The politics of immigration

U.S. News & World Report ^ | Jan 12, 2004 | Lou Dobbs

[neverdem]

In his year-end news conference, President Bush called for an "immigration policy that helps match any willing employer with any willing employee." We already know there are plenty of employers in this country willing to break the law and hire illegal aliens. And there are 8 million to 12 million illegal aliens already living in this country, so we know there are plenty of willing employees.

I'm sure the White House staff will clean up the language a bit in the coming months. But for all the world, the president's idea of an immigration policy sounds like a national job fair for those businesses and farms that don't want to pay a living wage and for those foreigners who correctly think U.S. border security is a joke and who are willing to break our laws to live here.

Bush's plan would be the most aggressive immigration reform since the controversial bill signed by President Reagan in 1986 granting amnesty to millions of illegal aliens. That was widely criticized for rewarding illegal behavior and virtually ignoring those who had been waiting for legal entry into the United States. The chief Senate sponsor of the bill, Alan Simpson from Wyoming, admitted at the time that the legislation's effects were unclear. "I don't know what the impact will be," he said, "but this is the humane approach to immigration reform." The former senator and all the rest of us now know what the legislation's effects were. Eighteen years later, there are an estimated 8 million to 12 million illegal aliens in this country.

And now there are those in Congress who want to solve the problem by simply making illegal aliens legal. Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona is sponsoring the Border Security and Immigration Improvement Act to make it easier for foreign workers seeking U.S. employment opportunities and to simplify the permanent- residency application process. Similar legislation, the Agricultural Job Opportunity, Benefits, and Security Act of 2003, is sponsored by Republican Sen. Larry Craig of Idaho and Democratic Sen. Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts. It would allow undocumented farmworkers and their families to qualify for permanent residency after a specific tenure of work.

And Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah has introduced a bill called the Dream Act that would allow states to grant in-state tuition rates to children of illegal aliens. Meanwhile, out-of-state parents of legal residents would get no such break. Each of these politicians is doing nothing more than pandering to the business and agricultural lobbies, and none of these legislative initiatives addresses the economic and social impact of their passage. The powerful lobbying groups have a lot to gain from illegal immigration, while the burden of the real costs falls on the rest of us taxpayers.

Lost wages. Over the past 10 years, more than 2 million low-skilled American workers have been displaced from their jobs. And each 10 percent increase in the immigrant workforce decreases U.S. wages by 3.5 percent. Steve Camarota of the Center for Immigration Studies says our lawmakers don't understand what unchecked illegal immigration is doing to workers. "To them it looks like immigrants are doing jobs nobody wants," he says. "But what they really mean is that they are doing jobs that they as middle- and upper-class people don't want."

[neverdem]

Lou Dobbs is pretty good. He's one of the few that I can tolerate on CNN.

We're a nation of immigrants, but when is enough, enough? There were about 130 million Americns in the 1930's.

The 1960 final census count was 174,323,175. The population of the US on April 1, 2000 was 281,421,906. The former number was from the Encyclopedia Americana of 1970, and the latter was just googled.

Such exponential growth will lead to more government, more laws restricting freedom and more balkanization, as if we don't have enough already. Can you imagine the US with half a billion or a billion people?

If a porous border leads to another disaster, I would be quite surprised if there wasn't hell to pay.

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[cyborg]

Again, why is Bush kissing Fox's a$$ so much? What makes Mexico so special? If we didn't have illegal immigration there would be room for everyone. America was fine with legal immigrants by themselves.

[neverdem]

I didn't know what to do with a "post dated" article like this, i.e. Jan 12, 2004. It feels like a post dated check, but the article was too timely to ignore. Any advice is welcome.

[Missouri]

Ping.

[o_zarkman44]

When American citizens are having problems finding jobs illegals are competing and denying American citizens gainful employment. We have a lot of welfare freeloaders who can also go back to work. Eliminate the easy opportunity for illegals to find work and they will be discouraged from entering our country. Also putting Americans back to work will help our own economy. What is so bad about hiring Americans first? Not a thing.

