-By Warner Todd Huston
Tougher than Arizona’s, Alabama’s new immigration law is a perfect example of the best way to put limits on illegal immigration. Sadly these are laws being forced upon the states to implement instead of coming from the federal government, but regardless they are effective in limiting illegals.
The Mobile Press-Register has a story sort of crying that Mexican oriented businesses in Alabama are suffering under the state’s new laws. These businesses have lost half — or perhaps as much as 75% in some estimations — of their customer base. Where have they gone? These customers are either moving back to Mexico or to other states and are doing so to avoid the tougher laws holding them to account in Alabama for their criminal trespass upon this country.
The Press-Register provides the stories of several business started in Alabama by Mexicans catering to Mexican immigrants. The businesses are on the verge of collapse because their illegal immigrant clientele have left the area.
Local illegals are fleeing in greater numbers lately, too, because last week a federal judge upheld Alabama’s new laws.
The story also highlighted a major cultural problem. Not a Mexican cultural problem, but an American one. It seems that some of these flailing businesses are expecting Obama to help them out.
Margarita Iniguez, who speaks little English, asked through her daughter whether the federal government would help businesses like hers.
Notice the problem, here? It is assumed that Obama is willing to help illegals that don’t speak English instead of Americans.
But the success here is that the tougher laws are causing these illegals to flee. Some went back to Mexico — a good thing — but others just moved to a state with more lax laws — something that should be rectified. The lesson here is, make the laws tougher and the illegals will leave. If immigration laws in every state and the federal government went this direction, we’d have a far less troublesome situation with illegal immigration.
If our laws were duly enforced, only those seriously interested in becoming real Americans would come here and brave the laws.
Now, am I gleeful to see businesses go under? Not at all. However, if these people are good businessmen they will thrive by changing their focus.
Let’s face it, government has no role in making sure businesses survive a changing clientele or an evolving market. If these businesses lose their illegal customer base, then it’s adapt or die off. And that is how it should be. Government has no role to make sure these increasingly unnecessary businesses stay in business. It’s the way the market works.
It’s that well known concept of “creative destruction” in the flesh in Alabama. On top of that, it’s a perfect example of how to put the breaks on illegal immigration. What’s not to like?
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“The only end of writing is to enable the reader better to enjoy life, or better to endure it.”
–Samuel Johnson
Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer. He has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and before that he wrote articles on U.S. history for several small American magazines. His political columns are featured on many websites such as Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment.com, BigHollywood.com, and BigJournalism.com, as well as RightWingNews.com, RightPundits.com, CanadaFreePress.com, StoptheACLU.com, AmericanDaily.com, among many, many others. Mr. Huston is also endlessly amused that one of his articles formed the basis of an article in Germany’s Der Spiegel Magazine in 2008.
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