Boycott This

The latest buzz on illegal immigration that has the entire country up in arms is the ballsy new law passed by Arizona governor Jan Brewer. Quoting an article in the New York Times, "the law would make the failure to carry immigration documents a crime and give police the broad power to detain anyone suspected of being in the country illegally."

Gov. Brewer has since made amendments to the law to avoid the appearance of racial profiling.

Here's my opinion (always worth two cents): Our country may as well hang a welcome sign at our borders and hire an Ed McMahon sound-a-like to shout out "COME ON DOWN" to all the illegals because the price IS right for illegals in the United States.

What other country gives out welfare benefits to illegals, free health care and housing to people who have snuck into this country, paid thousands of dollars for fraudulent social security numbers and who assume identities of dead American citizens? Of course, not all of these illegal immigrants are that savvy but the U.S. companies who employ these illegals are and they contribute hugely to this controversial subject by employing illegals. Perhaps these huge corporate conglomerates should be scrutinized more than Arizona's new law.

People are asked for identification for various reasons all the time: tobacco purchases, alcohol purchases and even more recently, I went to my local post office to pick up two Yankee Candles I had purchased on ebay and the postal employee asked me for my ID before he released MY package to me. That request was a bit of a stretch and I put up a bit of a stink about the request because these were candles, not a new circuit board for a Patriot missile.

But the point is that we as Americans are asked for identification every day and no one is demanding boycotts of those retailers. drug stores, liquor stores, etc. for asking us for identification. When police pull over drivers for motor vehicle infractions, they ask for a driver's license and proof of registration. What is the difference between what the police do every day and what has been written as law in Arizona?

If you are not guilty of being in the country illegally, then you will not have a problem proving same. Certainly, many a fur has been ruffled on the backs of those hard-core civil rights believers and supporters who are protesting that law infringes upon those genuine citizens and the Arizona police will stop anyone who looks or smells like an illegal.

When an illegal alien enters my country, applies for and receives welfare benefits which payout is equal to or more than what my monthly hard-earned salary is, I question as to what kind of documentation is presented to the state workers who process the applications. If the illegals are here illegally, then what kind of documents are in their possession that allow them to garner and reap my taxpayer-paid benefits and services?

Case in point: My income is considered below poverty level, by federal standards which means I qualify for child care consideration issued by the state of Massachusetts. I was on the waiting list for more than three years before I was finally issued a voucher to help me pay for child care which is an after-school program my son attends so I can work later than I normally do on the days he is not in that program.

I had a conversation with an employee of this child care agency who told me off the record that many "illegals" are given immediate child care vouchers as a part of their welfare benefit package. I was stupefied that I, an American citizen, born here, raised here, never been arrested, was pushed to the back of the bus by illegal aliens who have been handed child care vouchers as readily available las popcorn and hot dogs at a baseball park, while I have struggled to pay for my son's after school care for the past three years with money out of my own pocket.

This is just a small example of a much larger problem. Illegal aliens who don't speak English and obviously can't read English are driving cars and have no concept of the rules of the road because they come from a completely different country, a different culture and different driving rules! And, when they are pulled over and can't produce a driver's license, guess what: they are summoned to court, they pay a fine and get right back into their cars - still without a driver's license. They fraudulently obtain social security numbers or fake passports and fake identification cards which are then presented to obtain state benefits and services. No one questions this documentation.

And when someone like me questions this process, I'm told "Back of the bus whitebread."

Since Arizona passed its law, protesters are politicians and anyone else who wants to jump onto the poor poor pitiful illegal alien bandwagon are demanding that people boycott anything and everything to do with Arizona, including the 2011 Major League Baseball All-Star Game.

Uh-uh. Do not MESS with my baseball.

San Diego Padres first baseman Adrian Gonzalez threw out his two cents (after getting thrown out of a game the same night) when he recently voiced his big mouth blah blah about how HE will sit out the 2011 All Star game in Phoeniz and (oh brother) wants the MLB Players Association to boycott spring training in Arizona in 2011.

