Thus far there have been two basic components to Allan Mansoor’s campaign for the 68th Assembly District:
- Using his position as Costa Mesa Mayor and three brainless Council allies to pander to the Vietnamese community with meaningless gestures “honoring” them; and
- Using his position as Costa Mesa Mayor and three brainless Council allies to pander to his white anti-immigrant base with meaningless gestures expressing distaste for “illegals.”
But now we’ll have to modify that last plank. As pointless as his May “Rule of Law City” declaration was, as much as we opponents ridiculed that measure as accomplishing nothing good or bad in the way of ridding Costa Mesa of the supposed plague of undocumented immigrants (i.e., as much as we tried to convince his nativist followers that they were having their chains cynically yanked) the Minuteman Mayor has now actually proposed a measure with real-life policy implications – bringing E-Verify to Costa Mesa.
But hold the phones for a moment before you get all “Sounds reasonable enough.” Allan is not just proposing that the city itself only hire and contract out with employees certified legal through E-Verify, as many other cities do. (Here in Orange County alone, as this nicely comprehensive Register article details, Mission Viejo, Buena Park, and Yorba Linda have that policy, which admittedly seems reasonable enough – why not have good-paying city jobs go first to US Citizens?)
But that’s not enough for the Minuteman Mayor. Just like Tugg Speedman blew his Oscar chances by “going Full Retard,” Allan is proposing that Costa Mesa goes “Full E-Verify.” That is, Allan would like to force ALL businesses in the city to check all their employees’ papers with this electronic service, under pain of fines, audits, and loss of license. The only places that have gone “Full E-Verify” thus far, as Allan wants to do, are Beaufort County in South Carolina; the godforsaken sweltering desert/prison town Lancaster, and a handful of backward economically-depressed states like Mississippi and Arizona. These are Mayor Mansoor’s role models?
Okay, let’s be clear. First off, in his usual milksop manner, Allan is only simply “proposing” that we “look at this,” that we have a “full and open discussion,” that we “not be afraid” to talk about all the things we can do to scare off this huge “illegal alien invasion” that he and his base perceive all over their town. So what is it – is he still just jerking his base’s chain, or is he really going to try to make this happen before he’s either Assemblyman or unemployed?
He has directed, with the consent of his brainless Council majority, city legal staff to do exhaustive research on the issue and create the appropriate legal documents to implement the plan – as the Pot Stirrer writes, surely “an unnecessary, costly [given CM’s $16 million defiicit] and intrusive measure – one that will certainly not endear Mansoor to the business community.” Nice-guy City Manager Roeder is already tripping that “Irrespective of what Lancaster and others do, business licensing has never been regulatory in nature… This changes the very foundation of the business license program.”
“Screw Business!” (Really? um…)
Something I often hear from liberal friends once they feel pressed to come up with a “solution” for the immigration “problem” – go after the employers! The businesses who hire illegals! Fine the hell out of them! Throw them in jail! Really, it’s just a knee-jerk anti-business reaction that I don’t share. Walk into any fast food restaurant, any car wash – the folks working there ARE generally being paid minimum wage, sometimes a little better; the manager gives their “papers” the most cursory glance and proceeds to take payroll and social security taxes out of their checks which they’ll never see again. These are NOT jobs that American citizens want to do, as has been proven time and again; and everybody is happy with the status quo, until such day as there’s reform and these folks CAN get legal.
Have any of you folks really thought through what the impact would be on the prices you pay to get through life – from that fast-food place and car wash to what you pay for your fruit and vegetables, to your parents’ gardeners and house-cleaners? The following clip is satirical but based on fact – life in the USA without Mexicans HAS been tried here and there, and has been found wanting.
