Why we need an(other) illegal alien president

Here's part of what President George W. Bush said yesterday in Irvine, California (from whitehouse.gov; emphasis mine):

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Now, the problem we have is you got some person out there in central Texas needing a worker, and he can't find a worker, an American. So he says, look, anybody help me find somebody, I got something to do. This economy is growing, see -- 4.7 unemployment rate nationwide. Pretty good numbers. And people are having trouble finding work that Americans won't do. And that's a fact of life. And so he says, why don't you send somebody over to help me?

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This caused CNN to ask the question:

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Are there really jobs that Americans just won't do?

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Several people say yes:

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Pete Haran, vice president of New Jersey-based landscaper Lipinski Landscaping, has relied on the guest worker program, which grants temporary work visas, for the past 10 years....

"Before the H2B program I was spending thousands on ads trying to hire people," said Haran. "College students don't even want to do that kind of work, and I kind of blame the parents," Haran said....

"The situation on the ground looks the way it does because we've had a broken immigration system for years," said Craig Regelbrugge, senior director of government relations at the American Nursery & Landscape Association.

"We estimate right now that 70 percent of the labor force working in this industry lacks proper immigration status. The idea that we can work without these people is just crazy," Regelbrugge said, referring to the immigration debate in Congress....

"To say the current program falls short is an understatement. The current system is not serving anyone's purposes except for smugglers and unscrupulous employers," according to John Gay, vice president for government affairs at the National Restaurant Association, which represents restaurant chains.

"We don't have people here to do the jobs that need to be done," said Laura Reiff, co-chair of the Essential Worker Immigration Coalition and co-chair of the Business Immigration Group at Greenberg Traurig, one of the nation's largest law firms.

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Some say no:

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"I do think in many respects that argument is a little overblown," said Jon Dougherty, a policy analyst with Freedom Alliance, a conservative nonprofit foundation. He argues that the problem, instead, is that the influx of immigrants has depressed wages and made it too difficult for many Americans to compete with undocumented workers willing to work for less pay.

"It bothers me that people will pay immigrants below-market wages because it undercuts American employment and it exploits immigrants," Dougherty said. "Americans will not do jobs they cannot afford to do," he argues, because "the wages have been depressed so much, it's not really worth it."

But, he believes, "for the right money people will work at any job."

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There's been a lot of talk about the specific jobs that Americans supposedly won't do - agricultural workers, construction workers, restaurant employees, and others. But there is another job that Americans won't do. Here are some parts [1] [2] [3] of the job description (emphasis mine):

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We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

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The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America....

Before he enter on the Execution of his Office, he shall take the following Oath or Affirmation:

"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."

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The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States; he may require the Opinion, in writing, of the principal Officer in each of the executive Departments, upon any subject relating to the Duties of their respective Offices....

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Yet we apparently can't find an American to do this job (emphasis mine):

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Evidence of an absence of a border is not limited to the presence of millions of illegal aliens in the United States. There have been 216 incursions into the USA by the Mexican Military over the past ten years. Our Border Patrol Agents and US Park Rangers have been shot at, wounded and killed by gunfire from Mexico. Two-dozen border tunnels have been discovered since the 9/11 attacks. Copies of the Koran have been found in the Arizona desert. The lack of control over our border is a problem too serious and too large for the federal government to ignore - or so one would think.

In spite of an increase in news coverage on the “border” and illegal immigration, no meaningful or decisive action has taken place - Congress and the President have abdicated their most fundamental constitutional duty.

Yes, there is plenty of grandstanding, artful double- talk, and impressive dog-and-pony border operations put on for the media. All of this is aimed at soothing an increasingly frustrated citizenry. Meanwhile the invasion of illegal aliens continues.

Decades of dereliction of duty by our federal government has permitted this crisis to swell and its consequences to spread far beyond border states to places like New Jersey, Tennessee, and Illinois. Border Patrol Agents have done their best to protect us with the equipment, manpower and restrictive rules of engagement given to them. The culpability lies with the federal government’s lack of priority, support and resolve. They have cheapened the efforts and sacrifice of our brave lawmen. They have left the United States vulnerable, particularly in light of what has been coined “the new normal” post 9/11 era. It is easier to cross the border than it is to board an airplane.

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So, if you have a job that Americans won't do, then what should you do about it? Remember what our President said in Irvine yesterday:

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Now, the problem we have is you got some person out there in central Texas needing a worker, and he can't find a worker, an American. So he says, look, anybody help me find somebody, I got something to do. This economy is growing, see -- 4.7 unemployment rate nationwide. Pretty good numbers. And people are having trouble finding work that Americans won't do. And that's a fact of life. And so he says, why don't you send somebody over to help me?

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The proposal of an illegal alien President is not something original to me. From bestandworst.com:

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Mexicans in California are holding a boycott because ILLEGAL ALIEN MEXICANS will NOT be getting drivers licenses....What next, voting rights? how about an ILLEGAL ALIEN for President? Think how politically correct it would be.

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From ezinearticles.com:

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As the percentage of illegal immigration increases make mandatory representation by percentage in Congress and why don't we have an illegal alien President too, I mean that is really unfair, we are such bigots I swear; those poor darlings.

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And we already have one announced candidate:

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I could study law and polit(r)ic(k)s and run for president of the US--problem is that they might realize that I'm not a white, ivy league, polo playing, super-rich American. But I think the country could do well with an illegal alien president from Jamaica [no, my platform will not be based on legalizing pot...Jamaicans aren't all about weed you know!].

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And if we appoint an illegal alien President, we can potentially save a lot of money. As of 2001, the Presidential salary was set at $400,000. I suspect that we can get an illegal alien President to work for $25,000 - the salary paid to Andrew Johnson and his predecessors, all the way back to George Washington. A nice budget savings - when will the Republicans and Democrats come out in its support?

By the way, we may have had an illegal alien President already:

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Some historians believe that President Andrew Jackson was not born in the United States. He always claimed to have been born in the Carolinas in 1767. But there have always been rumors that Jackson was actually born at sea on the trip over from Ireland (based on incongruities in the time line of his life that he pushed when he was running for office). If Jackson was born at sea, that would make him foreign born and constitutionally forbidden from being President.

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And:

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Some scholars believe Andrew Jackson was born at sea in 1755, not 1767, and thus was not eligible to be president of the United States, a somewhat moot point. However, to this day, at least two states, North Carolina, and South Carolina, claim his birthplace, about a mile apart.

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POSTSCRIPT

I subsequently found another post on this topic. From Senor's Tales of Yankee Power:

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...[I]n looking over the potential candidates for the 2008 Presidential election, it seems very few Americans want the job.

And so I think the perfect solution to this situation is to elect an illegal alien to be our next president. Illegal aliens do the work that Americans don't want to do. And an illegal alien president will do the work that an American president doesn't want to do, like straigten out Social Security and Medicare, get us out of Iraq, creat[e] jobs for the middle class, and balance the budget....

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From the Ontario Empoblog (Latest OVVA news here)