Hey Adrian - 411: what makes you think you're going to be voted to the All Star team anyways? And believe it or not, there are actually players who LIKE playing in Arizona and could care less about the new law that has got your cup all bunched up in your uniform pants.

My advice to you: Shut the eff up and play baseball. Us fans pay your salary. And if you are so unhappy here in the United States, move back to Tijuana.

I applaud Gov. Brewer for passing this law. Illegal immigration is a problem of enormous proportions in Arizona (it borders Mexico) and the murder of an Arizona rancher by Mexican drug smugglers (in the state illegally of course) spurred Brewer to pass the law. Illegal immigration is a problem of enormous proportions and has already spread like a plague.

I am not racist nor prejudice but when people who come into my country illegally and take away benefits for which I have a genuine need and to which I am legally entitled, then I support any state, any governor who passes a law to protect U.S. citizens like myself. What is disheartening is that President Obama doesn't support the new law and if my own president doesn't support a law that attempts to curb illegal immigration, I wonder for whom he is the president.


As long as my country welcomes illegal immigrants with the availability of taxpayer-funded benefits and services and free housing, this "whitebread" blogger is going to be riding at the back of the bus for a long time or worse - told to get off the bus because U.S. citizens aren't allowed on the bus anymore.









As a former law enforcement employee, my view is that if you are here legally, you will have a valid driver's license to show same. Most people don't carry around their birth certificates so proving legit citizenship could be a measure in complication.

And (Not) Justice For All

The brain is an amazing source of consternation because somehow, it has this twisted way of not shutting down at night and generating thought after thought till all hours of the morning which in essence then keeps me up and makes me a first-class grouch thereafter.

The past week, rampant thoughts of what is going on around me with regard to illegal immigrants and the benefits which are afforded them - and not me - have pretty much taken over my thought process.

Case in point: As a single mother, I rely solely on my part time income and my child support. My rent is 30 percent of my income which suffice to say is nearly my entire child support. If I work more, my rent goes up. So I am effectively in a corner with my back up against a really hard brick wall and the edges of the concrete of the bricks are making permanent marks in my back because I have been in this position forever. I can't go out and get a full time job because my rent will skyrocket and I'll be throwing away all my money for what - to live in the single serving cereal box I live in? That's what sucks because the more you make, the higher your rent goes and you can't save any money for a down payment for a house because you're giving it all to the slumlords who run the kind of place in which I reside.

So I put my name on a waiting list for a "voucher" to help with my son's after school program which is considered "child care." I have this after school care because it has vacation programs for which my son qualifies because he is in the regular after-school program and I have to work so my son has a place to go during school vacations. Ditto for the majority of the holidays that fall during the regular school year. Some of these holidays I receive an off day from work so I elect to keep my son with me to save myself some money.

I do this single parent thing all by myself. My closest relative is my Mom and she lives in another state. She is almost 79 years old, doesn't drive more than a mile to the grocery store and back and is living out the rest of her life comfortably and in peace. She is not a child care option. And there are very, very few people I would trust with the care of my son. So for the most part, I am alone.

I have been on this "waiting list" for a child care voucher going on 3 years. I am not on welfare. I do receive food stamps out of necessity - a whopping $16 a month because someone decided that my $15,000 per year bottom of the ocean below the poverty line income was more than enough money for me to buy groceries for me and my son who brings his lunch to school 3 out of the 5 school days and for whom I pack a lunch every day Monday through Friday for 10 weeks of summer vacations. Short of starving myself or my son, I had to laugh at the $16 allotment of food stamps.

But what I wasn't laughing when reality set in and I pictured this scenario: Illegal immigrants apply for food stamps. A social security number is required or at least on the application I - born, raised U.S. Citizen - fills out. Does anyone check the validity of the social security numbers presented? Or do these illegals - which number by the thousands here in Massachusetts - have a "different" form given to them to fill out? They claim they aren't working. I'm sorry but my own ex-husband's wife (who is Brazilian) has a cleaning job that she earns cash from and doesn't report. I know how this goes. Illegals work "under the table" for cash, don't report their income (how can they - they're illegal and don't have social security numbers) but they get food stamps (more than $16 a month I am sure), get better health care than I do (because their income is allegedly lower than mine - yah right) AND (drum roll please) they go on welfare which automatically qualifies them for CHILD CARE VOUCHERS WOOHOO!

