Our “immigration“ problem is undoubtably of our own making. By that I mean that without Americans and American businesses hiring illegal immigrant workers there would be no problem. But we do hire them, employing them as a kind of second class workforce. A workforce that can be paid far below the legal minimum wage, sometimes as low as what Chinese or Indian workers are paid.
It’s a conundrum that we are competing against low cost foreign nations with our own low wage workers. However it’s very clear that we are utilizing this resource and leveraging it for our own benefit. The by-product of this activity has created an American second class. How strange is it that the “land of the free and home of the brave, where all men are equal…” has a lower class. An untouchable caste suitable for factory or farm labor that can be disposed of (deported) at will.
Recent estimates measured the current illegal immigrant population at somewhere between 18 million and 30 million. That’s as much as a full 10% of the population, far too many to deport economically. And although there is some hue and cry to do exactly that, the economic damage would be massive. These are food and hospitality workers, factory and field help, maintenance and manual laborers employed because they are cheap and available. The economic reality is that they are working because we need them and we’ve come to depend on them. Mass deportations is something we dare not try just as a major recession is finally easing. So what do we do?
These immigrants have dreams, else they would not be here. Dreams of a better life than they had from whence they came. They have joined our communities, are attending our schools, harvesting our crops, working our factories, serving in industries of all types. In short they’ve quickly become part of our nation. All that separates them from American citizens is legal status. Why not use some of our famed ingenuity and take advantage of the situation?
Our immigration systems is old and tired, badly in need of repair. We simply do not have the manpower, money or will to guard our borders like castle walls. Nor would that make much sense in the modern world. Today countries are beginning to merge for benefits and resources, keeping their sovereign status and still leveraging the flexibility of collective power. The EU is an excellent example of this. Still in it’s infancy the EU has rescued several of it’s member states who would have completely succumbed to the depredations of the recent recession. The EU will emerge form this struggle stronger than ever. Maybe we should think about that example.
What does America really require from it’s illegal citizens? Is it stiff penalties and prison or is it some more lasting benefit to the country itself. It seems a strange solution to throw away these millions when they contribute to our strength. Why not leverage these people instead?
Putting aside all thoughts of punishment for the moment, let’s talk about opportunity. The clear opportunity here is to capitalize on this “problem.” One of our difficulties is that we do not even have a clear count of the so called illegal immigrants. That’s easy to remedy, all we need to is create a easy to acquire working visitor visa, available at any border post. The only requirement is registration, an ID search to stop truly undesirables, and regular proof of employment verified by an employer.
This accomplishes two important goals, registers visiting workers and locks in tax revenue. We get a good count and some badly needed money for the country. With the Baby Boomer generation falling off the employment roles and drawing on Social Security, wouldn’t it be nice to have some fresh revenue coming on? This has to be a simple and enticing process so we can get as many currently illegal residents on file as possible. It also could be renewed yearly, just by showing up at a local post office. Once we know who they are, they can be fairly taxed.
The second step is to provide a clear path to permanent citizenship. In this case processes like the “Dream act” are on the right track. It requires proof of accomplishment and benefit to America. Becoming a citizen is not for everyone, and probably should take at least 10 years of residency and employment. There are a lot of wrinkles to be ironed out with a policy like this. What happens to the invalid grandmother for instance, who is a dependent, or what about an exception from full time employment for immigrant mothers who get pregnant? Not to mention expulsion for immigrants who commit crimes, something we have absolutely no handle on at the moment. It’s all complex but doable.
Policies like this need to address the real reasons that we’ve had such a surge in illegal immigration in the first place. We certainly should consider a different set of minimum wage regulations for working immigrants, not to create a permanent second class, but rather to foster employment and revenue. It’s important to note that with out a viable path to full citizenship, we would be creating a permanent lower class which is still un-american as far as I can tell. This would mean strict guidelines for employers as well, so as not to undercut our own citizens ability to work.
These kind of reforms would pave the way for greater cooperation with our Southern and Northern neighbors, and provide a way to measure the transition of people from one country to another. Most of all it would serve our own employment and documentation interests
The situation as it stands is untenable. We are unable to implement any registration or reforms with millions of undocumented workers. The wild cries of “No Amnesty!” and “Close the borders!” do nothing to solve this problem. We simply cannot afford to build a wall around the U.S., nor can we simply arrest and deport all undocumented immigrants. Complaints of jobs lost and free healthcare for illegal immigrants are groundless unless there are solid numbers to back them up. As of now our estimates of the illegal immigrant population could well be followed by the words “plus or minus 100%” This is a national security issue as well as a national economic issue. We simply need to get a handle on this situation and it starts with documentation and facing it directly.