I’ve spent the last few days (since Allan’s proposal last week) talking to the owners of various small Costa Mesa businesses whom this would impact. Understandably many of them don’t want to go on the record objecting to a proposal like this, but the sentiment is unanimous that this would be a huge unwelcome burden on them, and they’re very clear on the petty motives behind it. One Costa Mesa business owner unafraid to go on the record is Red-E Rental’s outspoken Tim Lewis, who told me
“I just resent this Mayor forcing us employers to jump through hoops on immigration, for his own political reasons, when it’s not the City of Costa Mesa’s business to enforce Federal immigration law. If the Feds tell me to go through E-Verify, I’ll do it. But until then I’d like Allan Mansoor to keep his hands out of my dealings between me and my Mexican employees who’ve stuck with me and done a great job for twenty, thirty years…”
[UPDATE: Wing Lam, CEO of Wahoo’s Fish Tacos, in response to my queries: “We don’t need to be doing what AZ is doing : Racial Profiling or anything like it!”]
Yes, Full E-Verify is part of the proposed “Comprehensive Immigration Reform” … BUT…
It is INTENDED to go hand-in-hand with providing a pathway to legalization of existing workers – without that it would be economically devastating, as is made abundantly clear in this report from the National Immigration Law Center. A few nuggets from that report:
- According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), implementation of a mandatory program (without legalizing the current undocumented population) would increase the number of employers and workers who resort to the black market, outside of the tax system. This would decrease federal revenue by more than $17.3 billion over ten years.
- The Arizona Republic reported that a 2008 state law requiring businesses to use E-Verify has resulted in workers and businesses moving off the books into the cash economy. This shift is depriving the state of income-tax revenue at the same time the state is facing a $1.6 billion budget gap.
- Apart from lost tax revenues, the CBO estimates that implementation of a mandatory E-Verify program would cost $3 billion over 5 years and $6.1 billion over 10 years.
- According to the author of a Cato Institute report, tighter interior immigration enforcement — including policies such as making E-Verify mandatory — would reduce U.S. “household welfare” by $65 billion a year.
- Imposing these costs on our federal government and U.S. households would be particularly unwise now as our economy struggles with a $1.58 trillion deficit.8 In 2009, the Treasury Dept.’s revenue was down $138 billion from the previous year, the largest April-to-April decrease since at least 1981.
- Really, that’s just the tip of the iceberg. If you want more, I’ve uploaded the PDF for y’all.
So, long story short, what we see is ONCE AGAIN Allan Mansoor putting his political ambitions and his anti-immigrant sentiments ahead of the interests of the people of Costa Mesa. Chalk this up, voters! And let’s try, for the good of Costa Mesa, to stop this “full E-Verify” until we have real immigration reform.
So, the honorable Mr. Mansoor’s “bad judgment” is to enforce compliance with existing law? What a jerk? What will he want to do next, enforce the First Amendment so bloggers can take pot shots at folks with unwarranted allegations?
Vern, the funny thing is that e-verify has nothing to do with immigration nor does it have anything to do with “Mexicans.” E-verify is about employment of illegal immigrants of all races and colors. E-verify is about legal immigration just as much as arrests for shop lifting have to do with buying goods legally. Funny how you can use terms like “Mexicans” to cast aspersions on those thought to be impinging on rights but not the other way around.
While we are on the subject, let’s talk about Mexican Immigration laws (and I will use supporting citations). Mexico has a single, streamlined law that ensures that foreign visitors and immigrants are:
in the country legally;
have the means to sustain themselves economically;
not destined to be burdens on society;
of economic and social benefit to society;
of good character and have no criminal records; and
contributors to the general well-being of the nation.
The law also ensures that:
immigration authorities have a record of each foreign visitor;
foreign visitors do not violate their visa status;
foreign visitors are banned from interfering in the country’s internal politics;
foreign visitors who enter under false pretenses are imprisoned or deported;
foreign visitors violating the terms of their entry are imprisoned or deported;
those who aid in illegal immigration will be sent to prison.
[Mexican Constitution, Articles 32, 34, 37, 38, 73, 85-87, 91, 116-121, 123, 125-127 and 132]
This law is clear and makes sense. Anyone is the U.S. that proposed adopting these provisions of Mexican law VER BATIM would be called a racist.
Vern, you have a couple of choices – enforce existing law or get the law changed. Otherwise you are being very undemocratic.
In your grand Geoff Willis finale, you give me a stark choice. And I take one second to choose. “Get the law changed.” I actually thought that was clear, I’ve been pushing for immigration reform since we both were much younger.
