"Social Engineering" Ignited America's Illegal-Immigration Problem

In 1974, I was living in my hometown, Los Angeles, and around that time I began seeing something I had never seen before -- thousands of "alien people" roaming the streets of the city.

When I would be doing such things as driving to work, running errands in my neighborhood and traveling to one of my favorite watering holes, I always saw large numbers of people who, obviously, had just arrived from locales south of the border (because I am a native southern Californian, I have a trained eye for singling out Mexicans and Central Americans who have just made their way into the U.S. illegally).

Then, every time I went to a restaurant, car wash or filling station, or when I saw a construction site, all of the workers in those places were "foreigners" or what are now called illegal immigrants. As a matter of fact, by about 1976, nearly every common laborer that could be seen in Los Angeles was a Mexican/Central-American illegal immigrant. Hardly any Americans were seen washing dishes in restaurants, detailing automobiles in car-care enterprises, working as maids in Beverly Hills, doing landscaping chores, cleaning offices in commercial buildings, etc.

And, then, the major media finally got around to reporting on a regular basis, and quite sensationally, that illegal immigrants were crossing the border between the U.S. and Mexico in droves. Every day, it was loudly broadcast that thousands of them were streaming into California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas.

Being the thinker I am, I began pondering why had things changed and why had they changed so suddenly?

One of the first things that came to mind was that in the middle 1960s when I graduated from high school, one of the first things I did was land a job in a coffee shop as a dishwasher and busboy. I also recalled that back then, and in the 1950s when I was a little boy, nearly all of the restaurant workers, office cleaners, maids and other common laborers in Los Angeles were American blacks, Americans of Mexican descent and poor American whites. There were hardly any newly-arrived Mexican/Central-American immigrants, or any other “foreigners”, working on those jobs.

Continuing to think it all over, I remembered that in the 1960s and before, the border between the U.S. and Mexico was wide open. Opposite of what is the case today, there were very few fences and checkpoints in remote regions, and there were no aircraft flying overhead to detect illegal border crossings. Yet, only a relative handful of Mexicans, Central Americans and others were sneaking across the border to enter the U.S. illegally.

Next, I asked myself why was that the case? Back in the 1960s and before when the border between the U.S. and Mexico was wide open, why weren’t thousands-upon-thousands of “illegals” pouring into the western and southwestern regions of America? Why was all of the “wretched refuse” that lived south of the border staying put?

As soon as I asked myself those questions, a gigantic light bulb flashed on over my head.

I quickly arrived at the conclusion that the one-and-only reason why huge numbers of “illegals” did not rush across the wide-open border back in the 1960s and before was there was no work for them in El Norte. As I mentioned before, in those days, nearly all of the menial, service and low-level manufacturing jobs in the western and southwestern U.S. were held by American blacks, Americans of Mexican descent and poor American whites.

I then began to give thought to all of the counter-productive mindsets and other negative consequences that had grown out of such liberal causes and liberal government actions as the Civil Rights Movement, the so-called black movement, the La Raza movement and the War on Poverty.

Well, I know all about the negatives that were spawned by those movements and actions because I was there and I saw it all with my own eyes.

In the early 1970s after I was discharged from the U.S. Army, I saw one civil-rights leader, black militant and Chicano activist after another deliver a dazzling sermon or rousing speech, telling “The People” that it was “beneath their dignity to work on slave jobs for the white man”. And I clearly remember the battalion of socialist white liberals who made full use of the print and electronic media to spread the word that government is supposed to provide the poor with everything they need -- all the way from the womb to the tomb.

Those messages spread across the nation like a prairie wild fire and ended up encouraging millions of American blacks, Americans of Latin-American descent and poor American whites to stop going to work every day and to start allowing themselves to be cared for by government with welfare payments, food stamps, Medicaid and subsidized/free housing.

Thus, by around 1973 or 1974, things had reached the point in the U.S. where there were not enough workers to fill all of the menial, service and low-level manufacturing and construction jobs that were available. There were “Help Wanted” signs all over the place but there were hardly any takers. Many, if not most, of the ones who would have taken those jobs before were kicking back and being provided for by government. As a matter of fact, back in the early-to-mid 1970s, I often heard “ghetto homeboys and homegirls” rhetorically ask, “Why should I slave for some white man for money when I can get everything I need for free”?

The very sad thing is, evidently, it did not occur to any of the civil rights leaders, black militants, Latin-American activists and white liberals to ORGANIZE all of “The People” who were holding down low-paying jobs. Instead of urging those people to stop performing such work as washing dishes in restaurants, cleaning homes and offices, and laboring on construction sites, they should have established labor unions for those workers with the goal of steering employers towards providing higher wages, medical insurance and improved conditions in workplaces.

After all, that is what brought about dramatic positive changes in such American workplaces as coal mines, steel factories and textile mills.

However, that did not happen and as a result, millions of low-paying jobs became available to whoever was willing to fill them -- and enter the huge influx of illegal immigrants.

In the mid-to-late 1970s, millions of “illegals” began crossing America’s southern border, attracted by all of the low-paying jobs that had suddenly become available. And that situation stemmed from all of the "social engineering" that had been accomplished by the left.

In summation, America's illegal immigration problem could have been avoided.

I urge you to go to the profile page listed below and select and read at least one of that hubber’s posts -- and remember to leave an encouraging comment on each one you read.

Hubber: WillStarr

http://hubpages.com/profile/WillStarr