Prentiss Gray
Prentiss Gray is a writer/columnist/blogger from New Jersey. After 27 years as a Information Systems consultant and the death of his wife of 21 years, he returned to his roots as a writer, creating the national column Adventures of the Lone Dad/ Daddy chronicles. He now Blogs for Gannet on domestic technology, and writes feature pieces and stories for general publication. He is a member of the American Society of Journalists and Authors and contributes to Bloomberg News, Daily Record, Gannett and the Tribune Syndicate.
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You paint the picture well, Prentiss, but passionate emotion will undoubtedly continue to trump attempts to “get somewhere” on this issue. Speaking of picture, I love the cartoon!
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You certainly articulate a lot of the complexites of this issue. Far more so than most articles do either pro or con. No, I don’t have any easy answers either but there are wide range of problems and they are usually not addressed in our 5 minute of one person screaming at another segment of the news.
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One area of disagreement would be controlling the flow of people into the country. We really do need to do a better job of controlling “who” gets into the country; lest criminals, mad bombers and other such people arrive easily into our cities.
That said, you have made some very good points and empassioned arguments. I think that Don is right in that we can’t solve the whole issue on these pages, but a start would be preferable to the general avoidance and demagoguery we have today, on all sides.
I don’t want us to become the North American division of the United Earth, and sacrifice our nation and the principles of freedom that I support. At the same time, I would like to see a planet of free peoples, and I certainly understand the desires of immigrants making a better life; especially as we are the products of same even if we have native blood. I do think that we need to establish what our laws are, and then enforce them. I am for an open door policy, but they should knock on the door, and not sneak in the window…
There is much we could do to make our immigration policy more workable and equitable both to the immigrant and to our nation…
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Absolutely, let’s just get started. Get everyone registered, without penalty, and then see where we are. if we make it that easy, then anyone who doesn’t get registered will be suspicious.
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The American immigration system is lauded beyond belief Prentiss. We have no problem letting in the folks “We like” those we thin will contribute the most. For years Haitians have been living under the radar here on our American shores because there is a quota imposed on them and they are not privy to favored status. We turn a blind eye on the Mexican “Wet Backs” simply because, as you said, they are used as a second class workforce. That was until they started making babies with good American girls and committing crimes. Now they are a scourge. In my little southern town they were building a new high school. Most of the construction workers, the guys doing the real dirty work, were Mexican, some as young as 13. No one said a word until two little boys were buried alive the State Newspaper reported it this way “The most notorious work accident involving Hispanics happened in January 2003, when two teenage brothers died while digging a trench at the Blythewood High School construction site.
Moises and Rigoberto Xaca were 17- and 15-year-old illegal aliens who showed fake documents to get hired. More than two years after the accident, a workers’ compensation settlement is pending in their deaths.” We blame the victims and excuse the culprits. No one can tell me that the person or persons that hired these kids had not idea of their ages.
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“We should insist that if the immigrant who comes here does in good faith become an
American and assimilates himself to us he shall be treated on an exact equality with every one else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed or birth-place or origin.
But this is predicated upon the man’s becoming in very fact an American and nothing but an American. If he tries to keep segregated with men of his own origin and separated from the rest of America, then he isn’t doing his part as an American. There can be no divided allegiance here. . . We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language, for we intend to see that the crucible turns our people out as Americans, of American nationality, and not as dwellers in a polyglot boarding-house; and we have room for but one soul loyalty, and that is loyalty to the American people.” Theodore Roosevelt
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I’m a big fan of Teddy, however Americans have always spoken many languages. The idea that English is America’s true language is a matter of myth and eventuality. As generations progress English seems to become dominant, but insisting that all immigrants learn a language as hard as English, one of the most difficult, on their entry to the country is needless. They only need to know enough to get along.
Americans have traditionally clustered together along racial and ethnic lines. It’s more comfortable for new citizens to do that. Eventually their defendants mix in, I don’t see it as a problem. It’s just natural assimilation.
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prentiss, you made some excellent points. One point I think is important is that too large of an influx of any group tends to loose the ability to assimilate before they populate. In California I see this all the time. I have been a teamster for going on 40 years now. We believe in fair wage and putting out a good days work. I see an overwhelming amount of the hispanic teamster members viewing the union as a ticket to abuse their rights as workers. They repeatedly do everything they can to destroy the company they are working for. Mexico is a country where theft, fraud and a number of other undesirable traits are a matter of survival. I know many many good hispanics I would trust totally but far too many will steal everything that isn’t glued down, Does this sound predjudice?? It’s not it is simple truth. I never used to lock my tool box, in the past 15 years I have lost over $40,000 in hand tools to mechanics making a very good wage. The assimilation has to be much much more gradual or it will be disastrous, all ready is for that matter.
