After the May Day Rallies

I live in Chicago - a Blue City in a Blue State with more than enough people willing to take time out of their lives of trying to be productive to disrupt the flow of the city at large with a huge protesting rally and a march downtown. They think that by disrupting the city in every way possible (be it the traffic flow, the noise level, or the absence of working in general) they will be able to coerce people to their side of the argument rather than trying to actually make a difference.

You know how differences in the law are made? Um, by making a law or amending a law.
You know how that's done? Um, voting and petitioning to create/amend legislature.
You know who gets to do that? Um, citizens who have the right to vote.
You know how that's NOT done? Um, by hollering and disrupting a productive city.

According to the papers, 150,000 people took to the streets here in Chicago. While I believe everyone's entitled to an opinion, and voicing that opinion in whatever fashion they see fit (that wacky gift of free speech, you know?) - that also means that I am entitled to my differing opinion, and voicing MY differing opinion in whatever fashion I see fit. I usually see fit to voice my opinion in a mocking tone. So if you can't handle someone poking fun at things that might not be as hilarious, or can't handle someone becoming enraged by things you find to be acceptable - let's agree to disagree beforehand, because it only gets worse from here.

Let's start with signage.

Every good rally/protest is bound to have signs, displaying your messages because it's incredibly rare to get more than 20 people to say the same thing AND in unison so it can be understood, let alone 150,000. What's the first legible sign I see on the picture in the paper? "Legalizacion Para Todos" (Legalization For All). Okay, see I have a problem with this message (or rather this 'call to action'). You see, everyone CAN become legal ALREADY. It just takes the proper paperwork, going through the proper channels, and in some cases, paying the proper amount. Everyone has the opportunity to become a legal citizen - you don't just get to demand to be legal, ESPECIALLY after BREAKING the law by NOT going through those channels. That's like going to a Six Flags and instead of waiting 2 hours in line, you decide to CLIMB THE COASTER to get to the platform. We get it, you went through some hard times and all you really want is to ride the coaster just like everyone else, but you didn't wait in the line, and you're not supposed to climb the coaster in the first place. That means you DON'T get to ride. Not until you go back and wait in the line. Oh, and climbing the coaster is grounds for throwing you out of the park. You knew that risk when you climbed it, so no complaining.

How about the sign reading "No Human Being Is Illegal"? Well, I'll completely agree. I don't really see any reason that a human's existance alone would be a crime. However, things that human DOES are certainly capable of being crimes. You can't stand on someone's private property and then complain when being arrested for trespassing that you're a human being and you have the legal right to exist. Yea, you can exist. You can live. You just can't break the law. That's why you get arrested. And ejected from the private property.

You want worse signage? How about this little gem: "If We Go, We're Taking the Tacos with Us" Oh. My. God. Why is it that if counter-protesters were shouting, "Go back to Mexico - and take your tacos with you," that would be considered SO offensive and 'hateful' - but they're allowed to use stereotyping against themselves and claim power from it? And no offense, but isn't the taco one of those foods that we always claim is from a certain culture, even though it's really not - you know, like how we say pizza is an Italian food but it wasn't created in Italy? I mean, a gyro is like a 'lamb taco' - the art of folding something bready and putting meat inside isn't exactly unique to one culture, let alone one country. I'm sure plenty of Americans (like dorky teenagers working fast-food) can make a taco without you, Paco.

One more brief point about something enraging me:

I want to punch in the face every single illegal immigrant marching in these parades who is carrying and waving and wrapping themselves in the AMERICAN FLAG. What the hell are you trying to say with that statement? We know you love America - that's why you broke the law just to be here. But you BROKE THE LAW and you're NOT A CITIZEN. You have pretty much no right to that flag, other than the fact that you're trespassing in this country so you're at least HERE. Waving a symbol of the very crime you've committed is like a drug dealer holding up a giant flashing sign saying "I Sell Drugs!" or something. I'm not in the mood to come up with a better analogy - deal with it.

Let's just move on to some numbers.

The first number is 400,000 - the number of "unauthorized immigrants" (which I guess is the new P.C. term for 'illegal immigrants') in Chicago. This number was provided by the Urban Institute back in March of this year. The rest of these figures are apparently all going to be coming from a University of Illinois-Chicago study released back in 2002. 30% of all "undocumented immigrants" working in the Chicago metro-area labor market were working in restaurant-related jobs, hand-packing and assembly, janitorial and cleaning jobs. In other words, jobs that require no skill and a high-school dropout could do them. And I'm sure there's a LOT of high-school dropouts looking for jobs to support their habits while still living at home. What really shocked me about this study's findings is that the median hourly wage earned by illegals back in 2002 was $7.00/hr! I mean it's 2007 and the federal minimum wage is $5.15/hr, which will be moving up in July to $7.25/hr. I mean Illinois' minimum wage is $6.50/hr, increasing to $7.50/hr in July. That means that back in 2002, they were still making more than the minimum wage. So I don't want any boo-hooing from the "we pay illegals slave wages" crowd - because it's a lie!

The last thing I want to touch upon is my continued outrage that the media will interview illegal immigrants and get so much information about them - and nobody acts on it. I mean HELLO - according to our laws, they are wanted criminals by admitting to being illegally in the country! So why is it that nobody is enforcing the law? We have the necessary data, or at least enough to go and investigate! So from now on, I am just going to add all of these people to a list and hopefully post it online somewhere. Just a way of saying "THESE PEOPLE ARE CRIMINALS (and I hope a government agent finishes the job and deports them)" because this is just insane in my mind. These interviews should look more like this:

"So, you're an illegal immigrant?"
"Yes, I've lived here illegally for fifteen years."
"POLICE OFFICER! GOT AN ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT OVER HERE, ADMITTED TO IT ON RECORD!"

So here's info - just from TODAY's article in a Chicago newspaper...

- Celia Martinez, 49, admitted to being illegal
- Jose Garcia, 22, Ukrainian Village, picture in paper, admittedly undocumented
- John Vaiciulis, 32, studies at Joliet Junior College, picture in paper, expired visa
- Olga Vaiciulis, 22, Joliet, picture in paper, undocumented immigrant
- Gustavo Calixto, 27, Chicago Heights, picture in paper, admitted to being illegal
- Julio Lopez, 18, studies at Morton College in Cicero, picture in paper, undocumented

That's six people - five of which have pictures next to their comments, who are illegally in the United States and have talked to a reporter. And yet, nobody's arrested them. Nobody's deported them. We have these laws, and we need to get them enforced. So please, if you are an ICE agent or happen to know one - take a look at this info and let's get these criminals! Maybe if enough get arrested and deported, they'll remember that they're (oh yea) here illegally and shouldn't be so proud to admit their crimes or else they'll suffer the consequences.

March all you want - ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION IS ILLEGAL, and it's high time we got our enforcement agencies to keep these criminals aware of it.