One of the strongest currents in today’s economic maelstrom is unemployment. Recently released figures reveal the devastating power in that storm. As of September, there are over 15 million Americans without a job. No job means no income.

And, with no income, bills will go unpaid, homes will go into foreclosure, cars will be repossessed, visits to the doctor will be eliminated as a luxury, and families will spin faster and faster around the brink of disaster, teetering perilously while fearfully awaiting the next demoralizing gust.

Despite the dire employment news, the truth is even worse. While the Department of Labor reports a 9.8 percent employment rate, the number of Americans without a job is demonstrably much higher. The reason the Department of Labor numbers are inaccurate is that they do not account for the nearly 1 million people that abandoned the work force in September. Yes, these people have suffered disappointment and privation for so long in their search for gainful employment that they have taken part-time, subsistence level jobs or have quit looking for work altogether. If you add this number to the official unemployment report, then the adjusted rate of employment would be closer to 17 percent.  That is a startling figure.

That is to say, the figure should be startling, but it seems to be acceptable to a nation weary of daily unchecked and seemingly uncheckable economic and moral disintegration of our once mighty republic. We were the glorious realization of John Winthrop’s “shining city on a hill” but we have declined into a dingy shantytown on the verge of absolute annihilation through self-immolation on the altar of globalism.

One aspect of the centripetal eradication of national borders through supernational trade and economic unions that should be particularly foul in the nostrils of Americans is the unrepentant disregard manifested by our elected leaders toward the hemorrhaging of illegal aliens across our borders, chiefly that with Mexico. Ignoring pleas from the chorus of millions of unemployed or under-employed citizens and legal immigrants, the government of the United States adamantly refuses to stanch the flow of illegals, behaving haughtily as latter-day Neros, fiddling while Rome burns. In this case, fiddling with numbers so that the Romans don’t smell the smoke.

There are, according to estimates reported by Lehman Brothers, nearly 25 million Americans without work or working at jobs that do not pay enough to support their families. That is support in the most basic sense: food, shelter, and medical care. In spite of this harrowing image, there are approximately 8 million jobs being held by illegal aliens, whether those who crossed criminally into the country or having once been here legally, have overstayed the tenure of their visas. Rightfully, Patrick Buchanan has mused, “Why is this not a matter of national outrage?”

Buchanan, in his article for humanevents.com, refutes the age-old straw man erected by those who benefit from hiring those who have come here illegally, that being that illegal immigrants only take jobs that Americans don’t want. With there being six applicants for every one job opening in America, there are seemingly no jobs that Americans won’t do, as a matter of fact, they are apparently willing to queue up just for a 16 percent chance of actually finding a job. As additional proof that it’s a ruse that lazy Americans lose jobs to motivated illegals, Buchanan cites the case of the Swift and Company meatpacking plants. In 2006, six of these plants were raided and 1,200 illegal aliens were taken into custody. Miraculously, within a few months Swift and Company were up and running with a full staff. These jobs, jobs supposedly so rejected and despised by lazy Americans, were all filled, every one of them, by native-born Americans desperate for work and willing to do anything to keep their families from slipping into the chasm.

It is well known that illegal immigrants flock to jobs in the construction business. So much so, in fact, that it is common practice to have bilingual foreman at most job sites to make sure the workers understand the job to be done. Drive by any building being erected or renovated, and it is more than likely that you will see workers of Hispanic origin outnumbering blacks and whites. This is deceiving, however, for according to the Center for Immigration Studies, native-born Americans, of any skin color, outnumber illegal aliens three to one in construction. Consider that. With those numbers in mind, one is forced to draw the conclusion that not only will Americans, for all there reported laziness, do these jobs, they in fact are doing them right now!

The picture painted by these statistics should be revolting to all Americans and should stir them to action against those permitting such systematic perpetuation of criminal behavior. What must not be ignored, however, is that when it comes to squeezing Americans out of jobs to make room for cheaper, more vulnerable illegal workers, it takes two to tango. The illegal immigrant is inarguably culpable for behavior amounting to breaking and entering. Let us not ignore, however, the other factor in the equation: the employer. We must hold those hiring illegals as accountable as those that are hired illegally. Our adherence to principles of laissez faire capitalism must not restrain us from making examples of those whose quest for profit persuades them to break the law and rob Americans of opportunities that law and justice have declared should be theirs. Borders, impenetrable borders, must be erected not only around our country, but we must erect borders around the workforce by tethering the as yet unchecked ability of employers to hire whomever they will, regardless of the law.

