The hypocrisy of U.S. Sanctuary Cities ... Slave Cities.
The Humanity Party® condemns the blatant hypocrisy of “sanctuary cities” in the United States.
While there is no legal and proper definition for “sanctuary city,” generally speaking, it’s a city (or a county, or a state) that limits its cooperation with federal immigration enforcement agents in order to protect low-priority immigrants from deportation.
Let’s use San Francisco, California, for one of our examples. (NOTE: California has touted itself as a “Sanctuary State.”)
San Francisco’s economy would tank without “illegal” immigrants.
San Francisco raised the minimum wage to $15 per hour ... for “LEGAL” citizens. It turns a blind eye to many businesses that hire mostly “illegal” immigrants whom business owners are not forced by their own laws to pay $15 per hour. “Illegals” are paid whatever business owners want ... off the books.
Let’s suppose that every worker, legal or not, in San Francisco makes at least $15 per hour. It would take at least 10 people making $15 per hour to properly afford a two-bedroom apartment in San Francisco. When wages go up, rents go up. There are some outdated rent controls in San Francisco, but only for “legal” residents.
In the most recent San Francisco Magazine, starting on page 80, there is a story about Virgilio Alvaro-Arcos, an illegal immigrant facing deportation, who pro-bono attorneys are trying to help wade through San Francisco’s liberal immigration laws. Virgilio’s only desire was to come to the United States to work. Once in San Francisco, he shared a studio apartment “with 31 other desperate men, where he paid $140 per month to sleep under a table.” This is typical of many immigrants seeking employment in these “sanctuary cities.”
This is not a sanctuary for these desperate people wanting to work anywhere, doing anything, so that they can support their families back in Mexico, or their “illegal” families living in the United States. These cities are SLAVE CITIES. These cities tout their humanity and liberal attitude towards immigrating humans while subjecting these people to impossible-to-afford rents, forcing them to crowd into small apartments. These cities tout their humanity by allowing business owners to take advantage of the “non-citizen” status of these desperate human beings, enriching business owners.
Virgilio sits in a California jail awaiting deportation. The woman and her children, whom Virgilio was supporting, lost his support and are suffering. But does San Francisco really care? There are many other “Virgilios” desperately finding their way to these protected SLAVE CITIES. There are 10 “illegals” to take the place of each one who is arrested and deported.
Virgilio will get deported. He will find himself back in Chiapas, Mexico, where there are no jobs, no way to earn a living ... except one: drugs. If he has to sneak across the U.S. border anyway, why not load himself up with drugs and get paid for sneaking across the border? No wall will work. It’s not hard to tunnel under a wall.
But what if there were no border to illegally cross? What if drugs were decriminalized and widely available to those who abuse them without fear of punishment or reprisal, like alcohol is? What if there were free clinics, of means and support, for drug users, who will get the drugs illegally anyway?
Virgilio’s first choice was to sneak into the United States and do the menial jobs that most Americans don’t want to do. If forced back to Mexico, where there are no jobs, why wouldn’t getting involved in the drug trade be something that Virgilio would consider? But if there were no illegal border crossings, and Virgilio could come and go as he pleased ... and what pleased him was to work the jobs that Americans don’t want to do ... why shouldn’t he be allowed free access to these jobs?
California’s economy would significantly falter without illegal immigrants. The San Francisco Magazine article expounded on the efforts being made by some sympathetic lawyers who are trying to defend the right of San Francisco to maintain its sanctuary status. It makes these young attorneys feel good about themselves, about the law that they are sworn to uphold and protect. But what are they actually accomplishing in freeing a detained “illegal”? While rotting in jail is certainly not preferable, is sharing a studio apartment with 30 other desperate men and being treated like an “illegal” more preferable?
If The Humanity Party® was in power, we would open the borders and give each human being a Debit Card with voucher credits for food, clothing, housing, healthcare and education. The voucher credits would not only be good in American stores and by American providers, but they would be good anywhere in the world ... even in Chiapas, Mexico. If Virgilio and his family had access to these cash-redeemable vouchers, wouldn’t a local economic infrastructure result by companies setting up business in Chiapas in order to provide Virgilio and his family with the goods and services provided for by the voucher credits?
Why, then, would Virgilio work for an illegal drug cartel where he might be killed or have to kill? Because his family’s basic necessities are provided for, but not a computer, television, or phone, Virgilio would make himself available to work at one of the new Chiapas businesses set up to provide the goods and services that the HumanECard™ provides.
Virgilio wouldn’t have any desire to immigrate to the United States.
Virgilio wouldn’t be a slave.
Virgilio would be a human being.
THumP® has the solutions. No one else does.
