Bush Presses for Immigration Reform

With the war in Iraq-Nam hanging around his neck like a noose, President George “LBJ” Bush is trying desperately to find some kind of domestic issue upon which to build a positive legacy. This week, he suggested that immigration reform legislation might just be the ticket. The latest idea floated from the Oval Office includes a fine for illegals and a guest worker program. Any final resolution of this issue will require an acknowledgement of facts that no one in the debate appears to accept.

First and foremost, America is going to attract immigrants from around the world but especially from Mexico and Central America because of its wealth. Until such time as a worker in Guadalajara makes roughly the same wage as a worker in Gary, Indiana, a great many Mexicans (and others) will do whatever they must to get a slice of the American pie. In so doing, they are bringing their labor and human capital to the US and that is inherently beneficial to the US. Immigration is a positive for all involved.

Second, illegal immigrants face horrendous exploitation and no one but criminals benefit from having an illegal immigrant population. Some employers are quite happy to pay sub-minimum wages to illegal workers knowing full well that there won’t be any complaints for fear of deportation. Undocumented workers, if one prefers that term, can’t get car insurance but drive anyway and can cause accidents; can’t get health insurance, but use emergency rooms despite that; and often work as day laborers who don’t get paid at the end of the day. The claim they are doing jobs Americans won’t do is only partially correct; they do jobs Americans won’t do for the wages offered. Their presence depresses US citizens' take home pay at the lower end of the skills table.

Third, the presence of immigrants legal or illegal will alter American culture no matter what. Just as the waves of Irish and Italians before changed things in the US, Spanish-speaking immigrants from soccer playing countries will change the way things are done in the US. What would New York or Chicago be without Irish bars and Italian pizzerias? When the signs outside a store read “No dogs or Irish,” the arrival of immigrants appeared to be a threat, but in fact, it proved to be an enrichment of American society. (The dogs, however, have yet to be given credit for their contributions to a better America).

So the facts suggest that a substantial guest worker program is needed to legalize the vast numbers of people who ought to come here (both for the benefit of the US and their home countries). People who cannot prove their legal status, and those who employ them, need to be treated fairly but firmly – deportation isn’t always the best solution, but it can’t be ruled out. And making sure that they arrive with the attitude that becoming an American requires some adaptation to the existing culture (and America is diverse if nothing else, making it pretty easy) rounds out the requirements of any policy. Getting all of this into a single bill is going to require compromise all around – something that doesn’t appear very likely.

© Copyright 2007 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

Home