And here I am, born, bred U.S. Citizen who reports her income, reports her child support and I am getting screwed 27 different ways to Texas by the illegals. But is it them or the government agencies who are short-staffed, short-changed or just plain short of qualified people who obviously don't have enough have enough brains in their head to realize how unfair our laws truly are???!!!

We CATER to illegals and leave our own people - like myself who are in dire need of services - or more than what is allotted to me - in the dust of the illegals.

I am sorry but illegal immigrants do not deserve to get the benefits that I and other U.S. Citizens rightfully deserve.

Now don't get me wrong because I live in subsidized housing and I am surrounded by people who are committing varying degrees of housing fraud, tax evasion, etc. and who are U.S. Citizens. But what good is it going to do me to tattle on them? How would it benefit me? It doesn't and it never will. So I suffer in silence, I pay my rent, I stay out of trouble and pray for a miracle. I hope for what comes around goes around but it seems that everyone just keeps getting away with all kinds of shit while I struggle with a rope tightening around my neck pretty much every day. These housing fraud-ers and tax evaders and lease violators aren't hurting me in any way except in principal but I AM getting hurt because I am doing the right thing, playing by the rules, living within the provisions of my lease and keeping my nose clean!!! I don't do drugs, I don't have alcohol-laden parties and oh yes - I don't have a dog. I have a fish that's near death but I don't know if that counts. I come home some days to the smell of drugs cooking or being smoked or whatever the fuck people do with them. I come home to find gigantic holes punched in the walls because some asshole tenant decided to take out his or her frustration and now the damage makes us all look bad - makes us ALL look like trash - just like this town labels us. And I hate being labeled as trash. I hate being labeled at all.

And then I have to explain to my son about the damage. I tell him he will NOT grow up to be like that. I pray that I am getting through to him at 9 1/2 years old.

As much as I struggle to keep my head above water, the constant thorn in my side is knowing that illegal immigrants are getting my child care vouchers because they have fake/fraudulent/dead people's social security numbers or just random made up socials to secure benefits they do not deserve. Who is worse: The illegals getting benefits they don't deserve or the people around me committing housing fraud BECAUSE THEY CAN?

Who do I complain to? Who would actually look into this for me? No one. If I go to the property manager and question her background check requirements or how the paperwork is filled out or the information that is presented by tenants or prospective tenants, I will probably be evicted or retaliated against in some way for even questioning what's supposed to be none of my business. Forgive me for being a summa cum laud college graduate, having a GPA at graduation of 3.8 and actually having brains in my head and not in my ass. But that's what would happen if I even made a squeak about how the requirements for securing housing in this place I live. This place is owned by slumlords who don't give a shit about any of us.

Ditto for child care vouchers. Do these people actually check the paperwork? Obviously not because I am STILL on the waiting list for child care and I would give a million dollars if I had it to see who's gotten the child care voucher I covet - like church wine - ahead of me. If anyone tries to tell me that ALL the people who have gotten those vouchers ahead of me are U.S. Citizens - I am going to throw up - and then some.

What if I went to some of these illegals' countries? Do you think I could get away with the shit they do here in the United States? I'd be shot on sight. Dead. Gone.

I can sit here and blog about illegals and about the unfairness of it all but nothing is ever going to change. I even emailed Mike Beaudette who is an undercover report for Fox25 News here in Massachusetts and even he ignored me. I guess there are just some stories that reporters won't touch because of politics. And here I thought Fox 25 News was pretty damn liberal and would jump on an investigation into fraud by illegal immigrants.

Oh wait. I know why he didn't contact me. It's not even a story anymore.

Illegal immgrants getting benefits that U.S. Citizens don't is an everyday occurrence like going to the grocery store for milk and eggs. Who wants to investigate that?