Latino Issues, A Conservative Blog

Should we be debating about immigration in light of free movement of labor? As I posted in my previous post, someone asked the question, "So, what would a economic conservative view of immigration really be? Would labor move as freely as capital across international borders? Would there be less regulation on who could migrate as long as it lowered the price of labor?" If it was that simple (free market labor), we would have found a solution long time ago. The issue is not the free movement of labor. The issue is the lives, dreams, and hopes of millions of human beings trying to make a better life for themselves. To be clear, hope, dreams, and aspirations in no way justifies breaking the law. This in no way excuses illegal immigration, nor should it remove someone from the potential consequences of illegal immigration. But, the debate needs to be shaped in terms of human lives, no movement of labor. We are talking about People people! Otherwise, the debate gets shaped in a wa...

Found this over at Urban Onramps . From this Wall Street Journal article: Save Our Cities During the nine-day trial that concluded last Friday, Mayor Lou Barletta argued that some 10,000 undocumented immigrants have ruined Hazleton’s quality of life: Violent crime has doubled in the past two years, unreimbursed medical expenses at local hospitals have jumped 60% and the annual school budget for teaching English as a second language has soared to $875,000 from $500. Yet business owners and landlords argued the opposite — that immigrants had revitalized Hazleton’s moribund economy, filling once-vacant apartments and patronizing once-declining businesses. As a result, Hazleton’s budget has been in the black for three years — a far cry from its $1.2 million deficit in 2000. Urban Onramps reader Glen Peterson left this comment : April 5th, 2007 at 8:11 am So, what would a economic conservative view of immigration really be? Would labor move as freely as capital across internationa...

Robert Bluey reports on new research by Heritage Foundation's Robert Rector. Low-skilled workers in America cost taxpayers about $22,000 annually, according to the Heritage Foundation’s Robert Rector, who has produced a new study that should open everyone’s eyes on both sides of the aisle as Congress gears up to tackle immigration reform. Rector’s study concludes that in 2004 low-skilled workers paid $9,689 in taxes but received $32,138 in benefits. He estimates about a quarter of low-skilled workers are immigrants — both legal and illegal. The part that caught my attention in the following video is where they talk about employer's who are "sacrificing" human lives for the sake of profit, and passing on the costs to the taxpayers. Free market economics works well within the boundaries of ethics and moral restraint. When corporations are willing to go outside the bounds of the law to make a profit, it gone beyond free market economics. Only second in importance to th...

I found a report on a study on the NSHP.org website , entitled "Conexión Cultural/Connected Culture," that included results from a "poll of more than 2,600 18-55 online Hispanics that consume some Spanish language media weekly." Very interesting data. The original article was published on Hispanicad.com . Online Hispanics in the U.S. are "media mavens," consuming and adopting media and technology at a higher rate than the general population, according to new research released by Yahoo! Telemundo and Experian Simmons Research. The study found that Hispanics lead the general market in "media meshing" and use of key mobile phone features as they spend more than half of each day engaged with television, Internet and technology gadgets. Overall, Hispanics identified 51 hours of total daily activities, including 14 hours with technology and 13.5 hours with media. I thought this one line was revealing, and perhaps worth doing further research. It used ...