The End of Illegal Immigration?
Interesting news article which also makes this What Media Bias? Part 109. Here’s the headline:
Brazilians Giving Up Their American Dream
Poor, little Brazilians…America just ain’t what it used to be, huh? I guess all these Brazilians will now turn in their green cards and go home? Wrong - they aren’t Brazilians seeking the American dream, but illegal aliens from Brazil seeking the American dream:
No one can say how many are leaving. But in the last half year, the reverse migration has become unmistakable among Brazilians in the United States, a population estimated at 1.1 million by Brazil’s government — four to five times the official census figures.
To explain an often wrenching decision to pull up stakes, homeward-bound Brazilians point to a rising fear of deportation and a slumping American economy (Ed. Note; only in the NY Times would the sixth year of a boom economy be “slumping”). Many cite the expiration of driver’s licenses that can no longer be renewed under tougher rules, coupled with the steep drop in the value of the dollar against the currency of Brazil, where the economy has improved…
…There are regional variations, but the pattern is consistent. In South Florida, the expiration of a driver’s license is often a turning point for families already caught short by the slump in housing construction, said Sister Judi Clemens, a pastoral assistant with Our Lady Aparecida Mission, which serves five different Brazilian communities in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Miami. She noted that until seven years ago, Brazilians with tourist visas could get Florida licenses valid for eight years, but they are all expiring now and cannot be renewed…
…“I’m scared,” said Francine Melo, the owner of the travel agency in Newark where Mr. Borges bought three one-way tickets for $1,708. “I make my living through these people.”
Another of her last-time customers, Norma dos Santos, a former house cleaner, said she felt she had no choice. Seven years after overstaying her visa, she said, she does not drive to work or pick up her children at school for fear that a traffic stop could put her in immigration detention.
“It’s just getting harder and harder to stay here without documents,” she said.
Tighten the borders, crack down on employers, deny basic documents like drivers licenses…most of the illegals will eventually go home under such a regime. The Brazilians are, in my view, just the tip of a reverse immigration ice berg…and the only thing which can stop this from happening is the election of a Democrat to the Presidency next year.
15 comments December 6th, 2007
