Livin' La Vida Lake Worth

source

My little town may be one of the most recognized small town in america.

• To political/history/news junkies it is/was home to Nathaniel Brazill , The University of Texas tower sniper Charles Whitman and the infamous Quaker Meeting House

• To surfers it has one of South Florida's best and most contentious breaks.

and,

• To South Florida criminals it is a teasure trove of victims.

You see, we have an illegal immigrant problem here in Lake Worth and [while the nation debates about the perceived problems of illegal immigration (jobs, resource drain, and security)], one big point is being missed. Illegal Immigrants operate in a "cash only" economy and they don't report crimes. Why is this a problem? Let me explain.

Illegal immigrants have a problem. If they are caught without documentation, it is possible that they may be deported. Banks require documentation and because of this, most illegal immigrants don't have a checking account. This means that the cash illegals don't carry on their person gets hidden in their homes and apartments. Because criminals are aware of this, neighborhoods with a high concentration of illegals are preyed upon nightly by burglarers and robbers. To compound this problem, the illegal's lack of documentation keeps them from reporting this crime to the authorities. It's a recipe for the complete breakdown of a neighborhood into a lawless and violent community with depressed property values and the influx of morally reprehensible opportunists.

While xenophobes chant incessantly about wages and food stamp pillaging, our border and southern states are experiencing immigrant community decay. We can't possibly deport our 12 million illegals. No one credible argues to the contrary. Neither can we allow the current situation to persist where illegals remain undocumented victims of a cruel catch 22. We know full well from experience that new laws will never be enforced by the department of Immigration and Naturalization because the well funded business interests who rely on this pool of labor are too influential. George Bush's amnesty (by any other name) solution may be as close to real reform as this government is capable.

UPDATE

The General has an amusing piece on immigration today