IMMIG-RANT
By: Alan Bedenko
Date: March 28, 2006
Immigrants come to this country for a better life; they come here to work hard and improve their lot in life. Many of them will come here illegally, paying their life savings to bandits who will shuttle them across a harsh desert border, just so they can come live here and get paid a pittance to do work that few others want to do.
Despite some people’s casual, convenient xenophobia, immigrants in general contribute more in economic development and tax dollars than they take in via government largesse. Immigrants - legal and illegal - help the country run and, on balance, help the economy grow.
The President wants to promote a guest worker program - something that Germany instituted back in the 50s due to postwar labor shortages. Any Turk or southern Slav can roll the word “gastarbeiter” off his tongue.
However, some in the President’s party are not only balking, they’re furious. Namely, Tom Tancredo, a republican representative from Colorado who may very well run for President in 2008 on an anti-immigrant platform. How quaint.
Oliver Willis, a first generation American says:
I think America shouldn’t seal itself off, I believe immigration is what has made America great (partly because I’m a product of it :) , but at the same time I don’t have a lot of tolerance for people “cutting in line”.
Amnesty for illegal immigrants seems like cutting in line to me.
Ezra Klein counters:
[Willis’] “no-cutting-in-line” stance on illegal immigration, while intuitively appealing, isn’t realistic. The question isn’t whether we should reward bad behavior — though I’ve trouble defining bad behavior as a life-threatening trek across the desert in order to do backbreaking, essential labor for appallingly low wages — but how we deal with a policy problem.
Illegal immigrants are here. Deportation would be impossible, both logistically and, assuming you could surmount those obstacles, economically. Enforcement is a sham. Since 1986, we’ve increased border funding by a tenfold. We have built walls stretching into the desert. We have fined employers. And the flow of immigrants hasn’t stopped, or slowed; it’s accelerated. Worse yet, there’s been a set of perverse consequences: not only do more come, but more succeed. We used to stop around 40 percent; now we halt 10 percent.
Here’s the thing. Illegal immigration is, obviously, illegal. But it’s the entry that’s illegal. An illegal immigrant present in the United States is subject to detention and deportation if he’s caught, but he is entitled to every constitutional protection, including due process. It doesn’t, currently, make him a criminal.
For some reason, Cubans get different treatment than other Latinos, but hey. It’s Fidel.
Once here, however, these immigrants don’t just go on the dole. They start sweeping your streets, picking your grapes, drying your cars, and bussing your tables. Legal immigrants anesthetize you, open shops, start factories, go to college, etc. Obviously these are oversimplified stereotypes, but let’s work with that anyway.
When the immigration debate heats up in this country, it always eventually takes an ugly xenophobic or even racist turn. In Boston, I heard a lot of bitching about the Vietnamese and Latino immigrants, but not so much about the scores of illegals from Ireland. Odd, that.
The problem now is that the immigrants themselves aren’t having any of it. When the congress starts debating a bill which would make the very presence of an illegal immigrant in this country a federal felony, you will get 500,000 protesters in Los Angeles, bearing placards that say “This is my homeland”.
People like Bay Buchanan (Pat’s sister) wants to deport every one of the 11 million estimated illegals in the country. Sound reasonable?
But as Gov. Bill Richardson (D-NM) later points out, it is “unrealistic to deport” 11 million people, many of whom are already paying U.S. taxes. A 2005 American Progress study found that it would cost at least $206 billion over five years to deport all undocumented workers. The annual $41.2 billion cost exceeds the entire FY06 budget for the Department of Homeland Security.
The leading voice in the congress against immigrants is Tom Tancredo of Colorado. His bill wouldn’t just criminalize illegal immigrants, it would also criminalize any person or organization that gives aid and comfort to illegal immigrants. Organizations like churches.
Senator Clinton said:
“It is certainly not in keeping with my understanding of the Scripture because this bill would literally criminalize the Good Samaritan and probably even Jesus himself.”
Tancredo responded:
I’m not really surprised that Hillary Clinton doesn’t know the first thing about the Bible. Her impression — her analysis, her interpretation of both the law and the Bible are certainly wrong to say the least. This has nothing to do — the bill we passed out of the House has nothing to do with criminalizing Good Samaritans.
Conservatives never pass on an opportunity to attack Hillary Clinton as a godless communist. Because it’s so facile.
The Senate, the more reasonable, contemplative branch of the legislature, is evidently having none of Tancredo’s nonsense.
The Senate Judiciary Committee passed a sweeping immigration bill yesterday that would allow an estimated 11 million to 12 million illegal immigrants living in the United States to seek citizenship.
It also would provide temporary work visas and legalization opportunities to hundreds of thousands more foreign workers annually in the years ahead.
By a 12-6 vote, in which four Republicans joined all eight Democrats, the committee sided with Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., who sponsored the bill. He praised illegal immigrants as “people who work hard and want to be part of the American dream.”
And I’m pleased by the nominal bipartisanship of the “McCain/Kennedy” Bill:
One of the pivotal Republicans was Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who talked of his concern for immigrant families, many of whom have sunk roots into the United States and now consider this country to be their home.
“We as a nation have sat on the sidelines since at least the ’80s and allowed this problem to build up,” said Graham, rejecting the criticism that the bill provided amnesty for the estimated 11 million to 12 million illegal immigrants living in the country.
Instead of receiving a blanket pardon of amnesty, Graham said, they would have to earn the green cards that provide permanent legal residence and the option to apply for citizenship.
The measure, which Kennedy sponsored along with Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., would require the immigrants to pay a fine, learn English, settle back taxes and clear a criminal background check.
So, here’s the thing. Immmigration reform is good. A guest worker program and an ability to become a permanent resident so long as you keep your nose clean and your shit together is a good thing. Not for nothing we here in Buffalo bitch about the loss of population.
But to label all illegal immigrants as a drain on society - something that’s not true, by the way - is wrong. To call for a halt to immigration is not only near-sighted, it’s idiotic. This country was founded, and has thrived, thanks to immigrants.
Ultimately, I don’t think the Tancredos are members of any Indian nation, nor did they come over on the Mayflower. So, I’ve kind of had it with that guy.
Alan Bedenko is the author of the website BuffaloPundit.com and a contributing author to Buffalo Spree Magazine. This column originally was posted on BuffaloPundit.com
© Alan Bedenko, 2006.
The opinions expressed herein are solely those of the author and do not represent those of the WNY Coalition for Progress.
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