Illegal Immigration, The All Encompassing Issue

by Marc I. Pezzell

May 13, 2006

Hello all,

            To state the obvious, the issue of illegal immigration has made headlines lately, brought about by the proposal by Congress and the reaction by the illegal immigrant community and their supporters via large scale protests.  Having gone back and forth between national attention and obscurity, this issue has the ability to rouse anger, stimulate debate, and draw out our worst fears, as a nation, onto the table.  Aside from the blatantly obvious tactic of the Bush administration and his congressional supporters to divert attention away from the illegal, unethical, and immoral “war” in Iraq, the use of unconstitutional surveillance of American citizens in the so-called war on terror, and other atrocities, both foreign and domestic, the illegal immigration issue is an important one and worthy of serious dialogue.  The reasons for this are far reaching, not only because the issue of illegal immigration itself warrants serious dialogue, but because it is intertwined with so many other very important issues that we are facing today.  So, I will put my hand in the fire, take my shot at it, and hopefully contribute something useful and constructive to the dialogue.  First, I will summarize the common concerns, mine and the populace as a whole, as best and as briefly as I can, along with some of my comments.  Then I will make some suggestions for potential solutions, those commonly discussed as well as my own, at least to the perceived problems associated with this topic.  Lastly, I will state what I feel is the real reason we keep revisiting this issue over and over again.

            This issue of illegal immigration is proving to be among the most complex and difficult to deal with of any we now face.  There are no clear cut right or wrong answers to deal with the particulars of this debate.  Issues of human rights come up, along with national loyalties, economics, culture and even civilization itself, and likely many more.  Perhaps, however, some of the root causes of our dilemma could be dealt with to some positive outcome.  More on that later.

            Although I consider myself solidly in the liberal camp on the political spectrum, this issue really doesn’t fit neatly into either camp, or anywhere else on that spectrum.  My own views on this subject might be considered both liberal and conservative, depending upon which angle you examine them.  In actuality, this issue is neither liberal or conservative.  I prefer to look at it objectively and present my views on the issue and the associated problems and possible solutions, without regard to where on the political spectrum any one point may fall.

The Immediate Issue

            To sum it up, there is great concern by many Americans, especially those who live in those states that share a border with Mexico, that the mass influx of illegal immigration is causing a drain on our tax dollars.  There is concern that illegal immigrants freeload off of our social services, such as medical care at the county hospitals, getting public assistance, welfare, etc.  There is concern that our tax dollars are spent educating their children while our already under funded and overcrowded schools suffer.  There is concern that their sheer numbers are displacing entire communities, rapidly and radically changing the demographic and culture of the U.S., especially in border states such as California, rapidly increasing the population of the U.S., depriving U.S. citizens of available jobs, driving down wages, driving up property values, etc., etc.  There is concern that it brings crime, poverty, and urban and social degradation, and the degradation of our civilization itself.  On the surface, there may be some truth to all of these arguments.  However, the real issue is far more complex and the real blame may be placed on elements not belonging to the illegal immigrants at all.

            Now, why should this mass influx concern us?  We’ve been down this road before and it didn’t kill us, or have we?  The second half of the nineteen century saw the a huge influx of immigrants, mostly from Europe, that began to taper off as we progressed through the twentieth century.  This was, in fact, the time of the most rapid influx of immigration in U.S. history.  None can argue that it made our country stronger, bringing a great variety of ideas, culture, and know-how to the U.S.  I won’t bore anyone with talking further about immigration being the foundation upon which our country is built.  We already know this.  Got it.  What I will say is that there is a difference between legal and illegal immigration.  What we had in the past was legal immigration.  Now, although we still have legal immigration, the numbers for illegal immigration may be at least equal to that legal number, perhaps even greater.  It seems a shame that so many people need to be reminded of this.  Those that don’t usually end up on the wrong end of a slanderous accusation.

            During the legal immigration influx that I just described, there was, at least an attempt to regulate who came in and who didn’t.  For decades, new immigrants came through Ellis Island, being checked for illnesses and given a rudimentary “once over” to assess one’s potential to make a contribution to society.  One of the most serious problems with illegal immigration is that there is no regulation of who gets into the U.S. and who doesn’t.  There’s no way to regulate, not only those who wouldn’t be harmful to U.S. society, but who may or may not make a valuable contribution, no way to regulate the skills that come in or don’t come in.  The point is, that there is no say.  Even though many historians may say that the treatment of new immigrants at Ellis Island was much like that of herding and checking cattle, at least there was some regulation.  Let’s keep in mind that some of those who went through those official channels were turned away.  There may have been some cases of those who were unjustly turned away, but there was a great benefit to having this kind of regulation and system in place to check. It was certainly better than nothing.  At least someone was watching the door, so to speak.

            Those that were admitted into the U.S and arrived on the mainland were often greeted by representatives of the big industrialists, being granted a job, a place to live, food, etc.  Of course, the industrialists had ulterior motives, expecting undying loyalty and a vote in upcoming elections in their plays for power, a distant forerunner to the unchecked corporate power we have today.  Immigrant workers of this time were also abused, worked to death, given no sympathy when they broke down, like the dangerous machines they worked with, and had no recourse to fight back.  This resembles the plight of many illegal immigrants of today, which I will address later in this article.

