An Illegal Alien Primer

In most of the world, May 1st has been set aside to honor socialism and the workers’ revolution. Not so in the United States of America. On May 1st, we celebrate Law Day.

Why the difference? Consider the illegal aliens who are marching this May 1st for their so-called right not only to remain in the United States, but to be showered with federal benefits.

My friend Robert Rector of the Heritage Foundation tells me that one out of every two illegal aliens (49%) is a high school dropout. By contrast, only about one out of ten native-born Americans does not finish high school (9%).

A household headed by someone who lacks a high school diploma generally lacks income as well. Accordingly, Rector calculates that such households spend almost as much on lottery tickets annually ($714) as they do on federal income taxes ($1,171) on average. And, thanks to the Earned Income Tax Credit, simply filing a federal tax return all but guarantees a substantial government check via return mail.

In return for every dollar in taxes of any kind paid by these households, Rector calculates that the American people provide them with three dollars in benefits, or $30,160 on average per year.

Amnesty advocates make a point of saying illegal aliens do not receive federal benefits. They avoid mentioning that illegal aliens are ineligible for federal benefits and that, once amnesty is granted, that will change, simply because they are no more immune to the temptations of the welfare state than are other human beings.

Let us not forget that illegal aliens also bring the customs of their former lands with them, such as marching in the streets to demand economic revolution. You know, “the people united will never be defeated,” chanted in both English and Spanish.

Consider this list of the actual demands of the National Immigrant Solidarity Network for this May Day, 2007:

“1- No to anti-immigrant legislation, and the criminalization of the immigrant communities.

2 – No to militarization of the border.

3 – No to the immigrant detention and deportation.

4 – No to the guest worker program.

5 – No to employer sanction and “no match” letters.

6 – Yes to a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants.

7 – Yes to speedy family reunification.

8 – Yes to civil rights and humane immigration law.

9 – Yes to labor rights and living wages for all workers.

10 – Yes to the education (sic) and LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgendered) immigrant legislation.”

Item 10 on this list is a reminder that at least some immigrants are assimilating some American values. Of course, political correctness of this sort is the reason why much of the major media refer to “illegal aliens” as “undocumented workers.”

Assimilated or not, the fact remains that large numbers of illegal aliens are so uneducated that they will become lifelong wards of the U.S. government the second they are granted amnesty.

Is it any wonder that some amnesty advocates (and some politicians) might gaze upon today’s marching throngs of illegal aliens and dream that they are reviewing the vanguard troops of a socialist revolution in America?

Remaking American politics for generations is certainly one consequence of amnesty. The other is to replace America’s “rule of law” with moral relativism, distributive justice and compensatory opportunity.

It is in this relativistic spirit that Sebastian Mallaby of the Council on Foreign Relations asked readers of his Monday Washington Post column to consider whether it was “right to push native workers’ pay up by 2 percent if that means depriving poor Mexicans of a chance to triple their incomes?”

A rule of law does not weigh the needs of the “deserving” many against the incomes of the “undeserving” few, but rather meets all, Tiny Tim and Ebenezer Scrooge alike, at the bar of justice.

“Equal justice before the law” has been essential to the success of both America’s economy and the American nation. Instead of importing millions of illegal aliens from the failed kleptocracies of Latin America, perhaps we should consider how America might export the rule of law to the rest of the world.

Paul M. Weyrich is Chairman and CEO of the Free Congress Foundation.