Arkansas Blog

Oh, the people commenting on the article hate this study. Nothing will change their hate-filled minds.

yes our hate filled minds hate working for less. I can only speak for the construction industry, but I hate what illegal immigration has done to wages and good quality work. I can't compete when they under bid me by thousands of dollars. I have to pay my legal employees what they are worth or I will lose them. All I can hope is their crappy workmanship catches up with them. Work is really getting hard to find.

soundman, I've been hearing about this recession thingy, and that over-building stuff (assuming you are in northwest Arkansas). You think that might have something to do with your troubles.

No, I'm not in north west Arkansas. I work in central Arkansas, but I have traveled outside that region for work. Yes, the housing mess has really cut into work production, but trying to compete with people who work for poverty wages is making it twice as hard to find work. Hopefully people will start spending there tax returns soon and give us some business.

How does a drug study end up being about immigration? If the illegal rate were significantly higher would the immigrant information have been released? Does the release of the seemingly unrelated immigrant data bring into question the researcher's motives? Is an immigrant being held on DUI also going to admit to being here illegally? What follow up was done to confirm the honesty of the immigrants in regards to their legal status in this country? Why when the university releases data the blog doesn't like you refer to it as the University of Walton (or some derivative) but here you left off your normally catty remarks?

ironfortified,

Let me take a crack at as many of your questions as I can answer.

"How does a drug study end up being about immigration?" Wrong question. The study asked questions about immigration status while studying drug and alcohol use. It's not _about_ immigration, but it asked the questions and now you have the answers.

"If the illegal rate were significantly higher would the immigrant information have been released?" Yes.

"Does the release of the seemingly unrelated immigrant data bring into question the researcher's motives?" No.

"Is an immigrant being held on DUI also going to admit to being here illegally?" Maybe, maybe not. If he or she is convinced that information is not being given to the authorities, probably.

"What follow up was done to confirm the honesty of the immigrants in regards to their legal status in this country?" Good question.

"Why when the university releases data the blog doesn't like you refer to it as the University of Walton (or some derivative) but here you left off your normally catty remarks?" Sometimes UAF is clearly carrying Walton's water, for instance, when the Walton-funded Department of Educational Deformation comes up with crappy research that falls in line with Walton family and Walton Foundation goals. That's a good time to point out their bias with "Walton U." Other times, they aren't.

And one final note: Don Tyson says, "Let's you and that Mexican guy over there fight." Wise up.

The headline says Meth is responsible for most of the crime in Washington County.
It is difficult for me to understand the kind of society that certain people are creating by allowing illegal immigration to continue unchecked. Every sovereign nation on this earth wants to control who enters their borders.

Illegal immigration has a great deal to do with the increased criminal activity in NW Arkansas. Where does this meth come from, and who distributes it? If I might quote the DEA.

"Mexico-based and California-based Mexican traffickers control "super labs" and produce the majority of methamphetamine available throughout the United States. A "super lab" is defined as a laboratory capable of producing 10 pounds or more of methamphetamine within a production cycle. The supply of methamphetamine in the United States is supplemented by multiple "small toxic laboratories" (STLs), which are generally not affiliated with major drug trafficking organizations. No precise breakdown is available, but current drug and lab seizure data suggests that roughly two-thirds of the methamphetamine used in the United States comes from larger labs, increasingly in Mexico, and that probably about one-third of the methamphetamine consumed in this country comes from medium-to-small domestic laboratories.

Mexican criminal organizations control most mid-level and retail methamphetamine distribution in the Pacific, Southwest, and West Central regions of the United States, as well as much of the distribution in the Great Lakes and Southeast regions. Mexican midlevel distributors sometimes supply methamphetamine to Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs (OMGs) and Hispanic gangs for retail distribution throughout the country."

soundman, you aren't competing with"people who work for poverty wages", you're competing with the scumbag asshole contractors who pay those wages. I did this kind of work in NWA for over 30 years and it used to frustrate me that some peckerwood would build an out house and then call himself a carpenter, hang a door on said out house, become a "finish" carpenter, throw $50 worth of tools in his pickup and drive to Fauxetville and work for $5/hr when I was "asking" $15. I wound up telling folks that they could hire the cheap dude, but if they called me to fix the screw-ups, it'd cost them $30/hr. That apparently suicidal philosophy worked for me 'til my heart attacked me a while back and put "consultant" on my business card. I did work a few jobs with immigrant subs and I found them, for the most part, very willing and able to do good work and receptive to teaching--unfortunately, I took French in college instead of Spanish(who knew, 40 years ago?). I do, my brother, understand your frustration.