            Although it was not intended as permanent settlement, another example of legal entry into the country would be the guest agricultural workers from Mexico during the second world war.  While the men were off fighting overseas and the women were in the factories, vital jobs in farming and agriculture were left empty, so large numbers of Mexican agricultural laborers were invited in to do the work, so that the country would be fed, and so would our troops.  This started, or intensified, a trend for agricultural laborers to come to the U.S. to do the farm work, in California especially.  Although they were here legally, working long hours for little pay and having no rights created an abusive environment for them, too.  This gave rise to the accomplishments of Cesar Chavez who fought for the rights of the Mexican farm workers, a precursor to what is beginning to happen now.

            In the present day we have a certain number of legal immigrants coming into the U.S. every year.  However, we also have an unprecedented number of illegal immigrants, the large majority of which are from Latin America, most especially Mexico.  This has been going on for decades, but has greatly intensified over the past fifteen or so years.  It’s easy to understand why.  We share an eight hundred and fifty mile border with Mexico which is possibly one of the poorest countries in the world, with a populace largely made up of the desperately poor.  For those masses, an easy to reach promised land, a land with jobs and a far better standard of living, would be an irresistible temptation.  They would risk anything and everything to make the journey, to either relocate permanently or to come as guest workers and send money back to their families in Mexico.  Admirable.  If I found myself in such a situation, I would do the same.  Arguments can be made that this is money going out of the country, contributing nothing to local economies here in the U.S. or domestic welfare.  However, most of the unskilled laborers this argument pertains to make so little, I can’t imagine this having much of an impact.  This is also a common problem with any U.S. citizen worker being paid far below a living wage.  A corporate administrator in some far corner of the country makes millions, while local economies suffer because no money is going into them.

            So, what jobs are the illegal immigrants from Mexico coming here for?  What is waiting for them here?  Many believe that they work in jobs that no American citizen would want or for wages too low for any to tolerate.  Fast food, janitorial, agricultural, etc., etc.  Anything you could think of.  Anything that doesn’t require any special skills.  Anything that doesn’t require extensive training.  Anything that wouldn’t require proficiency in speaking English.  They do the grunt work, form the backbone of our labor force, and especially our agricultural labor force, or so it is said.  Their cheap labor makes our gluttonous American lifestyle possible, or so the argument goes.  They toil, so we can eat at nice restaurants and have lots of leisure time.  Many would argue that they have always been here, supporting our indulgent way of life and economy through their labor.  My support and/or retort to this view will come toward the end of this article.

            Aside from any economic contribution, another, deeper issue is that of social impact.  One of the most stinging concerns that has been raised is that illegal immigrants most of which are from Mexico, or undocumented workers as they are often referred to, euphemistically, show no true desire to become Americans at all, at least not in the way that most present U.S. citizens perceive the concept.  They really want to be accommodated, as the argument goes, have everyone speak Spanish to them instead of requiring them to learn English, that the areas in the U.S. they settle in should be more like Mexico and should change accordingly.  Fuel is added to the fire when one conjures up the image of the protests that occurred in response to potential legislation that would make it a felony to be or aid an illegal immigrant.  Seeing the pictures of so many people waving Mexican flags is rather chilling.  It makes it harder for their supporters to defend them against attacks that they would not be truly loyal to the United States if they were granted legal citizen status.  Of course, one is certainly permitted to identify with one’s roots, as was done decades and decades ago, even waving the flag of their parents’ home.   However, in the present time it sends a message that could easily be construed that they identify themselves more with Mexico than the U.S.  I do not have information as to who was actually waving the Mexican flag.  I’m assuming that it was primarily illegal immigrants, not their legal counterparts, but I do not know the facts on this and don’t know if anyone really does.  For the sake of my article, I will mainly focus on those of Mexican origins when referring to illegal immigration. 

            Throughout U.S. history, especially during the industrial revolution in the late nineteenth century, legal immigrants wanted to be here, not only to have a better life, but to become Americans.  They wanted it so much that learning English and assimilating into American culture was the top priority.  I believe this to be the case with most of the immigrants of recent times as well, at least those here legally.  However, I will say this.  When the numbers of illegal immigrants increases at such a high rate, as has been the case in recent years, and their resident population is large enough, there isn’t the same opportunity to learn the language, and to assimilate the local customs and culture.  There’s no time to acclimate and no incentive to do so.  When you are surrounded by a large number of people from your native country, what incentive do you have to learn the so called mainstream language of your adopted home, or its culture and customs?  Stories abound of those who have been here for decades and yet don’t speak a word of English.  There may be at least a little truth to this as I have observed it first hand.  In my own opinion, not being a legal immigrant would take away at least some incentive to make the adjustment and become “more American”.  In addition, in this case,  the children born might be more like their parents than their parent’s adopted country in many ways, having little or no exposure outside their own immigrant community.

