Recently, presidential candidate Herman Cain called for solving illegal immigration by securing our border with a moat filled with alligators and an electrified “great wall of China.” Throughout his campaign, Cain has emphasized his “problem solving” abilities and business experience with Godfather’s Pizza.
As a civilized society we need to seek civilized solutions that meet the needs of our free market economy. We fail to see how anyone can seriously consider alligator filled moats and a new “wall of China” a practical solution to our broken immigration system.
One need only look at the worker shortages in Georgia and Arizona agriculture sectors to see the dire consequences of enforcement-only strategies that don’t address the needs of America’s economy. 40% of Yuma Arizona’s lettuce crop went un-harvested after 100,000 Hispanics fled Arizona following passage of SB1070, even though Yuma has unemployment rates rivaling those of the great depression. Georgia passed a similar law, and now farmers are struggling to find migrant farm workers and now must decide which crops to leave rot. According to a recent study by the Cato institute, for every farm worker in the field, another 3.1 workers depending upon their work. Ironically the fast food industry is one of the sectors of our economy that is heavily dependent on undocumented immigrant workers, so we can’t help but wonder if Cain’s wealth from this industry was built on undocumented immigrant labor!
We call on Herman Cain to drop his candidacy for President. His recent comments and lack of practical solutions to solving illegal immigration show he’s not a serious candidate. Many Hispanics find his recent comments comparing immigrants to “invading Huns” offensive, and also insensitive when thousands of immigrants died crossing the desert. We’re looking for practical and humane solutions, and find Cain’s pandering to xenophobes disgusting. Apparently nativist tea has been served up at many tea parties! Hispanics are a key swing vote, and whichever GOP candidate succeeds in winning the nomination cannot win the general election without the Hispanic vote. Cain needs to leave the field open to more serious candidates.