[neverdem]

Again, why is Bush kissing Fox's a$$ so much? What makes Mexico so special? If we didn't have illegal immigration there would be room for everyone. America was fine with legal immigrants by themselves.

The Lord knows. Cynics will say he's just pandering for the Hispanic/Latino vote and wants to satisfy big business cronies that want cheap labor. I'm fairly sure, because he considers himself to a Texan, he also wants to extend the hand of friendship to fellow Texans with Mexican ancestry. Jeb's wife is from Mexico, IIRC. Lord, I don't know the answer to your first question.

Mexico is special because it's on the border, so the relationship is almost intimate, with big bucks in trade.

[cyborg]

I entirely understand the reasons like being Texan and the special relationship with Mexico that Texas has,etc. Maybe I'm a cynic then, and think he's greasing Fox's palms.

[jordan8]

More than three quarters of Americans say we need stricter controls on immigration. However, a Chicago Council on Foreign Relations survey found that only 14 percent of our political leaders agreed that current immigration levels represent a critical threat. I can think of no issue on which there is greater disconnect between our political leaders and the American middle class than illegal immigration.

Immigration policy isn't about economics it is about race, racial politics, and power. Mere economics wouldn't produce the discrepancy described above. The political leaders live in a closed world where opposition to immigration is politically incorrect because most of the immigrants are non-white, and politicians as a class are terrified of being politically incorrect. They fear the arbiters of political correctness far more than the voters. That's how the system works.

[Richard-SIA]

Every illegal in the country already has a clear "legal status", it's simple.
They are CRIMINALS, who have invaded our sovereign nation.
They committed a crime, they entered this country illegally!
Every one of them should be deported, many should spend time in prison for their violent criminal acts.

Some are also "economic refugees" too lazy to make the necessary effort required to improve their own countries economic or political policies, but quite willing to exploit the sacrifices of OUR forefathers and citizens.
If allowed to remain in the U.S. many of these people may assimilate to the point of being Mexican-Americans.
They tend to clump together into their own isolated crime ridden "Barrio" communities, maintaining their own language and culture, so never having to fully become true citizens.
Their children may become Americans without the hyphen, if we would stop allowing schools to prop up their subculture with "Bilingual education". But the parents rarely fully assimilate into American culture.

Many more are simply cynical exploitive thieves, with no intention of becoming Americans.
They are here to grab all the benefits and cash they can, any way they can.
Phony ID's and identity theft are routine. Thievery, drug dealing and prostitution are only means to pursue their goal.
Our laws mean nothing to these criminals, if they find themselves in real trouble they flee back to Mexico, until they feel the heat from law enforcement has subsided.

Others are true invaders, intent on illegally affecting state and U.S. policy.
Many of this group have radical agendas that should be recognized as sedition and pending terrorism, at the least.
Some openly promote the seizure of U.S. lands, by any means they can carry out!
Too many of this group are actually operating with the blessing and active assistance of the Mexican Government, or factions within it.
This qualifies as an act of aggression, and should be recognized as an act of war.

Most of the invaders fit into more than one of the above categories in different aspects of their lives.

ANY legislation that even hints at ignoring the above reality will only make the problem much worse.

It is no surprise that we cannot control the borders of Iraq or Afghanistan to keep terrorist out, we cannot even control our own border, where we have the "home-court advantage".
Will we give up in Iraq and allow the terrorist to destroy the effort we have made there?
Will we surrender our own borders and let the third world invade at will, to the point of destroying our national identity and culture?
That is what the current lack of enforcement of our immigration law amounts to.

Any legislation to reward these criminals for successfully avoiding deportation up to now is nothing less than treason.
Such a bill coming from John McPain is no surprise to me, but Larry Craig should know better!

