By Matt Towery
The debate about illegal immigration has hit Congress full force. In the end, the real issue in choosing between the president’s proposal to sanction illegal aliens with provisional worker status and the tougher counterproposal by many in Congress, is that in addressing the problem of undocumented workers, we somehow might harm American businesses and the economy.
Moreover, it’s loudly apparent that — as predicted months ago in this column — both the White House and the Republican-led Congress are late to the table in tackling this volatile situation.
I tend to side with those who call for a serious effort to close our borders. Yet, I’m not convinced that Bush’s proposal doesn’t contain some wise provisions that would benefit us all, including the most hardcore conservatives.
Consider the results of a recent InsiderAdvantage/Majority Opinion Research survey, conducted for the Washington, D.C.-based Southern Political Report.The poll surveyed nine states in the Deep South, where immigration issues are simmering. Forty-one percent of respondents favored cutting off benefits, such as Medicaid, to illegal aliens. Thirty-seven percent preferred that businesses that hire illegals be punished. The rest were undecided.
This was no small survey, with over 4,000 respondents and a margin of error of plus or minus 1.5 percent.
The results tell me that there has been no crystallization of public opinion on this issue, even in a region of the country where the number of illegal aliens has exploded.
This collective ambivalence on the part of Southerners may account for the willingness of the White House to chance a proposal that would offer a “temporary” work program as an essential component to any federal bill.
My inclination is to support the repatriation of illegal aliens to their countries of origin. Most of them work, but they don’t pay taxes, even though many frequent the basic tax-supported institutions of our society, including schools and hospital emergency rooms.
As a country based upon the rule of law, the United States must come to grips with the problem of illegal immigration. While immigrants have always provided a key constituency and an agile workforce, immigrants must come into this country in a LEGAL manner. The question remains, “If someone breaks the law to come into this country, how can I expect them to follow U.S. laws when they begin to live here?”
The United States must enact sound legislation and promote responsibility under law to order to curb illegal immigration. First, a wall must be built on the U.S. - Mexico border in order to provide some type of first line, physical security. Legislation has been in place for some time to start this project. Second, states must produce legislation in order to cut off illegal aliens from taxpayer benefits, including Medicare, Medicaid, Welfare, and other entitlements. Third, the government must apprehend and punish those who are responsible for hiring illegals. There must be safeguards in place, including a system used to positively match social security numbers to employees and check immigration status. Fourth, there must be legislation in place to either deport or arrest new illegal aliens.
While a guest worker program could be economically beneficial, there is an inherent problem with the whole mindset of hiring immigrants to work jobs Americans won’t. There is no reason why Americans can’t or won’t do jobs most immigrant workers do. Americans simply won’t take jobs immigrants could do simply because they may not pay enough or Americans feel the job is below them. In a country where everyone must have some type of job to make a decent living, the entitlement mindset of people in this country has contributed to the illegal immigration problem.
We must keep in mind that people in this country are not entitled to any type of standard of living, nor are they entitled to so-called entitlement programs. People are only entitled to pursue happiness. Nowhere does it say Americans are entitled to $10 per hour jobs or big screen TVs.
April 3rd, 2006 at 7:51 am
As one who grew up in West Texas and worked aside illegals, I can vouch that most of them are great people that realized how much better life would be if they could only make into the states. Sadly enough, all these reforms that you have listed here would not change the fact that these immigrants would still have a much better life here in the states than in, say, Mexico.
The answer lies in part with the way we handle these immigrants - the US policy. But a better solution is to help Mexico. NAFTA itself should allow us to tap the cheaper workforce of these workers and profit both ourselves and Mexicans. For those that are worried about the outsourcing and insourcing of cheap labor, I only have to say that we are at very low unemployment figures. The standard of living to which we are accustomed is due in part to cheaper US products made available by cheap Mexican workers.
The current nationalization process seems almost beyond repair and needs a serious overhaul. Having lived among Latin Americans for two years and having grown up in the Southern United States, I can testify that there are many wonderful people that love and contribute to our great country. We need to let them in, have them pay taxes, insure they are documented, work and contribute, but keep out those that could seriously harm our country.
Although there is no simple answer to any of these issues, I hope that our politicians can understand the basic true principles mentioned above, and not make policy based on their constituency’s fears.
April 3rd, 2006 at 9:07 am
I understand completely what you’re saying here. I have no problem with immigrants who want to have a better life in this country. The problem is that millions enter this country illegally. I too have grown up around immigrants and have many people of latino heritage in my family. The difference is that many I knew were I either born here or moved into the CONUS from United States territories.
The fact is we must do something to prevent people from crossing our border illegally, while respecting the right of people to move to this country to provide a better life for their families. Immigrants have provided a part of the strong backbone of American work ethic, I would just hope they came here in a legal manner. How can I expect one to become a law-following member of American society if they cannot even cross the border legally?
We must remember that America is a country of laws, not men. We must enforce the immigration laws on the books already and punish those who break our immigration laws.