            At other times in U.S. history, first generation children often didn’t speak their parent’s mother tongue at all, without even an accent.  They were more American than foreign.  They may have a strong connection to their ancestral homeland, but they identify themselves with being an American.  In fact, they were proud of it.  U.S. policy toward immigration a century ago, as promoted by Theodore Roosevelt, was based on assimilation, not accommodation, something absent today.

            In the present time, since there isn’t the same opportunity or will to assimilate into the so-called mainstream U.S. society and since educating those new to the country seems a low priority, it seems logical that one will see a huge demographic and cultural shift in the adopted homeland as the numbers of immigrants from any one country of origin increases.  When you have such a shift, you change the very nature of the society you’re dealing with.  We are more than just a nation of laws.  We are a nation of people.  People have language, customs, and culture.  No matter where one stands on this issue, no one should kid themselves that these aren’t the glue that holds society together.  When you change that, or change it enough, you change the very nature of the nation itself, perhaps losing the cohesion that holds it together.  This wouldn’t happen if a more limited number of immigrants from any one country, legal or illegal, were allowed to enter the United States and only over a longer period of time.  They would assimilate, but would also bring elements of their culture and customs to their adopted country, adding it to the mainstream, rather than pushing it aside with sheer numbers.

Potential Solutions for the Immediate Issue

            This brings me to my first suggestion on how to deal with the situation.  We must place stricter limits on the number of immigrants that enter the United States for a time.  This seems like a no-brainer and many people before me have suggested this.  Unfortunately no action of any kind has been taken to bring this about, not even any serious dialogue.  Also, unfortunate is that this type of action must apply to legal immigration as well as illegal immigration, since the influx of illegal immigration has been so large for so long.  We may have to limit even legal immigration for a time to allow ourselves to “catch up” and “take a breath”.  It didn’t have to be this way, but the problem of illegal immigration has been allowed to progress too far for too long.  Of course, this is assuming that we grant some form of amnesty to the millions of illegal immigrants that are here now rather than deporting all of them.

            Given time and given a chance, the legal immigrants of the nineteenth century were able to assimilate into the so-called mainstream.  It became a slightly different mainstream due to their contributions, but it did happen, and we were richer for it.  Of course, they were a mix of many different origins at that time, mostly from Europe toward the second half of that century.  We need to curtail all immigration for a period of time.  It might take time, but it could still work, given a chance.  Over time, those illegal immigrants who stay, if granted amnesty, would gradually become more and more “American”, if you can forgive the term, learning the language, culture, and customs.  The limit on entry into the U.S., however, is essential.  I can’t say with absolute certainty how long it should be.  I would suggest a strict limitation for a minimum of ten years.  Twenty years might work even better or even thirty.  If we could manage that, the situation would balance out, given a chance and given time, as it has in times past.  Exceptions would only be granted in very few circumstances, such as political asylum, and only in the most dire of circumstances.

            Before I continue with some popular ideas on how to deal with the immediate issue, followed by my own, I want to briefly address Congress’ stand on the issue.  The House had originally advocated making felons out of all illegal immigrants, along with anyone who assists or harbors them, laying heavy fines, prison terms, and, for non citizens, possible deportation.  There was also talk about building a wall along the border.  Well that’s one way to deal with it, but it would likely cost a great deal of money and would probably not work, at least not by itself.  The strongest wall in the world could be breached or bypassed unless there’s someone there to “guard the door”.  Besides, I just cringe to think about which large corporation or business would get the no-bid contract to build it.  Where will the manpower come from?  Take a guess.  With our pattern of action in Iraq, such a structure would probably be substandard and ineffective, but would still cost taxpayers billions.

            Then the Senate came into play and a compromise seemed possible, one that would make it easier for the illegal immigrants to earn their citizenship.  According to the compromise, those that have been here five years or more may remain until it’s earned, but they must be free of a criminal record and must pay back taxes since their employment began.  Those that have been here less than, say, two years would be deported.  Those that have been here more than two years and less than five may have to return to their native countries for a time with a chance at applying for legal status like anyone else.  This actually isn’t a terrible idea at face value.  An illegal immigrant, provided he/she is law abiding, productive and pays back taxes, can stay, eventually becoming legal.  It could be worse, after all.  At least the plan isn’t totally without merit.  That’s saying a lot, since lately Congress, as a whole, seems to be pathologically obsessed with making bad decisions, Democrats and Republicans alike.

            Before the compromise, the opposite extreme to making the illegal immigrants and their supporters felons was to simply make them all legal, out of hand.  Although a compromise on this issue, in conjunction with other measures, might be workable in principle at least, the idea of making such a large number of illegal immigrants legal, in order to “solve” the problem smells a little funny to me.  It’s like having someone who committed a crime no longer being a criminal, because the crime is deemed no longer valid.  This does not make it right.  It validates and rewards the illegal immigrants who, by definition, were trespassing, no matter how sorry one might feel for them.  It validates and rewards the businesses who hired them.  It takes away the consequences of the transgression for all involved and encourages more of the same, especially if no other measure was taken, in earnest, to prevent more illegal immigration.  I haven’t heard any viable options about prevention being seriously considered or discussed in open forum.  The compromise isn’t perfect, but the two extremes would create more problems than they would solve.

