"Illegal" Immigrants: Strangers Within Our Gates

"And you shall not oppress a stranger, since you yourselves know the feelings of a stranger, for you also were strangers in the land of Egypt." Exodus 23:9

I'm not an expert on the immigration issue, with all its complexity, but I'd like to offer my observations. Maybe the issue is really not all that complex as many make it out to be. Many people make the claim that illegal immigrants take jobs away from American citizens. Many also make the opposite claim that they take jobs that Americans won't do. A very few make the claim that they take the jobs that Americans are prohibited from doing. [1] [2] Prohibited from doing? And just whose fault is that? Let's analyze this for a minute. Yes, minimum wage laws prohibit many market rate jobs from existing in the first place, but even if they weren't outlawed, employment laws, tax laws, and other regulatory laws would make it economically prohibitive to hire Americans.

Now let's consider employment of illegal immigrants. Quite frequently, they are paid cash "under the table" for their work. That means no taxes, no paycheck withholding, no federal income, state income, Social Security, Medicare, state or local unemployment insurance taxes. No income taxes are filed with the IRS or individual states. Those who hire them may not be registering with the government as employers. There are no (or at least a reduced number of) health or safety regulations to follow, no bureaucratic red tape to deal with, no paper trail. In short, there are absolutely no taxes paid and there is no accountability to the state whatsoever. There is a simple exchange of work for wage.

In other words, righteousness, justice, fairness, equity, execution of private property rights, decency, hard work, dealing in good faith - yes, and even freedom itself - are occurring right under our noses. And boy, are we pissed!

To put it another way, here in America freedom is illegal. And when in certain cases it's not, there are plenty of people who want it outlawed. One thing that has long puzzled me about human nature is that when given the choice of either a) wanting somebody else to be inflicted with the same sufferings that we ourselves are, or b) wanting relief from our sufferings to the same degree as some other people are, most people would choose a) in a heartbeat, with bloodthirsty vengeance. When informed of some rich people or big corporation paying little or no tax via some loophole, most people cry for a closure of that loophole instead of its application to everybody else, too. We need to make them pay their larger fair share rather than to let us pay our smaller fair share. Why is there the cry for outlawing the hiring of undocumented immigrants? Why is there the cry for taxing them, deporting them, building walls at the borders, increasing police and military in fighting this "battle" (all at our own cost)? Why not rather the cry of, "Hey, we want the same situation of absolutely no taxes and no accountability to the state"?

At the very heart of the matter is the sin of covetousness. We Americans despise the freedom that some others have, and are so envious, jealous and covetous that we are willing to hire the state to oppress those people who live freely (both the immigrants and the Americans who hire them). We are the schizophrenic masochists who employ politicians to torture ourselves. We have nobody but ourselves to blame. And are we so blind that we can't see the poetic (or even divine) justice in all this?

"But it shall come about, if you will not obey the LORD your God... The alien who is among you shall rise above you higher and higher, but you shall go down lower and lower. He shall lend to you, but you shall not lend to him; he shall be the head, and you shall be the tail." Deuteronomy 28:15, 43-44.