Illegal entry into the U.S. should immediately be made a felony on the first offense. Deportation and heavy fines should be mandatory. If the invader cannot pay we should subtract funds from the originating countries balance of trade! Law Enforcement should not be given any option to ignore illegal immigration status.
We must stop making it more advantageous to be an illegal invader than a citizen! No more "free" medical care or education for illegals! Illegal entry is NOT a victim-less crime, it affects all law abiding citizens.
We should cease allowing "refugee status" for anyone, if your own country is a mess, fix it yourselves, instead of taking the easy way out and running off to the U.S.

At this point we should suspend ALL immigration, from ALL countries.
We need a break, time to assimilate the "immigrants" already here, legal or not.
Many foreign governments, particularly Mexico, make no legitimate effort to prevent their citizens sneaking away and into the U.S.
In fact many countries actively support this invasion of the U.S., with Mexico only being the most visible culprit.
It was recently reported that monies sent back to Mexico by these invaders is now Mexico's largest source of foreign income, exceeding even their oil exports!

Legal immigration should only be allowed to resume, if ever, after a country has implemented clear and sincere steps to halt all illegal emigration.
At the least we should immediately reduce the quota of legal immigrants from any country by a set ratio to the number of illegals coming from that country.

We should immediately establish an unvaried policy that closes the loophole allowing invaders to exploit babies as a means of gaining "resident alien" status.
If a kid is born here they are a citizen, per the constitution.
Fine, they can stay and be put up for adoption, but the parents are child abusers, and should be permanently deported!
Alternately they can be sent back to their country of origin with the parents after being fingerprinted, then allowed to return after they are of age to decide where they wish to live.
This is not as desirable as adoption, we will still end up with poorly educated immigrants with no real concept of American culture.

We are spending billions of dollars and hundreds of American lives to make many countries around the world better places to live.
We fight wars on others behalf, we spend billions in foreign aid.
We should not also have to deal with the constant drain on our domestic resources and suffer American jobs lost to illegal "undocumented workers" in addition to these sacrifices!

OK, end of rant, for now.

[A2J]

The former senator and all the rest of us now know what the legislation's effects were. Eighteen years later, there are an estimated 8 million to 12 million illegal aliens in this country.

"Those who fail to learn from the past are doomed to repeat it."

In other words: "We're doomed."

[LibertyAndJusticeForAll]

"I'm sure the White House staff will clean up the language a bit in the coming months. But for all the world, the president's idea of an immigration policy sounds like a national job fair for those businesses and farms that don't want to pay a living wage and for those foreigners who correctly think U.S. border security is a joke and who are willing to break our laws to live here. "

So, will legal citizens of this country be excluded from this national job fair that matches employees to employers?
What will all this mean to the minimum wage?

[lonevoice]

If I'm understanding what some of the so far sketchy details about this plan are saying, an employer can advertise for and legally hire non-American workers (who will primarily be from Mexico) as long as the employer can show that no Americans want the job(s). The easiest way for unscrupulous employers to profit from this is to lower the payscale for all jobs. When qualified Americans don't accept jobs at the new, lower rates of pay the door is open to hire Mexican workers instead. Heck, why not just make all jobs minimum wage?

Why is this happening?

[FITZ]

So, will legal citizens of this country be excluded from this national job fair that matches employees to employers?

I wonder why American welfare recipients and some of the inner city chronically unemployed couldn't be included --- considered first in this new government job matching program. Why only for a certain type of foreigner? We're next to and trade with Canada --- yet we expect them to follow our laws.

[B4Ranch]

Fact: What was supposed to be a one and only time amnesty by Reagan has resulted in 10 to 14 million criminals living in America. They were waiting for the 2nd and last amnesty.

Questions: Ask our deceptive President when will we have the 3rd and final amnesty. What will the numbers be and what color flag will be flying over the White House when it happens?

[neverdem]

Maybe I'm a cynic then, and think he's greasing Fox's palms

There's no overt reason, other than Fox's bully pulpit. Mexican presidents only have a single six year term.

[boris]

Why is this post excerpted? Do we have a legal problem with the source?

[neverdem]

I think I goofed, confusing it with Newsweek, which is a subsidiary of the Washington Post, IIRC. I was in a rush, and I wanted to be safe.