            The problem with this particular compromise, however, comes from two angles.  Firstly, if one is dealing with an illegal immigrant, or undocumented worker, as they are politically correctly called, how would one even know if he/she committed a crime?  Where would the record be?  Where is the documentation?  Nowhere.  It doesn’t exist.  Not reliably, anyway.  In my view, I strongly disapprove of foreign identification being used as valid documentation.  If the U.S. government or one of the states or territories didn’t issue it, then it isn’t valid.  Secondly, since nearly all of the illegal immigrants in question work for what I consider to be “slave wages”, and likely have little or no savings, how would they be able to pay those back taxes?  I doubt many of them will be able to do so.  It isn’t realistic.  In addition, how would one even know what they owed, since they are “undocumented”?  I doubt the businesses that hired them would come forward and make themselves known, let alone come clean.  It’s because of these problems that this particular compromise seems unrealistic, even suspicious.  Perhaps altering this compromise would make a workable solution, which I will discuss later.

            Another popular solution addresses the issue that illegal immigrants take advantage of our social services and welfare system, draining our tax dollars.  The solution here is to simply deny them these services.  The now famous, or infamous, Proposition 187 in California is an example of this.  Approved by the voters in 1994, but struck down by the state courts, it would deny tax based services to illegal immigrants.  Under the proposition, if they need welfare, they don’t get it.  If they are sending their kids to school, they can’t any longer.  If they need medical attention at the county hospital or clinic, too bad.  The list goes on.  The intention here is to discourage “free loaders” from “mooching” off the U.S. taxpayer.  If they can’t get these services, then they won’t come to the U.S. in the first place, or they will leave the country, so the argument goes.  Although it was blocked by the court, its approval by the voters illustrates that the populace is frustrated by what it sees as an intolerable situation.  There is some truth to it all.  California alone spends billions of dollars on illegal immigrants through welfare every year.  Its schools are overcrowded and under funded.  Its clinics and county hospitals are swamped.  If you are a U.S. citizen, especially a Californian, you will have to compete with a very large number of illegal immigrants who haven’t paid any taxes toward the programs that they take advantage of.  I can certainly understand how this all looks to the voter.  I can understand the frustration.  I feel it too, in no small measure.

            Whether or not it would really discourage illegal immigrants from coming, or encourage those already here to leave, there were three major problems with Prop 187.  First of all, it would mean that, without medical care, an increasingly growing segment of the populace can get sick, perhaps very sick, without intervention, creating a public health risk.  Secondly, it means having a segment that cannot feed itself, creating an enormous potential for crime.  This is also true with the third problem, which is denying public schooling for illegal immigrants.  A segment of young people that aren’t in school, bettering themselves, will also create a potential for crime, both in the short and long term.  They will also potentially be denied the opportunity to learn, at least a little, how to be good citizens, should they get the chance later.

            My last statement on Prop 187 is that if there was frustration about illegal immigration and its deleterious effects when it was proposed to the voters, then that frustration must surely be even greater now, since the situation has progressed even farther and has become much worse.  If a similar proposition was placed before voters now, I imagine that it would also pass.  It would remain to be seen if the courts would nullify it again.  It also remains to be seen if the voters would accept the court’s decision, again, or get out in the streets and protest.  Perhaps if a similar proposition came up again, it could be modified in some way or joined with other measures to lessen the effects of the problems that I mentioned.  Since it was passed by the voters the first time around, I find it very odd indeed that more politicians since that time haven’t listened to the voters and adjusted their policies to be more favorable to them, their constituencies.  It could indicate some level of corruption in our government.  No, I don’t believe that there is an illegal immigrant conspiracy but, rather, something else.  More on that later.

            Further, let me make this clear.  Just because I felt that Prop 187 was flawed doesn’t mean that I approve of illegal immigrants taking advantage of our social services by any means.  It’s not fair that millions of poor Americans won’t get adequate services because their funds are being diverted to those who don’t pay taxes and didn’t play by the rules to get here.  Try, also, to keep in mind that the money used to support the illegal immigrant population could be used for other things that could have benefited U.S. citizens, such as improved school systems, better funded libraries, improved infrastructure, you name it.

            My own contributions toward a solution to the immediate dilemma deals both with illegal immigrants that are already here and with those who have yet to enter the U.S.  My approach comes from two angles, taking away the incentive to come and making it harder to come.  Taking these measures shouldn’t really be difficult, when one considers our true ability to take them.  It will, however, take resolve on our part.

            Here is my first angle, that of taking away incentives.  Proposition 187 may have been focused on taking away incentives to come or to stay in the U.S., but I think my approach is stronger and hits more accurately.  To begin, a segment of American businesses, both companies and corporations, both large and small, are knowingly providing this incentive.  This is especially true of the large corporations.  Illegal immigrants wouldn’t come in the first place if they didn’t have jobs to come to or if they knew there wouldn’t be anything for them when they arrived.  Businesses that hire illegal immigrants should be penalized, perhaps harshly, if they do so.  The billions of dollars that are being wasted in Iraq could be channeled into a number of new and far more constructive projects.  For example, some funds, perhaps a few hundred million dollars, a pittance by comparison to “Gulf War II”, could be used for enforcement, either through physical inspection of commercial property or by tracking business activity that seems suspicious.  All businesses could be inspected or audited in this way, or perhaps taken at random.  No one business would know when they will be investigated in the latter case.  Perhaps an initial, one time, six-month grace period from the time of the project’s inception could be applied, giving all businesses all over the country a chance to “clean house” before they are potentially investigated.  After that, businesses, even large corporations, that are caught would pay a penalty, perhaps a large fine, which would be followed by a larger fine for a second offense.  Monetary fines would be relative to the company’s or corporation’s total assets, so that even a large organization would feel a pinch if they cross the line.  A third offense could result in the business’s license being suspended for a time, or revoked permanently.

