These are criminals, plain and simple, and they know damned well what they’re doing, as well as to whom. Lock ‘em up, or kick ‘em out. All this belly-aching, more by media than anyone else, but particularly foreign media, just because it’s a US border issue and not theirs, will merely be a minor part of their penance.

It’s not just N America, we’re seeing it all over N Europe and Asia. France has its N Africans, Germany its Turks, the UK its former Commonwealth colonials (and, of course, the Irish), and Israel and the Arab oil states both eagerly exploit cheap Palestinian labor. Even the Japanese are invaded by Korean guest workers. The ease by which people can now travel cheaply long distances has allowed commerce to import cheap labor for easy exploitation, especially since many of the additional or hidden social and financial costs of these foreign workers can be passed off to their societies as a whole and not born by those who profit most from them. The costs of housing, crime, education, health care and welfare for these populations are a subsidy for those who prosper by refusing to hire their countrymen. And the potential for even higher costs is certainly there. These people know they are being abused and enslaved, even if they later become integrated into the society as a whole. They will not easily forget. We are still paying the social costs of the Triangle Trade and our forefathers’ great tobacco plantations.

The abuse is not limited to wealthy Conservative commercial interests and their desperate blue collar rural and southern allies. Our noble Liberal thinkers are eager to share the bounty of America with the infinite hordes of rural South America, but they also know these people will vote Democratic and overwhelm their Republican opponents in future elections. The hypocrisy is absolutely staggering, not to mention the contempt we have for these foreigners because we imagine they are so dim they can’t figure out exactly what is going on, who is doing it to them, and why.

They know. They knew it very well, even before they arrived. And their children will remember until the heritage of their ancestors is lost forever. My brother and my cousins are all in that generation. We still have that racial memory and tradition, and even while we drink our beers and relax during our Super Bowl barbecues we can have this conversation in perfect American English, lapsing into Spanish only for emphasis or humor. But our wives, their children, my nephews and second cousins, have no idea what we are talking about.