Response to illegals impact

I was reading this article and needed to voice a few thoughts and responses.

Illegal immigrants and their allies gathered Monday for marches, prayers and demonstrations on a planned national day of economic protest, boycotting work, school and shopping to show their importance to the country.

One thing that needs to be understood about the protests in recent weeks and today is it includes legal immigrants and citizens. This is distorting the "economic impact" to the point where one must reasonably be left to wonder if there would be any real impact if it were just the illegals.

Sure, you support illegal activity and so you participate in the protests, but if the bill being protest becomes law are you going to stop buying goods, working and going to school? No. So the "impact" that you are trying to create is actually not a true indication.

Why would it be that supporterso of illegals would want to inflate the economic impact of illegals? It might be because there is a real possibility that the economic benefit is not as strong as the pro-illegal aliens crowd would like to think.

Several thousand people marched in the rural city of Homestead, home to one Florida's largest Mexican immigrant populations and many major growers of fruits, vegetables and nursery plants.

Jose Cruz, 23, from El Salvador, said he took off the day from his construction job to attend the rally.

"If I lose my job, it's worth it," said Cruz, who has a temporary work permit that is granted to many Central Americans. "It's worth losing several jobs to get my papers."

Jose, sorry, but it does not sound like you are here illegally if you have a work permit already.

In Carmel, Ind., Jeff Salsbery said about 25 Hispanic workers skipped work at Monday at his landscaping company.

"I'm not very happy this morning," Salsbery said. "We're basically shut down in our busiest month of the year. It's going to cost me thousands of dollars today."

Fire them, pal. And...are those 25 workers all legal?

Here is exactly where the stricter policies need to be targeted at: the employers. Make hiring illegals so risky and so punitive that employers stop doing it. Once the pool of employes dries up the flow of illegals will subside substantially.

How punitive? If this guy's 25 workers are all illegal he should be fined so severely that his fines drive him out of business. Maybe something like 200% of the wages paid...or 2% of the companies gross revenues per illegal for each pay period they were employed.

Francisco Lizamo, 33, of El Salvador, got the day off, along with the 46 other employees at the construction company where he works.

"I haven't been able to see my mom in 10 years," he said through a translator. "I'm worried that if I left I wouldn't be able to get back."

What really annoys me about this are (1) he can't speak enough English to even speak his mind and (2) that he wants to be absolved from making diffucult decisions. Life is full of difficult decisions and it is not the responsibility of anyone to remove those from your life. Get a pair, make a decision and accept it. As for the English...will someone please point out a country (besides the United States) where citizenship is even a consideration for an immigrant that cannot speak the host language?

Delazar Hernandez, said he filed to become a legal U.S. resident seven years ago and it still waiting. On Monday, the construction worker draped an American flag around his shoulders while attending an event in Houston.

"At my company we build hospitals, schools and other buildings and it's all been because of illegal workers," said Hernandez, who is originally from Mexico. "They don't seem to recognize that."

I get it...you are taking those low paying jobs that noone else wants. Construction, hmm, I know they are paid below minimum wage, right?

You know what else I get. The fact that you are here illegally. Get out and do it right. You know why your paperwork is taking so long? Because it is gummed up in the process with the need to also dedicate resources to fight illegal immigration of the people who don't respect the laws of the land...like you Delazar.

And again, fine that construction company out of existance, please.

Roberto Aguilar, an Atlanta construction worker originally from Mexico City, says he was fired after he marched at a demonstration last month. The 25-year-old, though, felt it was important to return Monday.

"If we don't come out, they're going to paint us as criminals," Aguilar said. "We've only come here to earn money with the sweat of our brow."

Let's see, there is "legal immigrant" and "illegal immigrant". If you are not a part of the former then you are a criminal. And, yes, I believe you "only come here to earn money with the esweat of [your] brow"...the problem is I believe you have no intention of becoming a permanent citizen. I believe you, as so many I knew in Los Angeles, are here to export cash. That is not good for our country. And why do I say that as a blanket statement? Because the amount of remittances from United States to Mexico via immigrants was $16.6 BILLION dollars in 2004...up 24% from 2003. That is a lot of money being taken out of our economy.

So, illegal aliens across the country: Get Out and come back legally. I will welcome you that way.

Politicians with a spine (I think that is just 2 of them): please pass the law to harshly punish companies that hire illegal aliens. There...that is the solution to the problem.