            I’m not sure if there is a Constitutional precedent for seizing the companies assets, but doing so when the business is shut down would help to ensure that the offenders won’t simply set up shop again with another name.  The seized assets could also be used to help fund the project, if needed, or perhaps funnel money back into the system that was drained of tax dollars because the illegal immigrants needed them.  With penalties like these, you could bet your life that these organizations will be a lot more careful about hiring illegal immigrants.  They would be checking the documentation of every employee very, very carefully.  All documents and papers would be checked carefully and researched to be certain of their validity.  The funding for this project would also be used to streamline and enhance the government departments that would be in charge of it, thereby making it faster and easier for employers to check documentation and with fewer mistakes.  If this project seems severe for some, remember that the consequences of not enforcing this are dire and warrant such a severe approach.  For those that doubt that this would be enforceable, I couldn’t disagree more.  I am absolutely certain that this is enforceable, if we have the will to do it.

            Of course, there is a valid concern that a large number of illegal immigrants suddenly out of work would put an even greater strain on our social services if they apply for welfare, etc., not to mention the sudden increase in crime.  Still, we could allow the situation to continue as it is and get worse, which is a certainty or we can take some form of action, whose consequences are a maybe.  I admit that this could apply for Prop 187 as well.  Perhaps implementing my suggestion in conjunction with some measure similar to Proposition 187 would increase the effect substantially.  Perhaps taking both of these measures would work if used in conjunction of granting amnesty for some and deporting others.  Perhaps the multi-tiered approach works the best.  Perhaps taking a chance is better than leaving things as they are.  Again, the consequences of doing nothing are dire.

            With the available jobs drying up, coming to the U.S. would be a less attractive prospect for an illegal immigrant.  If someone wanted to enter this country for work, they would have to go through official channels and wait in line just like everyone else.  Fair is fair.  This endeavor would also make more jobs available to U.S. citizens, giving them more bargaining power, more rights, etc.  Of course, it would also benefit legal residents or anyone else that has come to the U.S. using proper channels or legal immigrants.  It might also give any illegal immigrants that are granted amnesty more rights and bargaining power.  Still, I personally believe that, in any hiring decision, priority should always be given to U.S. citizens first.  Again, fair is fair.

            We live in a very different America than our parents or, especially, our grandparents.  In the generation of their youth, was there really such a need for cheap, unskilled labor to compose the backbone of the U.S. workforce or is this a construct of our more modern times?  Perhaps the need for them is a response to their availability as much as it is the reverse.  The argument that illegal immigrants make up the bulk of our unskilled workforce and that we need them for that or else our society will collapse rings hollow to me.  Certainly, if they weren’t here, there would be those who would step forward to do these same jobs.  There are untold numbers of Americans that are desperately poor, out of work, or greatly underutilized.  This segment of the population spans the entire spectrum from our inner cities all the way to our rural lands.  Wouldn’t it be more ethical and practical to employ them, instead, to cultivate our crops, clean our bathrooms, wipe our tables, etc.?  Doesn’t our leadership owe it to them, and to us, instead of importing, directly or indirectly, millions of non citizens to do these jobs?

            Now, what to do about those who have yet to cross our border illegally?  Well, we have to make it more difficult to physically enter the U.S. without proper authorization.  Our borders are only lightly guarded, but they don’t have to be.  I absolutely refuse to buy the pathetic excuse that it would be impossible to properly guard our borders or that they are fatalistically porous.  The means certainly exists, if not the will.  The more conservative elements in Congress have suggested building a wall along the border.  The problem with that is that walls are made to be breached, dug under, or otherwise bypassed.  It would also take a long time build, unless we had the army corps of engineers, but they are probably all in Iraq anyway.  It might help somewhat if it was built right, complete with electronic sensors, etc.  It would be quite a feat of engineering, in any rate, that would require a huge sum of money.  Too bad all of our dollars have been squandered in the fool’s war in Iraq.  Maybe we could have used some of it to build it.  I have a better idea, however.  Perhaps our troops could be used to guard the border.  That is what they are for, after all.  They’re for defense, not invading foreign countries without provocation.  We’re spending hundreds of billions of dollars to keep a few hundred thousand troops in Iraq.  Why not bring them all home and use only one hundred thousand troops to guard the, approximately, 850 mile border with Mexico.  If spread out from the Pacific ocean to the Gulf of Mexico, each soldier would, on average, be about forty five feet from his or her comrade, within line of sight at all times of another soldier.  That would prevent anyone from sneaking across.  Since the troops would be on our home soil, they would be much cheaper to feed and maintain than in a foreign desert half a world away.  Added benefits include protection against terrorists that might sneak in also, if you believe in that sort of thing.  Perhaps the troops could be used in conjunction with the wall idea along the border.  However, I’m certain that the troops alone would do better than the wall alone, perhaps making the wall unnecessary.  I certainly have more confidence in living, breathing troops than an inanimate wall to do the job properly.

