As I write this article Rick Santorum has just beaten Mitt Romney (we wrote about his family a while back) in both Missouri as well as Minnesota. Although no delegates were at stake there, it does make the race for GOP nomination more interesting. It would have been rather boring to see Mitt Romney trample his fellow GOP contenders just like that anyway. For now, Santorum gets to wear the momentum hat for a while and who knows what the next primary will bring us (Maine, with 24 delegates).
Romney is likely to win the nomination after all, because of the simple fact that he´s richer than the others. Being rich simply gets you places. Santorum isn´t as rich, but has the backing of an extremely rich Wyoming cowboy with a name that sounds like a McDonald´s menu. The only person thinking Newt Gingrich is the best option is Gingrich himself.
Now, what does that have to do with Mexico? We didn´t name ourselves Voice of Mexico to chitchat exclusively about the United States, obviously. At first sight, it benefits latinos if Barack Obama remains in the White House. In 2008 he scooped up a nice 67% of Latino votes. That must mean that he actually cares about them. But does he really?
Using statistics provided by the Pew Hispanic Center (all these guys do is gather statistics about Latinos and write reports about it, we love them) it´s interesting to see that Obama is actually responsible for an increase in deportations. Or as they prefer to call it, ´removals´. While George W. Bush peaked at 319,000 removals in 2007, Obama´s record stands at 395,000 in 2010. Yes, we can deport you! Almost 60% of Latino voters disapproves of Obama´s way of handling this issue.
Of the 395,000 deported removed illegal aliens in 2010, 97% were Hispanics, of which 73% were Mexicans. That means almost 280,000 Mexicans were sent back south involuntarily. Another 19% are Central Americans (almost 73,000).
On the other hand, ´apprehensions by Border Patrol´ have declined sharply in the last decade, coming down from 1,189,000 removals in 2005 to 340,000 in 2011, although you can´t really give Obama credit for that. It might very well have something to do with the economic downturn and the fact that dozens of illegal crossers have been slaughtered by Mexican drug cartels in 2010 and 2011. That makes a lot of other possible immigrants want to stay where they´re at, as poor as they might be.
Obama has tried to improve things by supporting the DREAM Act (Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors). Upon being accepted by the Senate this legislative proposal would provide a new path to becoming a US citizen for illegal aliens who arrived in the US as minors and meet certain requirements. However, he hasn´t been able to actually get the package approved, so that doesn´t get us anywhere yet.
An issue that has kept a lot of illegal Latinos in the United States for years is the lack of control within the Social Security system. An employer in the United States has the obligation to verify the legal status of the employee he or she hires. This can be done by simply asking for a new worker´s Green Card. Copying that card and putting it in the personal file of the employee is considered sufficient prove that the employer has checked their legal status. Although an electronic verification system exists (E-Verify), only Colorado, Georgia and South Carolina have made its use mandatory. And even the use of E-Verify doesn´t assure that an employee is completely legal.
Upon arrival in the United States, the first thing many illegal aliens do is to buy a fake ID. Someone else´s name is on it, but since all Latinos look the same anyway an employer can easily accept the papers he sees as valid. He registers the Social Security number of his new employee and starts making monthly payments to Medicare and the Social Security Administration. As far back as 2005 an estimated $ 7 billion a year was collected on incorrect or duplicated Social Security numbers, according to the New York Times.
An illegal alien is unlikely to receive any benefit from the payment he makes, yet combined they´re responsible for 10% of the Social Security surplus. In 2010 the Social Security Trust Funds registered a $ 68,6 billion increase in funds. That puts all those unwanted aliens in a different perspective, because they add a lot of money, without ever claiming a dime of their share. The government has tried to reduce the use of duplicated or incorrect Social Security numbers, but upon formally inquiring with the employer, illegal workers tend to simply disappear and switch jobs. At their new workplace, they can use the exact same fake ID as before and continue adding their share to the national surplus.
So, this means we have finally found the solution! Just send all those Border Patrol officers to the Social Security Administration, have them take out a list of incorrect payments, go to the companies those payments come from and remove all people that are using fake IDs. It´s that simple.
Social Security wouldn´t immediately collapse, but who would want to be the president that kills Franklin D. Roosevelt’s brain child? You never know what the future brings and it would be a very nasty thing, suddenly having to cope with a $ 7 billion shortage, just the amount illegal Latinos bring in every year. And all those workplace raids and Border Patrol reality shows look way better on TV anyway. Our suggestion to the next president (Barack Obama will probably stay in office, but we like to pretend people at the White House actually visit our website): do nothing. Just sit back and relax, keep the money coming!