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I think you’ve made an excellent point there Steve. A very large immigrant influx is bound to preserve elements of a culture. it’s probably why we all celebrate St. Patricks day. Although It’s hard to believe that all of mexican culture involves theft and fraud. I lost lots of expensive tools over the years and there wasn’t one Mexican around the entire time. I’ve seen good old white Americans cheat on their time sheets, steal company property, do all sorts of heinous mischief to their co-workers just to get ahead and purposely run down their company in front of customers. You know what? I think that’s just what some people do. I believe it has more to do with individual attitude than collective culture.
P.S. I have a handy trick for you use ultraviolet ink to mark your tools. it’s quick and easy and all you need is a cheap handheld ultraviolet light to examine someone’s tool box. Do it just once and you’ll be surprized how people will leave your tools alone. I knew a mechanic who took a torch and bent the very end of all his socket wrenches and then put a bend in all his end wrenches as well. He could see his tools a mile off. He said it even gave him better grip.
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I think we have moved beyond that premise offered by Mr. Roosevelt. It is ridiculous to believe that if you live in America you can only speak English. I hope we have grown some since then.
The New Colossus
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
Emma Lazarus, 1883
You’ve got to be taught
To hate and fear,
You’ve got to be taught
From year to year,
It’s got to be drummed
In your dear little ear
You’ve got to be carefully taught.
You’ve got to be taught to be afraid
Of people whose eyes are oddly made,
And people whose skin is a diff’rent shade,
You’ve got to be carefully taught.
You’ve got to be taught before it’s too late,
Before you are six or seven or eight,
To hate all the people your relatives hate,
You’ve got to be carefully taught!
South Pacific – Rodgers & Hammerstein
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Then why not take euro’s and peso’s while we are at it. Our culture is being redefined Kaye. History is at stake. An official language and economic system as well must stay intact. As far as the language, I am all for having to hire spanish speaking workers, where does it stop? Next decade will we be having to learn and accomodate japanese speaking people? This country was founded and moderately run with english speaking people. I think it is fabulous that our children have benefits of learning in aspects that were not as important and available, tools wise, when I was a child. Why can’t a restaurant owner put a sign up that reads,”No shirt, no shoes, no speak english, no service”! Yea yea the poems were nice, but take some advice, I do not say hola or chow just believe me when I say that hi and or bye will suffice. Lame huh..
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Oh I’m not saying that English should not be the official language. I believe it should. But I don’t quite get your point here Mad. If you are saying that we are on the verge of losing “America” as we know it to foreign interests, then yes, I would agree. We are sending our jobs over to India making our middleclass die and theirs live. But if you say that people should not receive courtesy or service because they don’t speak English then I don’t agree. My family is a mixture of Native American (literally and figuratively) African, Asian and European. We all speak English and I might add, the Kings English to boot. But I greet my sisters with hola and often say ciao (not chow that’s food) to my friends and family.
Ciao, Ciao Bambino 
You eat Chinese food don’t you and Mexican, I do in addition to Indian and German and Italian. So if a French tourist or a German or a Russian tourist comes to this restaurant and doesn’t speak English he or she can’t get served? Come on. That sign is discriminatory. It, I am assuming, is directed and Spanish speaking people and it is not or should not be the American way. All of us, every last one of us has roots in another part of the work and the poem The New Colossus remind us of just that. The other reminds us how not to be.
The only people who can claim to be indigenous are members of the many Native American tribes you know the Sioux, Dakota, Apache Chickasaw, Cayuga, Erie, Laurentian, Mohawk, Mohican Shinnecock, Delaware, Seneca, Narragansett , Edisto, Apalachee, Oconee (Oconi) Seminole, etc.
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Actually most of those indigenous arrived from Polynesia, and we are even fairly close to provable that nearly all of us are African in origin, or did the Lord put us all here, or was it the little green men, I mean Ezekiel saw the wheel and all…
Jokes aside, we tend to argue over small things. I think we are a nation of principles, and assimilation is essential to our existence as a nation of principles. A melting pot takes the best features of the various cultures and melds them with the best principles and existing culture we have. That is how I see it…
And I love ethnic foods, even Cuban black beans and smoked ham hocks… but you can keep the Haggis and blood sausage…
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PS: Don’t forget the “Lords of the plains,” the Comanche which controlled much of the central part of the continent into Texas and Mexico
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I’m with you Michael they can keep the haggis, blood sausage and the blood pudding too; YUCK! I didn’t forget the great Comanche, I just listed a few tribes to make the point.
Ciao!
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A little green man did put me here! A leprechaun…or maybe a Gremlin. I give up…These food items sound like something Andrew Zimmer drools and dreams of on a daily basis, throw in some blowfish sperm and stinky tofu while you are at it and he would give you his left nut, and now that I think about it he would probably ask you to throw that into a skillet, lightly sautee’ and add scallions and white wine and then serve it to him. I digress…uh..I may have went off on a major tangent or two… ‘ni sa moce’..lol
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