A united and consistent effort on the part of concerned citizens, both employed and unemployed (and the truth is that these days the former so quickly and unexpectedly becomes the latter), must demand that our lawmakers immediately and vigorously repel the decades long invasion of our country by illegal aliens, and that they enact laws that require the infliction of substantial and severe punishments against any employer that hires any worker other than one with verifiable permission to accept that employment.

The price of inaction is incalculable. The Congress and the President will not move unless the spurs are forcefully applied by a purposeful, powerful, and persistent bloc of citizens. In this time when everything costs more and the money we have is worth less, no one should receive a free pass.

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Vinnie said:

	A bit confused I'm a little confused by all of this - in a free society shouldn't employers be free to hire whom they please, and at a freely negotiated salary independent of government influence?
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October 10, 2009
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Flu-Bird said:

	End the inviasion Its time to stop the invasion of america by illegal aliens its time to halt the NORTH AMERICAN(SOVIET)UNION Its time to get ourselves out of the sinister UN and boot out the CFR as well
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October 10, 2009
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Jim Brook said:

... My reaction to this piece was the same as yours, Vinnie. What makes somebody entitled to a job? If someone is willing to offer their labor for a better price than somebody else, then why should an employer not be able to hire him? Our problem with our open borders is that we also have a welfare state. Those situations cannot coexist, because taxpayers cannot support everybody who wants to come here and get on the dole. The problem does not lie in open borders and Mexicans who are willing to work. The way to solve the immigration problem is by removing the regulatory burdens on employers, so that workers and employers who follow the law can be competitive. We also need to eliminate the welfare state. Then we could not complain about illegal immigrants "using our resources." As a doctor who only takes direct payment from patients, I see many Mexicans. I imagine that many of them are illegal aliens, but I do not ask. They "use my health care resources," but that is a good thing, because they pay me cash which they earn by working. No taxpayers are harmed. The solution is to establish free markets, and remove government interference in the economy, like I did in my medical practice.

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October 10, 2009
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Vinnie said:

	Agree 100% Jim we are in complete agreement. I am surprised that this article advocates a non libertarian solution.
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October 11, 2009
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Vinnie said:

	Yes Flu-Bird: Yes, I agree if we stop leaving food out for the cats and pigeons, they will eventually leave.
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October 11, 2009
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Ivanhoe said:

I'm one of those citizens that can't get a job My family came to America on the Mayflower in 1620. My father, grandfather and great grandfather were all carpenters and general contractors. I was working for a large developer who like all the rest I know in the industry, have hired many illegal aliens at about $8 to $13 dollars an hour without benefits. My wage was $35 an hour, as a project manager. I have worked around these illegal aliens for years and their work is shabby. It's monkey see monkey do and the finished product is poor quality with a veneer of paint and plaster to make it look good. They haven't gone to trade school, no apprenticeship training they can't read English let alone speak English so the blue prints are just pictures to them. The profit margines on homes has gone as high as 50% for the contractors/developers. My father made 8% to 10% and thought it was a good return. Is it any wonder why today there is so much litigation against builders? So...who do I litigate to get a decent job these days?

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October 11, 2009
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james said:

... Borders, language, culture,without them you will eventually have no sovereign nation.Vinnie, and Jim, you both have it wrong.This is a land of laws,and if your here illigal, you should be sent home never to return again because you broke the laws..I have lived in other countries and you could not do it there.In most cases were asked to be tolerant of this behavior.I do not want to turn a blind eye to it anymore and as a doctor you should not either although, I know you took and oath, but you have a vote.I was just in the grocery store with my wife two nights ago. It was packed with mexicans, with dirty construction boots on.Ive been out of work for a year.Do you think it makes guys like me happy when I see them using the food stamp visa card and working under the table.Who do you think is paying for it?There buying a whole basket, and I see others with a handful, like me and my wife.If they want to change something, yes and I said they.Then they should go back to there own country and change there way of life in mexico and maybe revolt to change there government and there way of life.My grandfathers did it the right way in 1920.It seems to me,that you don't care because you get paid in cash,but you could care less who is being sold out.Oh and by the way, my wife was born here,is mexican,and she see's what's happening and she feels the same way.I'm and independent,and what I see is the demorats want the votes,and the republirats want cheap labor,and it's all being done at every Americans expense,to include my children and grandchildren.My son in colorado sold all his tile setting tools,and told me I'm not working for 1/4 of my pay.What about you???? Would you work for 1/4 of your pay??? I'll bet not.Enough, is enough. Boarders! language!and culture!Oh by the way,I'm vet, I'll keep my religin!keep my flag!keep my gun's! and you can keep your change.God bless America. 2010 is coming.

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November 05, 2009
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