IMMIGRATION TUG OF WAR

 

Poling on immigration reform is virtually useless because the way a pollster frames his question skews the poll results wildly. If the poll question triggers Americans generous nature it will provoke results hugely in favor of amnesty and a path to citizenship for “undocumented workers”. Questions can be asked so as to first remind respondents of the unemployment crisis and thereby elicit results skewed in favor of border security. When framed as a racial issue that is unfair to Hispanics most citizens soften their position towards at least a middle-ground “guest worker” solution.

To understand complex issues I usually find it instructive to follow the money. Once I know who is profiting, peoples motives become clearer and more easily defined.

Agricultural businesses, large and small, that depend on migrant workers rely on a large supply of cheap seasonal labor. The pervasive “don’t ask, don’t tell” attitude in communities that depend on these workers enables the undocumented migrant worker sub-culture. The huge majority of these workers are good people doing what they must to provide for their families. The flood of illegal border crossings to fill the farm jobs helps to conceal the drug mules and other criminals from detection by border patrol.

The Chamber Of Commerce and the large agricultural businesses that support it push Congress to act on immigration reform because of the money made using the low cost labor. Smaller agricultural business tends to have a closer relationship with the migrant workers as people and friends. Many of these small farms use the same laborers year after year in a mutually beneficial and friendly pact.

Democratic legislators push for citizenship for the undocumented immigrants viewing them as a sure source of new loyal democratic voters. The argument is always framed in humanitarian terms to shield them from criticism about their blatant political partisanship.

Cities saddled with the cost of providing health, education and emergency services for free to illegal aliens are demanding a change to the status quo. Society on the one hand is enjoying the benefits of lower food costs while on the other paying a heavy price for social services and drug related violence.

Republican lawmakers may acknowledge the problem while struggling with the opposing pull of big agricultural business and their conservative voter base. There is an argument that “guest worker” programs, actually legitimize open ended slavery and as such encourage abuse of the system as a gateway to welfare.

I want to speak directly to this last point. I believe that any successful guest worker program would require sponsorship by employers whose participation is tracked. In other words, in order for a guest worker program to work it requires that employment and payment of payroll taxes be verified. I do not except the argument that the guest workers are bad because they will likely become dissatisfied with the entry level jobs and seek to improve their position by competition with citizens for the better jobs. It makes me sick when I hear someone say that guest workers are ok as long as they stay in their place. Legitimate working people who are gainfully employed and paying taxes must have a way to cross the border in a documented orderly way isolating the criminal drug traffickers for law enforcement. Businesses that abuse the law or the workers must be prosecuted. The real cost of the labor will show up in the price at the grocery store instead of being hidden inside food stamp, emergency healthcare and education programs. We are paying the costs of the porous border now.

The stupid practice of granting instant citizenship to babies born to non-citizens must stop. This is a real gateway path to welfare and dependence. I submit that the endless nature of our “temporary” assistance welfare programs will continue to promote abuse from citizens and non-citizens alike until we get realistic about eliminating the fraud such programs encourage. We cannot as a nation allow either political faction to control immigration reform for their own short sighted gain. Nor can we allow this reform to place these people, who broke the law to come here, in line for citizenship in front of legal immigrants.