Mortgage crisis sends illegals home

It seems only the illegals knew our economy was robust during most of the Bush years. Certainly Democrats and particularly Barack Obama were clueless as was Kerry in 2004 when he declared it the worst economy since the Great Depression. Ten percent of Guatemala's population was living in the U.S. sending home $4.12 Billion in 2007--more than its exports of coffee, sugar and other commodities. All this from jobs Americans don't want? In that terrible Bush economy? Well, no wonder our household income was decreasing--it was going south!

Miriam Jordan’s article , "Latest Immigration Wave, retreat" on the exodus of immigrant labor in today’s WSJ is careful not to use the word “illegal” or “undocumented” in the front page story. You need to get to paragraph 6 before that’s even hinted at. But it is slipped into the tiny print of the sub-headline and on page A16, you do find the headline has been readjusted by the truth meter: “In immigration’s latest wave, an illegal worker goes back home.”

Her sob story teasers are then strip teased, little by little. For instance, Ambrosio Carrillo of Guatemala had to use his savings of $3,100 to get back home after construction work dried up. That’s early in the story. Then near the end, you find out it really only cost him about $300 for one-way fare--the rest went to ship his truck back home ($1,100), as well as a new TV, a DVD/VCR, a music system, and he gets home with $600 and his cell phone, where wages might be $10 a day.

The talented Ms. Jordan, who has impressive street creds, can speak Spanish and writes sympathetically of illegals, also has wings, and flies right over Mexico during Carrillo’s dangerous and life threatening trip with a Coyote to Arizona, where he was picked up, taken to California and then flown to the east coast, all for $10,000, which must have been a horrible burden for his family. Mexico, in case you didn’t know, is not nice at all to central Americans found illegally in their country, even though Mexican authorities don’t mind if their own people travel north to work and send money home to bolster a corrupt government.

Here are some of my favorite parts, with my comments and asides. I am not unsympathetic with Mr. Carrillo's plight, he's a hard worker and has become a small businessman since returning home--but American journalists, particularly those who write for WSJ, drive me up the wall with their leftist, pity-parties and op-ed front page rhetoric.

"Once a construction worker earning about $15 an hour in Maryland, Mr. Carrillo barely worked in the fall of 2007 as plentiful jobs evaporated." What happened to that terrible pre-2007 Bush economy that was hurting middle class families?

"Mr. Carrillo is helping to write the latest chapter in the American immigrant story." Switch to script writing, Ms. Jordan. Let's not get him confused with people who played by the rules.

"In part, the slowdown is a product of a Bush administration crackdown on illegal immigration, with factory raids that led to deportations and even criminal charges for thousands of undocumented workers." Yes, let's blame Bush crackdowns, even though his own party wouldn't support him on amnesty and guest worker programs. He's one of the best buds the illegals ever had.

"The fee charged by a coyote, or smuggler, was 42,000 Guatemalan quetzales, or about $5,700 -- including the overland journey from Guatemala to Mexico to Los Angeles and then a flight to Baltimore. Mr. Carrillo's family made a downpayment of about one-third of the tab before he set out. With interest, the total cost of the trip would double to nearly $10,000." Why no outrage at how a poor worker from another country (and obviously not that poor) was exploited in his own country, Ms. Jordan?

"The Census Bureau reported last month that the income of U.S. households headed by non-citizen foreigners dropped 7.3% in 2007 from the previous year, after rising 4.1% in 2006. Pew Hispanic says that among households headed by Central Americans, the drop in income has been in the double digits." Let's keep in mind when Democrats describe the losses of income by "household," they aren't necessarily talking about Americans. The Census counts anyone who is here, even those illegals keeping wages depressed for African Americans.

" "I started as a 'laborer,' making $9 an hour," says Mr. Carrillo, using one of the English words that leavened an interview otherwise conducted in Spanish. After tax and Social Security deductions, Mr. Carrillo says his take-home pay was about $400 a week, more than a dozen times what he earned back home. He bought a 1998 Nissan Sentra for $425." Although Ms. Jordan carefully notes he was learning English as he worked his way up to better jobs, she slips up here and says this was an English word he knew. But American fire, emergency, police and health care workers are severely chastised when they can't respond to 911 calls because they don't know Spanish!

There's more. Obviously, the Democrats in Congress and the MSM have been lying to us about how awful the economy has been the last 7 years, and who was getting rich on the backs of working Americans. All so they can get their guy elected.