Protests in US Highlight Immigration Mess

There were protests in the US over the week-end that must have been the envy of every Birkenstock-wearing, beansprout-chewing peacenik. Half a million turned out in Los Angeles, according to the notoriously undercounting LAPD, to protest US immigration legislation currently making its way through Congress. If the “Peace Now” crowd could get numbers like that, there would be peace now. Unfortunately, immigration policy is a lot tougher than ending war. This issue will be an issue for years to come.

America is, and likes to remind itself that it is, a nation of immigrants, except for the Native American Tribes (who emigrated 20,000 or so years ago from Asia) and African Americans (who didn’t necessarily want to come). However, it is also a nation that has the raging panics over a possible terrorist attack by foreigners who sneak across the unguarded borders. It is also a nation that needs cheap labor to manicure its golf courses and clean its hotels. It is also a nation where the working poor need better wages. All of this comes to a head when one talks about immigration, legal and illegal.

There are, it is alleged, 11 million “undocumented workers,” or illegal aliens, in the US today. That would be about 3% of the population, and one is skeptical of the figure. Nonetheless, the magnitude of that number suggests that the House bill that makes every illegal alien a felon is not a serious attempt at policy but an election year photo-op. According to the Department of Justice, in 2004, nearly 7 million people were on probation, in jail or prison, or on parole at year-end 2004. To deal with the illegal immigrants as felons would require a 150% increase in the prison industry. No one wants to pay higher taxes for it. And the proposed fence along 1/3 of the Mexican border is even more laughable ("what about the other 2/3?" is the first question that comes to mind).

The president, however, is a much more realistic fellow on this score, and has proposed a guest worker plan. People can come to the US for a few years, work, send money back home, and maybe opt for a green card and citizenship. Not a bad idea, but what to do about the illegals who are already here? And what about their children, who constitutionally are US citizens? Mr. Bush gets fuzzy on this.

And what about the US citizens who are unemployed, or who are making less than they need to make in order to survive? Illegal immigrants reduce wages rates for legal aliens and citizens. Mr. Bush and his crew tell economic untruths when they say immigrants take jobs US citizens don’t want. The truth is they take jobs at rates of pay American find unacceptable. There’s a big difference between scrubbing toilets for $3 an hour and doing it for $30 an hour.

There is no single policy prescription that will resolve the issue. A better Mexican economy might help, and better border patrols might help, and more people in the immigration service might help, and a guest worker program might help. Then again, they might not. This problem will have to be solved piecemeal, and that won’t make anybody happy. Prepare for discussions that generate heat, and little light, between now and November.

© Copyright 2006 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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