THE NEW "SHOW ME YOUR PAPERS" LAW MAY NOW BE USED FOR FIXING IMMIGRATION

Will this new law finally bring the immigration issues to the "top of the pile"?

...An "Immigrant Crossing Sign" on the US southern border.

The recently instituted state immigration proposal that was signed into law by the Republican Governor of Arizona is truly wrong-headed. However, it is a serious sign of the public´s on-going immigration frustration. Is it just the tip of an "immigration iceberg", or possibly the opening of a new political immigration volcano...?

In my opinion, there´s no argument that the immigration issue is a problem that should have been dealt with back when President Reagan took the easy way out (or so he thought) by giving all the illegal immigrants, total amnesty. Apparently, this president had decided to just forget the on-going costs for the individual states in supporting illegal immigrants, (especially the state that he had been governor of). Instead, he decided to side with the big-business political donors that wanted the cheap labor to stick around forever.

My personal wish is that the new Arizona "Show me your papers" immigration law will at least bring the issue nearer to the top of the nation´s list of "things to do". Perhaps they will then finally deal with it as it should have been over three decades ago.

My concern today however, is that all of this recent hub-bub will just once again cause the American public to get upset about the wrong parts of the issue, as they have been doing for the last 50 years.

The reality is that we already have the laws on the books that have either been ignored or have only been partially, or occasionally enforced. In addition, the American public needs to realize that the country does not, I repeat, "does not" have an illegal immigrant problem. The problem is not with what some Arizonan´s disgustingly call, "the little brown people from across the border". Instead, America has a very serious "illegal employer problem".

Yes, there is a side issue where we can all question our US Constitution as to whether everyone born in the United States (illegal or not) should be considered a US citizen. And one must remember that all US citizens are, or were, all immigrants. And illegal immigration was not an issue for the founding fathers to give much consideration. Today, the "being born a US citizen" is an issue that will most likely need some attention as the politicians dig deeper into the current immigration dilemma. But that is not the issue of which I speak today.

The issue today is that, if all the current laws on the books were being strictly enforced, and if all US employers were required to follow the rules for not hiring illegal immigrants, the current issues with those that are crossing the southern border to find a job would eventually just vanish.

And 99% of these current "visitors" from the south are only here for one of two reasons.

First, they are here to find paying employment, which for the nation´s illegal´s, that is obviously against current US laws. And the only other real reasons for them to be coming here is to either earn illegal income by transporting these illegal aliens into the country, or for bringing illegal (and highly profitable) drugs into the US.

As to these two issues, for the first one, if there were no jobs being offered illegally by US employers, the illegal´s would stop coming. As proof of this statement, even the US Immigration authorities have stated that due to the recent recession, the loss of US jobs for illegal aliens has caused between 1 ½ to 2 million illegal´s to leave the US and return to their homes south of the border.

The second item regarding the illegal importation or smuggling of drugs is a separate issue. Unfortunately, the US market for illegal drugs is the world´s largest and most profitable, non-taxed market place. Dealing with that one issue is something else all together.

But there is a similarity as to what is causing both of these problems.

If there weren´t any markets available for both the job-seekers and the drugs, there would be no reason for the illegal´s to expend their current efforts for fulfilling these demands.

What the government does about the current US demand for illegal drugs is a difficult and complex issue. The so called "War on Drugs", and the previous First Lady Nancy Reagan´s "Just say no to drugs", have been abysmal failures. Whatever were the costs of this fight against both of these human and social weaknesses, and for what is considered a serious habitual disease, the costs to US taxpayers have continued to escalate many fold since the 1960´s. As long as drugs are illegal, there will never be an end to this conflict.

But the issue of supply and demand for US jobs is another issue.

There is a serious need for the labor which is provided by those that come here illegally today. We hear so many comments by those agricultural employers that hire these illegal´s saying things like "But Americans don´t want to pay the extra increase for a head of lettuce picked by a worker that is here legally." The reality is that at today´s prices, that head of lettuce would only cost 3 to 10 cents higher than it is today, if a "legal immigrant" were to have picked the lettuce. The cost of labor for these agricultural field jobs is only about 2-3% of the total production costs. It would not be the "$15.00 for a head of lettuce" that many corporate farm operators sometimes try to claim.

What really bothers these employers is not the slightly higher wages that would be paid for "legal immigrants". The real issue is that the employers would also be required to follow the other mandated rules, such as: no child labor allowed, reasonable and safe housing provided, proper work hours, acceptable working conditions, as well as their offering of a reasonable wage. But please understand, these workers would also be paying US taxes on whatever they earned while doing this "legal work".

Yes, due to these illegal´s today, the American taxpayer is already paying out billions of dollars to either chase down and imprison these illegal´s or to pay for their public education and their health care through America´s hospital emergency rooms. Over the past 5 years, California alone has lost 11 hospitals that had to declare bankruptcy. All of these hospitals were located in areas where a large portion of their business was in providing illegal immigrants with free medical care through the hospital emergency rooms. And as required by law, they had no other choice but to provide it.

Other than their illegal employment, the one other reason for being in the US would be for having a child that would automatically be a US citizen. But once again, if there were no jobs being offered illegally by US employers, most of these "illegal´s" would not be here to have a child in the first place.

As this problem has been put-off or handled with "political blinders" for decades, we are now (hopefully) going to have to seriously deal with the problem. But today the numbers of illegal´s are in the multi-millions and the issue involves current illegal´s, and the families of the illegal´s. And most of these "families" include many legal US born young American citizens, all with illegal parents. So, do we split up the families and only send back the parents? That´s not an acceptable or practical alternative.

Failing in the past to appropriately deal with the problem, and with President Reagan´s past cowardly response to the issue, it has only exacerbated the illegal immigrant problem for those that are already in the country. And building an expensive fence on the southern border is like; "Closing the barn door after the horses are already gone.". Building a fence will not remove the incentive to come and illegally work for illegal employers to support their families. And what about those 12-18 million that are already here?

Enforcement of current immigration laws for employers and comprehensive reform of America´s immigration laws is not just desirable, it has become a social imperative.

I am very proud that America is a nation of immigrants. But this nation needs to stand back and re-evaluate how we proceed from here going forward. The diversity of America is both its strength and its difficulty. To be unified as a democratic nation, we need to communicate with one another through one language while respecting all of our many past heritages and diverse ancestries. We can only work together for common goals when we can all communicate with each other and agree on how to achieve those goals.

Without this, the true "Nation of Immigrants" cannot maintain its existence nor can it continue as a positive example to the rest of the world. Let´s get on with it!

Copyright G.Ater 2010

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