New at Reason

Tim Cavanaugh | February 9, 2006

Jesse James DeConto tells how immigration grinches steal every Christmas from the guest workers who grow your Tree.

Comments

|2.9.06 @ 3:07PM|#

Are Christmas trees the primary product of our economy now? This is the second immigration-related article I've seen focused on Christmas trees.

|2.9.06 @ 3:10PM|#

Too bad, so sad - maybe somebody should change the laws, but until then I have no sympathy with these criminals.

It's the easy government assistance for citizens which requires the labor of illegals. If citizens had to work or starve their would be no labor shortage.

IR|2.9.06 @ 3:16PM|#

Experts warn that unless we open the borders now, you could soon be paying $200, even $500 for your next Christmas tree.

Of course, before that happened we'd invent a magical Christmas tree harvesting machine instead of relying on foreign serf labor. That would be better for the sending countries, it would increase innovation in the U.S. instead of stifling it, and it would avoid the massive downsides of massive illegal immigration.

One of those massive downsides is giving the country of Mexico even more influence in our internal politics than they already have.

Some people are willing to trade slightly lower prices for giving a foreign country power inside our country. I'm not.

Click my name or visit http://lonewacko.com/ for much more information.

|2.9.06 @ 5:31PM|#

Didn't we have a thread on this same article a month ago?

|2.9.06 @ 5:53PM|#

Ya gotta' love that loco Mark Krikorian-esque excuse for economics: "Cheap labor is stifling economic progress. If only we got rid of this cheap labor, someone would invent a 'magical Christmas Tree harvesting machine', and no one would ever have to pay higher costs and productivity and investment would soar in spite of less investment capital, etc. Blah Blah Blah." Here's one along the same lines: 'if it weren't for those darn US citizens willing to work as Border Patrol agents, we could invent a magical border patrolling robocop and productivity, progress and all things good would multiply happiness in everyone's home.'

Oh, and throw in a dose of xenophobia and racism about those subversive Mexicans and there you have the heart of the anti-immigration argument, idiot economics and xenophobia/racism.

|2.9.06 @ 6:50PM|#

What I'm wondering is this: where are all the slickly-written, button-pushing books/groups/commentators to argue for the benefits of open immigration? Or are we gonna let asshole demagogues like Tancredo and J.D. Hayworth win this one by default?

MexicanDiplomats|2.9.06 @ 7:44PM|#

Click the link to read a Heather MacD*nald article about the ways that Mexico has managed to worm their way into our internal politics.

As I say above, some people are willing to trade a few dollars saved for U.S. sovereignty. What about you?

|2.9.06 @ 11:12PM|#

"Oh, and throw in a dose of xenophobia and racism about those subversive Mexicans and there you have the heart of the anti-immigration argument, idiot economics and xenophobia/racism."

So Mr. Law, if I move to Mexico and become a Mexican citizen do I become a member of the Mexican "race" ? If I do so out of disgust or dissappointment for the United States "race" would I be a racist ?

Who Buys Real Xmas Trees Anymo|2.10.06 @ 6:32PM|#

Oh boo hoo -- I miss my daddy soooooo, soooo much! I miss what my city and country used to be.

As someone who drives to work through the underbelly of what Los Angeles has become -- daily -- I plain and simple don't wish to live in a feudal, peasant society enabled by idiot politicians who have nothing better to do than hand out free [read: taxpayer-financed] education and health care to their non-citizen constituencies.

Oh yeah, and by the way, I am of direct Mexican descent myself. But no I don't speak Spanish and have a Mexican flag on my bumper. And as you can see, I definitely don't stick up por La Raza.

If you are telling me that people selling tamales from expropriated shopping carts and then dumping pails of brackish water into the gutter -- as I sit feet away stopped in my car at the red light -- is some sort of *improvement* here in the City of Angels, then I shudder even further at your vision of what this fair city should ultimately become. A giant refugee camp?

As I have said 1000 times before -- open borders fine, but first get rid of all the government "freebies." These new arrivals cannot possibly form a reliable tax base to support the growing demand for the public services they consume. If they did, LA wouldn't be running a deficit.

|2.11.06 @ 2:56AM|#

As long as we're being racist...
I think Los Angeles (isnt that a spanish name) has much bigger problems than day laborers trying to find work in front of home depot, or old ladies offering tamales.
Have you ever driven through Compton or South Central?
Yikes.

Contra Razista|2.11.06 @ 4:00AM|#

Racist? Hardly -- the guy is "of Mexican descent." I think if anything, that gives hims more credibility when he protests illegal immigration.

Yeah, you're right. Since Los Angeles is a "Spanish name," we should turn the city over to Spain, not to Mexico. In the same way we should turn over "New York" to Britain, home of the old York.

Some of the most vocal -- and, dare I say, eloquent -- opponents of illegal immigration are themselves legally arrived and fully assimilated Mexican-Americans.

You can take your brown pride and shove it up your ass.

|2.12.06 @ 1:45AM|#

It's the easy government assistance for citizens which requires the labor of illegals. If citizens had to work or starve their would be no labor shortage.

Somehow, the concept of comparative advantage just flies past you, unnoticed. It is not a question of a labor shortage - even with a minimum wage set by different States and the FedGov, the fact is that American's expectation of what a job should be has risen above the level where they would be willing to harvest trees or tomatoes. It will not matter if minimum wage laws are repealed or the FedGov stops giving handouts: Americans will still need the cheaper labor from Mexico and other countries.

Limiting the possibility for hard working people to freely work and contribute to America's economy is downright counterproductive. Only politicians and the economics-illiterate would advocate such restrictions.

|2.12.06 @ 1:51AM|#

Oh, by the way - Racist in Spanish is spelled racista, with a C.

Bwen-Veneatohs!|2.13.06 @ 1:11PM|#

Oh-La. Bwen-Veneatohs!

I'm actually extremely proud that I don't know how to spell properly in "Espanyole." I guess I'm too assimilated for you.

Oztah Luh Veeztah!