Even scarier is the subtext that the border fence crowd would like nothing more than to round up everyone of Latino descent who is here illegally and send them home.
On a talk radio program yesterday, Minuteman Project founder Jim Gilchrist said, "I'd rather pay nine cents more for a head of lettuce than 40 cents more in taxes" to pay for illegal immigrants.
That kind of talk is not helpful. It is not the type of chatter that will help the president lead us to a reasonable decision. Plus, it's an inaccurate measure of the situation.
But the border fence crowd must have it only one way in order to be satisfied. Those of us who agree that the illegal immigrants have committed a serious crime cannot possibly have any other position but theirs, namely that everyone here illegally must go.
It's not that simple anymore.
But let's pretend for a few moments that it is. Let's pretend that everyone who is here illegally were rounded up and sent home tomorrow.
When that happens, 29% of the workforce in the construc- tion industry will disappear.
When that happens, you will not only be paying nine cents more for a head of lettuce, you will also be paying more for the American-made dishes on which you eat it, the American- made fork with which you stab it and the American- made beer, wine or soda with which you wash it down.
If you eat that lettuce in a restaurant, the chances are good that you will pay much more for it, for the disappearance of this cheap labor will increase prices throughout the industry.
The same is true for landscape companies, house cleaning companies, car washes, countless factories and more.
Can we absorb those increases? Perhaps, but you can forget about exporting anything but knowledge from the U.S. once the cheap labor is gone.
