reward

Via S-town Mike, there’s this story about councilman J.B. Loring discovering that there might be illegal immigrants working for Metro, and he is shocked, SHOCKED!!! It’s a good example of the tightrope act our government has to walk to keep our immigrats ripe for the picking (no pun intended). We have to make it hard to get in to the country, but not too hard. We have to make it illegal to be here, so they can’t get any tangible labor benefits or organization, but we can’t make it too illegal (i.e. actually enforced) so that we don’t deport all our cheap labor.

Loring’s indignant shock is a good example of what happens when the xenophobia whipped up surrounding the evil illegals goes a little too far – clearly he didn’t get the memo. Because of this, I wouldn’t place any bets on this attempt going very far. In addition to the fact that it would set a dangerous precedent against the *wink*wink*nudge*nudge* agreement we have with our immigration law now, it would also be typically difficult to enforce: most of the illegal immigrants working for Metro are doing so through middle-man contractors. Yeah, good luck with that.