Let’s see, you’re telling me what Mexican law is on immigration? Am I supposed to take that as seriously as I take Saudi Arabian law on religious freedom? Is that where we look for what Americans should do? Damn, I thought we were the original democrats, liberals, the shining city on a hill!
I’m gonna skip a lot of other stuff I could say, because – you got it – my main aim is to show that Allan Mansoor will not be a good assemblyman to represent this area in Sacramento. I’m really not sure you read everything I wrote, now that I re-read what you wrote.
TAKE TWO. After re-reading my post AND your response (and meditating on how little of my post you obviously read) My post was about how enforced E-Verify without some sort of legaliztaion, DOESN’T WORK. I believe you did not read or think about my post.
Vern Nelson wrote:
> The only places that have gone “Full E-Verify” thus far, as Allan wants to do,
> are Beaufort County in South Carolina; the godforsaken sweltering
> desert/prison town Lancaster, and a handful of backward
> economically-depressed states like Mississippi and Arizona.
> These are Mayor Mansoor’s role models?
Mayor Mansoor’s “role model” is probably Janet Napolitano, Obama’s head of the Department of Homeland Security
As you know, she was the former Democratic Governor or Arizona and a close ally of Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio.
When Napolitano was Arizona Governor, she signed the state law that required all businesses to use E-Verify and strongly supports its use now.
http://www.dhs.gov/ynews/releases/pr_1247063976814.shtm
http://www.cis.org/kephart/everifyconference
http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/bastard/2009/06/barack_obama_on_immigration_jo.php
🙁
Allan Mansoors plan is much more Draconian than just making sure that people comply with the law. It’s once again creating a problem while ignoring any solutions.All for his immediate political gain , while leaving these problems for the citizens to resolve while he rides off into the sunset.
Every new business would have to use e-verify, and every existing business would have to use it to get a business liscence renewal.Talk about republican hypocrisy. Get Govt. out of the way of business? Not on Allans watch. As if businesses couldn’t easily relocate 2-3 miles out of the cities borders.
This program has been available for over six years.It would have been easily implemented all through Mansoors tenure…..but he never thought it very important until now. Wonder why?
Mansoor First……Costa Mesa Last!
Since the Mayor is leaving that office it appears he only wants to get votes for his next office, rather than serving the interests of the residents of his city.
Such a system would only work if it is a national system. A piecemeal system where E-verify applies only to a city or a small area will cause business and jobs to go somewhere else.
Solutions that work and make sense would be a nice change from our elected officials in both parties.
Well, it’s worse than that, Bluedog, if you read the whole post. If the US took the unfortunate step of forcing all businesses to use E-Verify without making it a whole lot easier for our workers to get legal, the outcome – well, just go to the bottom few paragraphs of my post.
Vern, I did read all of your post and note that many of the statements (“jobs Americans don’t want” and the like), are without support and I reject them. Is you argument really if we enforce the law things will cost more? Is that how you feel about clean water? Clean air? We choose to bear costs from enforcement of laws all of the time. There is a difference Vern, between not reading your post and fundamentally disagreeing with unsupported claims made in your post.
Mr. Willis, could I talk you into coming tonight around 8 and arguing the merits of E-Verify on Radio Orange Juice? It would be an honor to meet you – one of the more thoughtful and articulate OJ commenters who I almost always disagree with.
(I think I have your contact info, I’ll e-mail or phone)
I have an issue with the statement “These are NOT jobs that American citizens want to do.”
Mexican-Americans are just as American as any other group. Many short order cooks that people think are here illegally, are often Mexican-American. Giving a job to a Mexican-American over a citizen of another country that came here illegally isn’t all that bad. It’s just called looking out for your fellow American.
Not long ago most short order cooks in America were European-American. In fact, there are plenty of areas in the United States where you can find European-American or African-American short order cooks. In the end, I think most cooks today are judged by the amount of pay they accept and the quality of their work. Most restaurants want to pay as little as possible which is why it’s so tempting to hire people that are here illegally.