The Immigration Hobgoblin

Immigration is the great bogeyman of politicians these days. It is responsible for all our social ills, from our crumbling schools to our crowded hospitals to the fact that I now have to dial '1' to receive service in English! Oh the humanity! It's going to be our downfall, because while you were content to just watch '101 Biggest Celebrity Oops!' on your HDTV (or you just had your attention held by that new shiny object with its purty colors), Pedro stole your job and Ahmed bought some fertilizer for his spiffy new bomb. You were asleep at the wheel, while our country was hijacked by foreigners (but not by Foreigner--"Hot Blooded" still is not our national anthem)!



This is an exaggeration of some of the reaction, but not by much. The hyperbole that has flown around this issue has truly been astounding, and demagogues like Lou Dobbs (who amazingly does not understand the basic concepts of international trade), Pat Buchanan, and Jeff Sessions have seized the moment. They prey on a populace that doesn't understand foreign policy and so can't really arrive at any solution to the situation in Iraq and elsewhere, but understand that those darn brown people are moving into their neighborhood! It's unsafe, dammit! So put up that Southern Wall, and keep 'em outta here!

(And forget about the fact about how easy it is to come in through Canada, and that Asians and European communities make up a significant part of the immigrant population. And that the terrorists of 9/11 entered the country through legal processes. These are convenient points to forget.)

And so we have events like what occurred last week, as the Senate debated their plan for comprehensive immigration reform. But the demagogues were able to truly get their message out: it was merely a cover for "amnesty"! I'm not even sure what that means, but I got to tell my Senator that I don't like the sound of that! It's the one sin that Reagan committed in his Presidency! So we had thousands of people jamming the phonelines on Capitol Hill parroting back this claim of "amnesty", coupled with the position that "we need to enforce the laws we already have on the books", without pausing to think what their solution would be.

What was their plan to deal with the 12 million illegal immigrants already in this country?



It sure would be hard to deport the whole lot of them. The logistics of such a maneuver are mind-boggling. And that doesn't even take into account the economic fallout. Yes, the influx of cheap labor keeps a lot of these low-skilled jobs at a stagnant wage label, but the consequence is that prices have remained low. For example, if we got rid of all the illegal immigrants working in the fields, not only would we have a whole hell of a lot less food available at our MegaMarkets, it'd be a lot more expensive as well. The other key area where immigrants help the economy is payment for Social Security--as the Boomers age, we'll have to begin payments for their entitlements, and without the input from immigrants we'd have a significant shortfall in that regard.

As for "enforcing those laws already on the books"--care to name a few? This is reminiscent of the claims during the Bush-Kerry campaign that during all his years in the Senate Kerry never crafted significant legislation. But ask just about anyone to name an example of significant legislation, you would draw total blanks beyond perhaps "McCain-Feingold". But if we repeat things enough, they must be true!

And the complaint that we first need to concentrate on security is also faulty. If we don't solve both ends of the problem, we still fail. Besides, we use one part as a carrot for the other side--we give in a bit on security measures, you give in a bit on the illegals already here. It's called compromise. It's what legislators are supposed to do.

And that is why the "path to citizenship" is a good idea. We can't afford to get rid of these workers, at least those that have been productive. But you can't exactly give them a free ride, so you make the process difficult and arduous.



Of course, this is the point in any commentary that one is contractually obligated to mention that ours is a nation of immigrants, though clearly a lot of people that some immigrants are created more equal than others. This is also the point in the commentary where the people that need to be reminded of this point the most tune out. We have had many points in our history where we've had an influx of immigrants, people panic, and shit goes down.

In the end, we end for the better because of it. The immigrants eventually assimilate, learning our language and adopting a lot of our customs, while teaching us traditions of their own and contributing to our culture.

Before I leave, I want to point out the biggest hypocrisy of the whole debate. Americans want to brag all the time about how great their country is, broadcasting to the world how the USA is #1. Yet when people risk their lives to become a part of that awesomeness, we reject them. We're saying, "Sorry you didn't win the lottery when you were born. Deal." We can't have it both ways. We must share the awesomeness.