This week it was revealed that Dallas, Texas plans to bill Mexico to help cover the costs of health care for illegal aliens. Good. Our immigration problems with Mexico are unprecedented and when you try to point out the obvious: we have laws for a reason, therefore, illegal anything is socially and economically corrosive, the Usual Suspects start their jabbering campaign about America’s illustrious history of immigration and how we need illegals because these are the jobs American’s don’t want to do. Bull.

These are the jobs that labor unions racketeers and Congress have priced out of the market. These are the jobs that Americans cannot legally do without breaking specious minimum wage laws and union demands for outrageous wages fueled by extravagant demands. An employer who dared to pay a fair market wage would wind up in jail. Inflated wages are simply costs that are passed onto the consumer in the form of exorbitant rents, consumer and real estate prices and excessive costs that makes living without these artificially inflated minimum and union-extorted wages virtually impossible. The whole issue is a Catch 22 for all of us: American business, our social structure and the U.S. economy. Cui bono? Labor unions, illegal labor, greedy politician and immigration attorneys and their lobbyists.

The only way American businesspersons can compete and be profitable today, after being forced to play nanny to their benefit-laden employees and tax collector for the I.R.S., is by using illegal labor- the kind of labor that doesn’t have to be paid artificially high wages and legislatively mandated entitlements. When we hire illegals, however, the costs are still there (thanks to some thoroughly noxious judicial decisions) and Acts of congress. However, the costs of these gifts that are mandated by the Federal system gets dumped onto the states and, invariably, the U.S. taxpayer. That is why Dallas is suing and that is the reason why illegal labor isn't actually cheap. It is, however, the only way many segments of industry can remain profitable but for society, as a whole, it's a bust. Why? Precisely because we are not following the rules of our "proud" immigation history or understanding them.

To paraphrase Tony Soprano, the price of citizenship in this country has never been painless or without a price nor should it. Yesteryear's immigranst came to our shores legally and nobody paid their way. As a nation, we needed certain skills and found the country or people who provided them. When we needed highways, by-ways, skyscrapers and mansions during the industrial age, we cautiously opened our doors to the Italians. No one knew construction masonry, contracting or marble like the craftsmen and laborors. When it came time to man our factories, no one was more willing than the Irish, so we sent for those workers. And they came in through Ellis Island or various other legal ports of entry. They needed to identify themselves. We knew their names, their relatives, their points of destination. We asked them questions: “Why do you want to come to America? What are you doing to do when you come to American? Are you a communist?” And, we demanded affidavits from their sponsors (yes, they had to have sponsors who lived in this country) who would support them, if necessary, when things got tough. We wanted the best and the brightest, not the laziest, the criminally insane or the welfare dependant. And, as with all things, we conceptualized and implemented a not so perfect policy of quality control. Did they have a job skill? Were they healthy? Did they have a job here in the United States? No? Did they have a criminal background? If so, they were turned back.

When we needed brain power, we allowed the immigration of Russian Jews. They had roots in the community before they even got here. Doctors, engineers, scientists; they came over and most worked for peanuts. They worked hard to assimilate. No one set up bi-lingual education, put up road signs or ATM’s in the Cyrillic alphabet to smooth their transition or appease their cultural sensitivities and nobody voted until they earned citizenship which was impossible to do unless you spoke the language. ( Representation is a priviledge of citizenship not an entitlement for your presense here, it's time someone notified the Democrats of this immutable fact.) Lack of assimilation was an embarrassment, a disgrace, a handicap, not a cause for “racial pride.” Immigration wasn’t an entitlement or a pity party, it was a privilege and, with it it came responsibilities. Responsibilities that today’s illegal immigrants seem all too eager or entitled to ignore. Who can blame them? We demand nothing.

In reality, this country needs cheap agrarian and construction labor and Mexicans seem more than willing to take up the task. If we didn't have this cheap labor we could never compete globally in the agrarian markets and the cost of home and building construction would be unaffordable. However, if we allowed Mexicans to immigrate legally our laws would simply defeat the purpose of their utility. They would immediately become the same over-priced labor that our economy cannot afford. So, employers are forced to become lawbreakers and immigrants are encouraged to come here, illegally, with a wink and a nod from our government and nary a thought to the obvious social and hidden economic ramifications to the states or the very real threat to our national security.

In terms of history, do you think Edward Kennedy’s bootlegger father would have amassed his huge fortune and power if he had to cowtow to labor unions and pay his fellow Irish immigrants health care insurance, FICA, workman's comp, state and local taxes, matching medicare benefits and maternity leave? Yet, Edward M. Kennedy and the other liberal, out of touch trust fund babies are burdening all generations with the social and economic albatrosses that none of their patriarchs would ever have tolerated. Liberal guilt punishes us, while they sock away the proceeds from their trust funds and tax-free investments in off-shore accounts.

The history of immigration is that insurance came in the form of family. That was it. Immigrants took care of their own. They were guests in this country and guests that became a drain to their hosts were asked to leave. Employers today would have to hire lawyers to have them deported. Fighting the immigration lobby doesn't come cheap. Illegal immigrants, after all, now have judicially fabricated Constitutional rights This isn’t immigration, this is citizenship.

If you want to come into this county, be prepared to come in here legally, and that is the job of our do-nothing Congress who refuses to fund the border patrol or INS because they are too bought off or afraid that Americans can't handle the facts. The price of immigration is that you work for peanuts, pay you own way, stay on the right side of the law, learn the language and assimilate. Get an education, work your way up and pursue the American dream. But don’t for a second think that you are entitled to anything. Not minimum wage, maternity leave, free education or union membership (and it’s time to shut down these extortion rackets called “unions”) or any of the other great American entitlements that politicians (who will very soon be out of office) have foisted on us taxpayers. Here's the reality: You are only here and allowed to work because we need you and we need you cheap. That’s it. Hear it. Learn it. Deal with it.

And, finally, if you snuck in through the back door because of our bought and paid for politicians, don’t be surprised when right-thinking Americans wake up and boot your criminal selves right out the door or, finally, yes finally, slam the door to our illustrious (and non-existent) historical "immigration paradise" in your face.