            If armed guards on the border to prevent unarmed crossers from entering sounds too harsh, consider that no violence would occur if no attempt to violate the border is attempted in the first place.  They will not invade Mexico.  They would be there to guard.  I suppose if one wanted to be extra careful to avoid casualties, the troops could be armed with non lethal forms of weaponry, such as rubber ammunition, tear gas, tasers, or anything deemed appropriate.  Name it.  For a compromise, a soldier could be equipped with a sidearm, loaded with live ammunition, just in case a more violent “crosser” arrives, such a terrorist, criminal, etc.

            Even if the border were truly secure, what would we do with illegal immigrants that are already here?  If business are held accountable and punished if they cross the line, and the jobs dry up, then some portion of the illegal immigrant population may leave on their own.  For the rest, there is the idea that has come out of Congress.  The compromise brought forth, advocating some form of amnesty to this segment of the population, has some merit to it.  I might also advocate allowing illegal immigrants who have been here for five or more years to stay with provisions similar to those stated by Congress.  It’s not a perfect solution, but the mistake of having too many enter the U.S. has already been made.  Now it’s damage control.  Rather than deport millions, many of which may already have ties to this country, familial or otherwise, it may be best to make provisions for some of them to stay.  Even with the objections that I stated earlier, it might be a place to start.

            Still, I would impose some conditions and restrictions to this.  The first would be the trickiest, that of only granting amnesty to illegal immigrants here five or more years.   These are those most likely to have strong ties to their new home.  Those here less than five years or more than two might be given amnesty if one or more members of their immediate family has been granted amnesty or is actually a legal resident or even a U.S. citizen.  Those here less than two years would be deported, with a chance to apply for residency, legally, just like everyone else.  Again, fair is fair.  However, this restriction is tricky because it may not be possible to determine with certainty which illegal immigrant has been here for what amount of time, since they are “undocumented”.  The only ones that may have some record are those who were granted temporary work visas that have expired and they stayed past the time they were supposed to leave.  Perhaps their employers might have a record as to when they started work, but I doubt that anyone would own up to having hired an illegal immigrant, unless they were given some assurance that they wouldn’t be penalized in any way in that instance.  Other than that, I cannot think of another way, off hand, how an illegal immigrant would be able to produce reliable documentation as to how long he/she has been here.  Without that documentation, a decision would still have to be made whether to give any form of amnesty or to deport.

            It’s also tricky for another reason.  Oftentimes, illegal immigrants have children after they arrive.  Those children are considered U.S. citizens, since they were born here.  In these cases, the child’s parents become immune to deportation.  While we’re at it, this provides another incentive for illegal immigrants to come.  It also provides an incentive to have children as quickly as possible.  This can exacerbate the strain on social services and tax dollars as well as increase the U.S. population rapidly.  More on population growth later.  This is a gross misapplication of the law that says that children born in the U.S. are automatically U.S. citizens.  If a child is born to illegal immigrants, then he/she should not be automatically considered legal, let alone a U.S. citizen.  In this case, the parents and their child may be deported, free to apply for legal entry just like everyone else.  However, I would be willing to apply the five year rule in this case, also.  If the child is five or more years old when the presence of his/her parents is discovered, then perhaps amnesty, or even U.S. citizenship could apply in that case.  By that time, a child may identify with the adopted country of his/her parents rather than the parents’ country of origin.  At least, unlike other illegal immigrants, it’s a more certain way to know how long someone has been here in the U.S.  Children of illegal immigrants granted amnesty would also be granted amnesty if under the age of 18.  I know it may seem harsh to apply these rules and restrictions to a child, but all those considered must stand on equal ground, with an equal chance to enter, or not enter, the U.S.  I hope I don’t have to remind the readers that legal immigrants have children too, and it isn’t fair to them that they may wish to enter the country with their children, but cannot because their slot was “moved back” because an illegal immigrant trumped the system.  The line must be drawn somewhere or it becomes ineffective, thereby defeating the purpose of having it, or any related rule or law.

