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IMMIGRATION

Contrary to what we are told, there are profound differences between immigration today and a century ago.

A century ago, Europeans had to pay their own way to the USA. They knew before they left on the ships that they would have to have health examinations and would be sent home if they had serious communicable diseases. They knew also that there was no welfare state so they would be on their own in the USA. Learning English and assimilating was regarded as a civic duty.

A century ago, there would never have been episodes such as teens raising the Mexican flag above the American flag turned upside down as was the case in Montebello or raising the Mexican flag above the Post Office in Maywood.

Today, because of the 14th Amendment loophole and the growth of the welfare state, American-born children of illegal aliens are automatically citizens and thus eligible for AFDC, Medicaid, Food Stamps, etc. It should be remembered that the 14th Amendment was created to protect black children in the aftermath of the 1857 Dred Scott Decision.

Today, ideas about learning English and assimilating are considered racist by many.

Today, diseases that Americans have not seen for a few generations have made a comeback, most notably drug resistent strains of TB, measles, and polio.

It should be remembered that a sizeable number of Mexican citizens are still angry that the United States conquered the Southwest in the Medican-American War of 1846-1848. The United States paid a huge economic settlement to Mexico for the Southwest after the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo on February 2, 1848. This anger is reflected in the existence of LaRaza, Mexica, Reconquista, and the like.

It should be remembered also that the Conquistadors were people who came to the New World in search of gold and plundered everything. Mexico has a rigid European style class structure, massive corruption, and a crazy quilt of a legal system that guarantees that the vast majority of people will live in abject poverty for generation after generation. There is no merit. Mexico has magnificent scenery, beaches, historical treasures, and vast natural resources and could be another Canada or USA with good management.

We are told our food prices will soar without cheap labor. However, it should be remembered that the mere presence of cheap labor has halted automation that should have happened long ago. When you drive across the fields of Monterey County on Highway 101, it is notable that the fields look much the way they looked 30 years ago. There should be robots in the fields by now.

A look back at history is instructive. Time was when the two most common occupations in Europe were copyist and soldier. Books were laboriously hand copied and thus available only to the very rich and the church. Large armies of soldiers carried shelds and swords. When the bubonic plague epidemic wiped out most of the European population during the Middle Ages, along came two major technical advances: gunpowder and the Gutenberg moveable type. Gunpowder made it possible for fewer soldiers to bring about more destruction and the Gutenberg moveable type made books available to more people.