A Moral Solution to Illegal Immigration - UTNE Reader

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Putting a Stop to Slave Labor
A moral solution to illegal immigration
—By Bryan Welch, Utne Reader
Utne Reader March / April 2007 Issue

I remember my feelings of disbelief when, in the fourth grade, we read about the lives of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. Until then, I'd been taught to revere Washington's honesty and Jefferson's brilliance. To me, their powdered wigs and knee breeches symbolized a golden era when America's moral mandate and ethical superiority seemed unassailable.

Yet those colonial heroes who wrote that "all men are created equal" and legendarily declared "I cannot tell a lie" owned slaves. Even at the age of 9, it made no sense to me that we who worshiped freedom not only tolerated but endorsed human bondage.

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Chances are that the roof on your home or the food on your table or the tiles on your floor were put there by undocumented workers. In the United States, farmers, food processors, roofers, ranchers, country clubs, contractors, hotels, and mechanics depend on low-wage "illegal aliens." The United Farm Workers told the New York Times in September that an estimated 90 percent of California's farmworkers were undocumented. On some construction sites in Seattle, 90 percent of the workers are native Spanish speakers, according to inspectors, construction foremen, and union organizers interviewed by the Seattle Times in 2006. The U.S. Department of Labor figures that some 85 percent of recent immigrants from Mexico are undocumented.

entire article:
http://www.utne.com/issues/2007_140/cover_story/12458-1.html