            If amnesty is granted, then it should most certainly be conditional, for a time, perhaps five years, which is the same amount of time a legal newcomer to the United States would have to wait before being eligible for citizenship.  Once conditional amnesty is granted, those who are here would become “documented”, and the INS would have the means to track each person individually.  Additional provisions that I would add are as follows:  First, each individual must have no criminal record for the five years of his/her conditional amnesty.  If a felony is committed and proven in a court of law, deportation might occur.  Some misdemeanors might also apply.  I doubt that anyone who is a criminal at heart can behave for five years straight, so I think that’s enough time.  Second, at the end of five years, some standard of English proficiency must be attained.  Federal funds must be allocated toward teaching all those granted amnesty the necessary skills to read, write, and speak English.  Yes, we can afford it.  No excuses.  Third and on that note, classes on American culture and history must be taken to ease the transition into American society.  This would also be helpful when the time comes to take the test for U.S. citizenship, if one chooses to do so.  Again, we have the money.  We can do it.  Fourth, the individual must make a meaningful contribution to society.  This includes working for adults and going to school for juveniles.  Volunteer work might also be acceptable in some cases.  If five additional years past the point conditional amnesty is granted seems too long, try to remember that these individuals came to this country illegally.  The very fact that they are here is unfair to those who take legitimate and legal steps, using proper channels, to enter the U.S. and become either permanent residents or citizens.  Five years is definitely fair and certainly not too much to demand.

            One analogy that can be made from all of this is that of the family unit.  When one is taking in a new family member, that new member must learn to obey the rules of their new household and make every effort to integrate themselves into the new family.  Behaving contrary to the family’s behavioral norms or speaking a different language will prevent integration into that family.  On the other hand, the said family needs to make every effort, if they are allowing the new member to stay, to make it as easy as possible to assimilate.  Both must take responsibility.  Of course any family can only take in so many new members at a time, therefore there should be a very sensible restriction on the numbers of new members allowed in.  Further, try to remember that it’s perfectly o.k. to decide who comes into your family and who doesn’t.  It’s perfectly o.k. to not allow someone into your home that you don’t want in your home.  It’s your RIGHT!  There seems to be a rather disturbing mindset that if you turn someone away at your door that you are being harsh or cruel.  Quite the opposite.  You have a duty to the well being of your home.  You don’t really have to prove anything or make any cases.  You, YOU have the right to let someone in or not to let someone in.  End of story.

            On that note, there is another analogy, that of a sinking boat.  Implementing any plan for illegal immigrants already here will be meaningless if, from this point on, we don’t take the concept of a border seriously.  Bailing out the water is only part of the solution.  The hole must also be sealed, or at least reduced, slowing the leak.

            Accommodation is not the answer.  In fact it’s destructive.  Don’t take away incentives to assimilate into U.S. society.  Provide them.  If we are to expect certain standards from those we allow into the country, then we must also provide the means to attain those standards.  If those granted amnesty take responsibility, then so must we.  Since we waste hundreds of billions of dollars in Iraq in an endeavor that doesn’t benefit U.S. society one bit, it isn’t much to ask to allocate a tiny fraction of that to this cause.

            To say more about accommodation, I just cringe every time I see a sign in both English and Spanish or hear an announcement in both English and Spanish.  I cringe even more when job requirements require Spanish speaking proficiency for positions that formerly didn’t require it.  I get absolutely sick when I hear that the test to become a U.S. citizen is now offered in foreign languages.  It may seem nice that we are trying to make the country more inviting, especially, to the Spanish speaking segment of the population, but it makes things worse, not better, in the long run.  It’s another form of accommodation.  Multilingual societies may have some advantages, but only to a limit.  After that, its divisive.  As I’ve said before, language is one of the glues that holds society together.

            I strongly believe that the multi part approach, that of border security, business accountability, conditional amnesty, and education, is a nearly full proof solution to this dilemma.  If given the chance and the means, I believe that many, perhaps nearly all of those granted amnesty would jump at the chance to successfully assimilate into American society, making the effort to learn the customs, language and culture, if we make it clear that this is what we expect of them.  This plan would work.  I am certain of it, provided that we strictly curb the number of new immigrants that come in, both legal and illegal.  Of course, these measures are only a few ways to deal with the situation.  There are others that I will describe in the last segment of this article.  The problem is that we may not get the chance to implement any of these measures, or any other not mentioned due to certain corrupting forces in our country, which I’ll talk about in the last section of this article.

            Still, after everything that I just said, I cannot fully wrap myself around the idea that it is perfectly o.k. for anyone to come to the U.S. by breaking all the rules.  Those granted amnesty will be “getting away with it” in some fashion.  Doing so is a slap in the face of the millions who have come here using proper channels, playing by the rules, and demonstrating a respect for the laws of their new home.  By coming here illegally one is, upon entry, technically committing a civil offense, their very first act upon entry.  This is not a very good way to start one’s new life in a new country.  If one doesn’t respect the laws of their adopted country, then how can one expect to be a good citizen?  I leave this moral question to the readers.  It may sound harsh, but it is one that cannot be ignored, whatever position one takes on the issue.  We can’t prevent what has already happened.  Wagging my finger in an accusatory fashion won’t solve anything.  We have no other choice but to try to move on from here, perhaps enacting the plans that I just mentioned.

