This Just In...
Kevin Fischer is an award-winning veteran broadcaster who has been seen and heard on Milwaukee TV and radio stations for nearly three decades.
Kevin, who is a legislative aide to state Sen. Mary Lazich (R-New Berlin), can be seen offering his views on the news on the public affairs program, “INTERchange,” on Milwaukee Public Television Channel 10. He lives with his wife, Jennifer, in Franklin.
What if we threw out all the illegal immigrants?
By Kevin Fischer
Wednesday, Jul 9 2008, 08:23 PM
That’s the question columnist Shirley Skeel asks on msn.money.com. She’s a print and radio journalist based in Seattle who has written for Bloomberg News, The Seattle Times, the Los Angeles Times, and the Daily Mail and Daily Telegraph in London. She has also produced radio features for National Public Radio and its affiliates. That should tell you where she’s coming from.
Skeel answers her own question. Get the crying towel out:
“Lettuce and strawberries would rot in the fields. Dirty dishes would pile up in restaurants. Thousands of farmers and builders would go bust. Predator aircraft drones would prowl the Mexican border. And chunks of Los Angeles and Houston would look like ghost towns.
The biggest losers would be middle-class families with two working parents, living in high-immigrant states such as California, Texas, Florida or New York. Why? They would pay more for food, housing, entertainment and child care as a shortage of low-skilled workers drove up some wages, and therefore, some prices. Meantime, their own pay would remain the same. What's more, the ripple effect of thousands of businesses shrinking or closing for lack of staff might put one of the parents out of a job. Not to mention the garbage collection going to pot and no one to polish the missus' nails.”
Skeel says there would be an impact on hotels and restaurants:
“There'd be a triple whammy here. Latino staff and customers would both be lost, while the price of fresh food would be driven up by shortages. Distraught restaurant owners would pin up job ads at colleges, when they weren't up to their elbows in dish soap. The billions of dollars spent annually by illegal immigrants would disappear, bad news for small restaurateurs and fast-food joints. But over time, the industry would adapt. Self-service cafés would pop up. And more restaurants would serve chicken parmesan prepared in a factory and warmed up in a microwave. Yum.”
Well, that’s certainly one take on the question, albeit a nauseating one. Strawberries would rot? My goodness, let’s invite more of them in if that’s the case!
Here's Skeel's column.
What if we threw all the illegal immigrants out of the United States? My responses:
There would one million fewer sex crimes committed.
The federal government deficit would shrink. Costs for Medicaid, food assistance programs such as food stamps, WIC, and free school lunches, the federal prison and court systems would go down.
Billions of dollars would stay in America and not be wired to Mexico and other countries.
The financial burden on education and incarceration would be reduced. We wouldn’t be wasting dollars spent on earned income tax credits given to illegal immigrants.
So, what if we threw them all out?
I only wish we could.
