The Democrats like to speak only of immigrants and never want to preface the word with “illegal” referring to those people who entered our country improperly. They like to brand Republicans as “immigrant haters“ because of their distaste for those who come improperly into the country, especially during the Biden Administration that flooded the country with people who had no legal right to be here. Recently, I was reminded of why we love immigrants who are here through the legal process.
You may not know the name Leonard Chess. You certainly don’t know his given name Lejzor Szmuel Czyż. He came here with his family in 1928 and particularly with his brother, Phil, from Poland. As I said, you may not know them but believe me you do know them. They brought to the world some of the most famous names in music that led to the creation of a large portion of the music you listen to every day.
The Chess brothers lived in Chicago and were supporting black artists when their music was still known as “race music.” They booked these artists at their club, the Macomba Lounge. They decided to invest in a small record label known as Aristocrat Records. Leonard recorded a little-known artist, Muddy Waters. Soon the ambitious brothers took over the record company and renamed it Chess Records, one of the most historic names in the history of recorded music.
The Chess brothers were responsible for giving us the birth of Chicago Blues. They recorded people like Howlin’ Wolf, Bo Diddley, Willie Dixon and more. If you don’t know these names, I can assure you they were worshipped by a few guys named John and Paul and Mick and Keith.
The brothers then decided to lurch the world into the era of rock ‘n’ roll signing in 1955, based on the suggestion of Muddy Waters, a person who became known as the “father of rock and roll,” Chuck Berry. He still has arguably the greatest rock and roll song ever, Johnny B. Goode. And without Chuck, we may never have had Elvis. These Polish immigrants with the funny sounding names changed the world. They took chances and recognized talent that others didn’t.
Times have not changed much. Recently Forbes Magazine released a list of 125 foreign born individuals and now U.S. citizens who became billionaires. Most of these people made their fortunes here in the U.S. Some came here seeded with financial successes from their home country and expanded their success in the entrepreneurial capital of the world. That is why they came to our country.
There is currently a group of tech companies known as the “Magnificent Seven.” Their success drives our stock markets. Of the seven, two were founded by foreign-born individuals: Tesla and Nvidia. One Alphabet (Google) was co-founded by a foreign-born person (Sergey Brin) and is now run by a person from India.
Democrats talk about the successes of immigrants like this but never state that the ones who come here sans the legal process will never achieve the true American dream because they will always be living in the shadows. Dems attacked ICE for raids like a recent one at a California firm that yielded fourteen underage workers. Do you think those people were being paid within the rules of California labor laws?
Democrats tell us that we will not get our fruit picked without immigrants (the illegal ones here). They never speak of the H-2A program that has been in place since 1986 and has roughly 380,000 participants. The H-2A program exists to address labor shortages in the agricultural sector when U.S. domestic workers are not available to perform crucial temporary or seasonal work. There is not a higher demand for participation in the program because the farmers are using illegals instead of participants in the program.
I recently suggested to officials at the Labor Dept. that they work with the farm owners to legalize the people who are not currently participating in the program. The idea is that the U.S. offer amnesty to any illegals current working on farms if they sign up for the H-2A program. This would entail the worker having to agree to return to their home country when their work is done. Under the terms of the program someone can only be here for ten months in a year. While the workers are here, they are fully legal and covered by all labor laws. A nice trade-off.
Unless people are here legally, they are never going to advance beyond low-level workers. They are not here innocently. They are breaking labor laws, tax laws and driving illegally. Democrats seem fine with that because they want cheap labor for their businesses and people to work in their homes for below–market wages.
The people who come illegally are never going to become the next owner of a major business. As long as the Dems can get some registered to vote and then ballot harvest their votes, they can maintain power and suppress the masses. The Dems talk about caring for them. The supposed caring people are those college-educated Leftists who want to complain about their rent-controlled apartment while sipping their morning Cinnamon Latte Twist from Starbucks.
The border has been secured. That was the highest concern for Republicans. Now that portion of the immigration issue has been resolved, President Trump has the leeway to negotiate a more comprehensive immigration bill. A resolution for long-time illegal immigrant residents has to be done. As well as what has become known as the Dreamers. Our short-term labor issue has to be resolved to aid some of our key industries. Trump is in the driver’s seat on all this.
The only way to really treat immigrants fairly is to bring them here legally. Then they make their lives better and they make America better. Joe Biden did not understand that. Leonard Chess did.
