The Market is Everything

Apparently smugglers working the Arizona border are more interested in Chinese (at $40,000 per person) than Latin Americans (at $2,000 per person).  The market rules.

Stephen Ceasar, writing in today's New York Times talks about "In Arizona, a Stream of Illegal Immigrants From China".

In fiscal 2009, 332 Chinese immigrants were caught in the Border Patrol’s Tucson sector, up from 30 the previous year, Border Patrol figures showed. And in what could be a sign of a record-breaking pace for this year, agents in the Border Patrol’s Tucson sector arrested 281 Chinese immigrants from Oct. 1 to Dec. 31, the first quarter of the current fiscal year.

That is an indirect way to measure what is happening.  Of course maybe the number is the same and Customs and Border Patrol is just ten times more efficient.

The author quotes Ms Patsy Lee, president of the Tucson Chinese Association, as saying:

The Chinese youth love the freedom Americans have.  They still see America as the land of promise.

As an American I take that as a complement.

But, the fact is, these folks are queue-jumpers and that is unfair to those who play by the rules.  Part of what makes these United States work is the idea that we play by the rules, the Bulger Brothers notwithstanding.

Regards  —  Cliff

PS:  I got this somewhere else, but I found the link at the Ann Althouse blog.  Thanks, Ann.