Bush immigration plan is right idea (GREELEY ALERT)

Chicago Sun-Times ^ | January 23, 2004 | ANDREW GREELEY

[Chi-townChief]

President Bush is absolutely right on immigration. Work permits and quasi-amnesty for undocumented immigrants, especially Mexicans, are matters of simple justice. The United States is exploiting these people and owes them protection and the possibility of finding work. Catholics should be especially dedicated to justice for immigrants. The pope says so, and so do the bishops.

In the parish where I work in Tucson, there is a cross in memory of the 508 immigrants who died in Arizona last year in an attempt to do nothing more than our own ancestors did: to improve their lives and the lives of their families. Do Mexicans frequently die trying to find jobs in this country? Well, that's their problem. They should stay at home where they belong.

Americans are a strange people. We are all children of immigrants, even those who came over the Bering land bridge during the Ice Age. We celebrate our immigrant heritages. Yet xenophobia is a national disease. It's like the Irishman who got off the boat, walked down the dock and encountered a crowd of gesticulating, shouting Eye-talians. Sure, he said, 'tis a grand country altogether now, but aren't there too many furiners here?

Just now we are extremely suspicious of all ''furiners'' -- especially those with dark skins who talk funny and may be connected to al-Qaida. NAFTA, illegal immigrants and computer operators in India are taking away American jobs. Never mind that NAFTA and the immigrants did not affect American jobs before the current recession and that jobs for Indians is a kind of foreign aid for a very poor country. Never mind that a policy of returning tax dollars to the rich is not a policy to respond to unemployment. It's all the fault of the ''furiners.'' Throw them out of the country and forbid American companies from outsourcing jobs to ''furiners!'' Are there 5 million illegals in the United States? Pack them all up and send them back to Mexico and don't let them return.

Is it true that if you have a labor supply on one side of a border and a labor market on the other side, the border becomes a sieve? Well, take a leaf from the book of Ariel Sharon and build a high wall to keep them out.

Reaction to Bush's policy proposals demonstrates how complex the immigration issue is. The Wall Street Journal, not exactly well known for its concern about the poor, strongly endorses it. American capitalism needs a pool of cheap labor to do the work that other Americans won't do. On the other hand, the redneck wing of the president's party is furious. Many of them are saying that if the president pushes his policy, they will go fishing on Election Day. Some commentators think the proposed policy will win him Latino votes on Election Day. That is doubtless how Karl Rove, the president's campaign guru, is thinking, but he is almost certainly wrong.

Democrats don't seem likely to support the policy either. They realize that there is little campaign leverage in the immigration issue and are busy turning their back on their traditional support for free trade, an ignoble concession to the know-nothing bigots.

The proposed immigration policy may be window dressing. Unless he is willing to draw on his political capital, the president certainly doesn't have the votes to push the policy through Congress, despite the insistence of his supporters at the Wall Street Journal. Quasi-amnesty for Mexican illegals may be of the same order of media posturing as vouchers for Catholic schools, $1 billion to prepare people for marriage, and a trip to Mars. They get you media attention at no cost. People are not likely to remember them later or even to notice that nothing ever happens about them.

Is quasi-amnesty another of those media postures that keeps President Vicente Fox happy, appeals to the Latino community, re-creates the ''compassionate conservative image'' and about which nothing will ever have to be done?

I wouldn't be surprised. Yet on paper it does demonstrate a compassion for immigrants, which is not widespread in our nation of immigrants.

mailto:agreel@aol.com

[janetgreen]

Mr. Greeley thinks "Americans are a strange people".

We're strange because we resent that our country is being invaded by the third world?

[Missouri]

Catholics should be especially dedicated to justice for immigrants. The pope says so, and so do the bishops.

I have news for the good Father.The Constitution dictates laws in this country not Rome.

I grew up Catholic and it really hurts to see the church become so socialistic.

[Be active]

1. A recent story in the Los Angeles times (June, 2002) stated that 40% OF ALL WORKERS in L.A. County are working for cash and not paying taxes. This was because they are predominantly illegal immigrants, working without a green card.

2. Over 2/3's of all births in Los Angeles County are to illegal alien Mexicans on Medi-Cal whose births were paid for by taxpayers.

3. Nearly 25% of all inmates in California detention centers are Mexican nationals here illegally.

4. Over 100,000 illegal aliens in Los Angeles county are living in garages.

5. The FBI reports half of all gang members in Los Angeles are most likely illegal aliens from south of the border.

6. Nearly 60% of all occupants of HUD properties are illegal.

7. 21 radio stations in L.A. are Spanish speaking.

(All 7 from the Los Angeles Times)


Meanwhile the social and economic costs keep growing.

"The net cost of immigration is $70 billion a year." - George Borjas, Harvard professor. 2002 "Immigration is estimated to cost Californians $1,300 per household annually in additional taxes." -- Costly immigration, Paul Craig Roberts

"Immigration costs U.S. born workers $133 billion a year in job losses." - Economics professor George Borjas

The lifetime fiscal impact (taxes paid minus services used) for the average adult Mexican immigrant is a NEGATIVE $55,200, [Center for Immigration Studies, 2001].

Overall, migrants from around the world send $30 billion to relatives back home. $23 billion last year to Latin America and the Caribbean. $10 billion was sent home to Mexico alone. Filipino workers send $6 billion a year and 10,000 cash transfers are sent to China each month, averaging $2,000 to $3,000 each.

Over 70% of the United States annual population growth (and over 90% of California, Florida, and New York) results from immigration.

http://www.cis.org/

[EagleMamaMT]

Those are some eye-opening stats! Thank you for posting them.

[dagnabbit]

I wish our next chance to vote for a decent President was sooner than November 2008.

[junta]

How many million immigrants would Greeley like in his no doubt toney neighborhood? This guy is a character out of the novel "Camp of the Saints" a joke of a theologian, but of course he would not laugh if it were millions of Jihadis swarming our borders looking to specifically to displace pathetic old washed up hacks like Greeley himself.

[JustPiper]

The United States is exploiting these people

The US is exploiting its citizens. The illegals have exploited this country!

[Zipporah]

Yikes.. the Church has been absconded by globalists.