Gregory Gutierrez – 5/31/06

This page was last updated on June 4, 2006.

Immigration misinterpreted; Gregory Gutierrez; Beaver County Times; May 31, 2006.

Below is a detailed critique of the letter.

“Immigration has captured national attention these days and has invoked many malicious, presumptuous and at times hypocritical emotions.”

[RWC] Mr. Gutierrez spends the entire letter conflating illegal aliens with legal immigrants. The only time Mr. Gutierrez brings himself to write “illegal immigrants,” it’s to tell us they aren’t a problem.

“Beaver County is an ethnically diverse community. Most of us have grandparents or parents who have come from another country, and we take much pride in that. It just so happens that most of us do not have roots south of the Rio Grande.

“The truth is that the global economy is changing. Economists will tell you that with the baby boomers retiring, immigration has put the United States in a better position than most countries for the next decade and longer, predominately due to our immigration of people from the southern hemisphere.”

[RWC] This claim makes no sense on at least two points.

First, don’t we always hear the illegals are only doing jobs Americans won’t do? If that’s true, they won’t be taking the place of the boomers.

Second, nearly 100% of boomers graduated from high school and a significant portion graduated from college. The illegals don’t match this profile. Illegals tend to have less than a high school education and cannot speak English. How are undereducated and English-illiterate illegals going to take the place of educated boomers with decades of experience?

“We should consider ourselves fortunate to have such a friendly influx of workers. Ask anyone who has recently visited a European country. They will tell you that the transition period for their recent immigration is not going well.”

[RWC] Is this the same “friendly influx of workers” whose demonstrations were conducted in Spanish and who waved Mexican flags at those demonstrations? Is this the same “friendly influx of workers” that doesn’t believe it needs to obey our laws? Is this the same “friendly influx of workers” that believes much of the southwest U.S. rightfully belongs to Mexico?

“It is an economic issue more than an immigration issue. We have created this dilemma of global economic change. The rise in oil prices can be traced to the growth of China’s increase in use of gasoline as much as it can to the greed of the oil companies, Hurricane Katrina or the pompousness of the oil-rich countries.”

[RWC] “Greed of the oil companies?” Just as with his attempt to conflate illegal and legal immigration, this comment shows from where Mr. Gutierrez is coming.

“We shop at Wal-Mart, killing many mom-and-pop businesses. We do so for the cheaper prices and the convenience. Who is feeding the growth of China? It is not the illegal immigrants. Big business created this environment for a cheaper work force, and somebody voted those officials into office to let them do it.”

[RWC] Having bashed oil companies, Mr. Gutierrez moves onto Wal-Mart.

Mr. Gutierrez worries about the alleged “killing” of “many mom-and-pop businesses.” Even if that were true, what about the fact that the paychecks of lower income workers can go further with Wal-Mart’s lower prices?

“Big business” did not create this environment. It’s the way the world works all on its own without any government interference.

“I can only relate this backlash, in its simplest form, to the senior in high school who derides the junior because he is not a senior. It is economics, folks, and the junior is going to become a senior, like it or not.”

[RWC] More so than even the rest of the letter, this paragraph makes absolutely no sense.

Finally, did you notice Mr. Gutierrez spewed all the liberal BS resulting in blaming us for illegal aliens, not that he believes there’s anything wrong with illegal aliens? Did you also notice who got absolutely no mention? Why Mexico, of course. At no point does Mr. Gutierrez state the obvious that if Mexico were in good economic shape, Mexicans wouldn’t be fleeing the country by the millions.