TailOverTeaKettle.com

While we were being treated to the numerous Illegal Immigrant Rallies around the country earlier in the year, one of the more disingenuous arguments I heard in favor of ignoring illegal immigration was that those immigrants “do the work that Americans won’t do.” But to me, saying this means that one would also automatically have to be in favor of creating an underclass of exploited people. For as long as someone is here illegally they have two choices: present false identities in order to get a ‘legitimate’ job under false pretenses, or else work for someone willing to ‘look the other way’ - which likely means getting paid in cash (no taxes), no wage guarantees, no protections or recourse for on-the-job injuries, and the like.

To me, that just doesn’t seem like a very good trade. Illegal immigrants, unlike legal immigrants, would never be able to rise above this position of an exploited underclass. (Except, of course, for the periodic citizenship amnesty programs that appear from time-to-time, allowing them to then to move into more ‘legitimate’ jobs.)

And apparently, the ACLU doesn’t think it sounds too good either, but they seem to have a different solution to the problem: Just give illegal workers all of the same rights in the workplace as everyone else.

Well that’s just a special idea.

According to their press release (ACLU: Undocumented Workers Bring Plea for Non-Discrimination to Human Rights Body):

“The petitioners are requesting that the Inter-American Commission [on Human Rights] find the United States government in violation of its obligations under the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man, which was adopted by the United States in 1948, as well as universal human rights principles.”

and

In their petition, the groups further charge that the U.S. government is responsible for violations of the American Declaration by Pennsylvania, Michigan, Kansas and New York, which fail to provide equal remedies for workplace injuries, and New Jersey, which limits the ability of undocumented workers to be free from workplace discrimination.

I think that illegal immigrants might have just a little more to worry about than workplace discrimination!!!

Reuters coverage of this action mostly covers the ACLU press release, but does give us this dandy quote:

“The most poorly paid and least desirable jobs in the United States are filled by undocumented immigrants,” said Claudia Flores, an ACLU Women’s Rights Project attorney.

“Yet the government increasingly limits the safeguards available to this population, leaving them vulnerable to exploitation and workplace discrimination.”

Ms. Flores, why do you think that the jobs are the most poorly paid? Could it be because the people filling them are illegal? You have no legal standing and, as such, don’t really have much of a negotiating position.

It takes an awful lot of guts to seriously suggest that people who are here illegally should be afforded all of the same rights. I wonder if the ACLU has heard anything about the sovereignty of nations? Apparently not. It’s must be tough when you’re not just content to extend rights to enemy combatants captured on the field of battle, and you need to find more causes to champion.

Anyway, I have a much more simple solution for the illegal immigrant who is worried about not having equal job protections here in the USA. It’s so simple it does not require sending press releases, filing lawsuits, passing changes to laws, or appealing to international bodies. If you are illegal, simply leave the USA, and return as a legal immigrant. When you do, all of this will become a non-issue.

In the meantime, unfortunately, you will always be at a disadvantage because you first made the conscious choice to break the law.

This fiasco is also being covered by Stop the ACLU and The Jawa Report, among others.