsolete idea, or just not Politically Correct? Heck, if the Political Correctness movement had happened in the 1930's, I bet we'd be fighting a "holding action" with German troops--possibly even on OUR shores, since occupation of an enemy country is unpopular, and bombing them into a new parking-lot for my alma mater is REALLY not allowed under Political Correctness rules, right?
But I admit, as long as it's "only" the workers threatened by the invaders, our ruling class will try to be compassionate, rather than enforcing the rules, right?
Texas, by the way, and I think Florida, do allow for shooting an invader if they are trespassing. There is something ridiculous about someone coming into another person's home with the idea of doing something wrong and we can only defend ourselves (meaning harm them) if our lives are in danger. I would assume my life was in danger the minute someone sneaked through a window or came through a door without permission. Of course, I don't have a gun, so I'd have to call my neighbor, who is a sheriff to come save me.:)
I agree that there is a critical mass of illegal immigrants and it is unhealthy for everybody. I wish I had a real and amazing solution.
I think our economic and social ills can be blamed far more on our own greed to own the next big SUV, 2000+ sq. foot house, and plasma tv. Add our arrogance at invading a country, regardless of what the UN voted (imagine how we would have reacted had Germany decided to say, who cares, let's invade!) and bankrupting our grandchildren to do it. Address those things, right here at home and I bet you get a large part of the problem.