            Before I go on to what I feel are the underlying reasons we are in this mess, I wish to make mention of another risk factor that comes from unchecked illegal immigration.  This is the problem of unchecked population growth.  If the population of the U.S. population continues to grow as fast as it has for too much longer, it could, by itself, spell disastrous results for society.  This is certainly true globally, but is also true for the U.S. alone and, right now, immigration is the primary cause of U.S. population gain.  Perhaps if the proper preparations could be made for a large population increase, we might be all right, but we are and have been a very long way from being properly prepared for something like this.  We have a reckless attitude about destroying natural habitat to build endless new subdivisions of cheap, throwaway homes, wide boulevard, shopping malls, parking lots.  Unchecked population growth is certainly no small contributor to this dilemma.  Although a better city building philosophy would be paramount to solving this particular problem, limiting population growth, from unchecked immigration in particular, is vital.  It’s only going to get worse, much worse, unless we check our growth.  In addition, Americans are, per person, the worst polluters in the world.  Until we change our attitudes and methods to be more environmentally friendly, there shouldn’t be too many more of us.

            I don’t want to neglect to mention that many others have offered solutions to the illegal immigration dilemma besides myself.  Some of them may have come up with even better ideas.  Many of them, however, have come under fire, being accused of being anti-immigration or even a racist.  Such are harsh accusations and border on slander, as often they are undeserved.  Although there is a blatant difference between legal and illegal immigration, there are still many who equate them together and deride those who are anti-illegal immigration.  Well, why wouldn’t anyone in their right mind be anti-illegal immigration?  By definition, they’re not supposed to be here.  We shouldn’t mince words here.  In effect, they are trespassing.  When there is a trespasser, the inhabitants of the domain trespassed upon have every right in the world to cry foul.  It seems a shame that I have to point this out.  It should be self evident, but it isn’t for many, apparently.

            I simply would not accept any criticism of being anti immigration.  One can be very pro immigration and be very anti-illegal immigration.  Further, this discussion warrants serious dialogue.  I don’t approve of anyone being bullied into backing down from their point of view because they fear being labeled a racist or bigot, an unfortunately common tactic.

The Underlying Issue

            I’ve discussed the immediate issue, but all of what I’ve said up to this point is but a piece of a very large pie.  Now, I will talk about the pie itself, the real reason we have this “problem”.  It’s important to deal with the piece by itself, but only to a point.  To really deal with it, one must deal with the pie.  Looking at the pie will also reveal other problems that are much more related to the illegal immigrant issue than most people realize.  Alright then.  I’ll try to go easy on you, but I make no guarantees.  Here we go.

            Let’s start by taking a step back for a moment.  Ask yourself the following question.  Why are undocumented, or illegal, immigrants really here?  Is it because the border isn’t tight enough?  Yes, the border isn’t tight enough.  No, because the border could easily be tightened up, but it isn’t, not because we don’t have the ability, not because we don’t have the will, but rather because we are not permitted to.  Let’s face it.  The illegal immigrants are here to serve someone’s purpose and it isn’t because the United States is a compassionate country reaching out its hand to the needy.  With a few exceptions, U.S policy has not traditionally been based on compassion.  We have over forty million people in the U.S. without health insurance, our schools are crumbling, the gap between rich and poor is growing, we have huge numbers of prisoners on death row, some of them innocent, and we’ve invaded a sovereign country and directly or indirectly killed hundreds of thousands of people, just to name a few things!  Yikes!  Okay!  Let’s face it, we are NOT a compassionate country.  U.S. Policy is usually enacted because some kind of political or financial gain is to be had for someone or some entity with a high measure of influence or outright power.  Power over public policy and lawmaking, that is.

            This brings me to my real target for the day and it isn’t the illegal immigrants.  My true target, the object of my attack, is big business and corporate power.  No one can argue that the power and influence of large corporations and businesses has grown to such an extent that they now have the ability to make national policy, directly or indirectly.  Not since the Liaise Faire days of mass industrialism during the late 19^th century has the rich and powerful usurped the power of a supposedly democratically elected government.  In the present day, the large corporations, now becoming more multinational, with no loyalty to the well being of any specific country or its people, are the new rich and powerful, and they have an agenda.  Cheap labor for maximum profit.  Cheap labor is the foundation upon which many of these organizations are supported.  Without it, they couldn’t survive, or survive nearly as easily.  They survive and prosper because there are ever increasing numbers of illegal immigrants, mostly from Mexico, who provide that cheap labor, workers who consider slave wages to be sheer luxury.  They toil picking fruit, cleaning bathrooms, busing tables, so that some greedy bastard can sit behind his marble desk in his 5000 square foot office and drive home to his mansion in his Rolls Royce.  More importantly, they don’t speak English, don’t understand how American society or culture functions, and are completely dependent upon the goodwill, or lack thereof, of their employers.  They may even be illiterate, even in Spanish.  Further, they face the prospect of losing their jobs and being deported if they get out of line.  In other words they provide a ready made workforce of unskilled labor that is completely expendable, powerless, and at the mercy of their employers.

            Then there’s NAFTA.  The North American Free Trade Agreement has done so much to bolster corporate power at the expense of the worker, unskilled, skilled, or professional, American, Mexican or otherwise.  What a wonderful instrument NAFTA is.  It makes billions of dollars for U.S. corporations and their subsidiaries, while it also starves out the rest of us.  NAFTA and other programs like it make it easy to export skilled and professional U.S. jobs out of the country while U.S. workers are forced to take minimum wage jobs with little or no benefits, or collect unemployment, and therefore drain more tax dollars, if they are lucky.  They often just go broke as they try in vain to make ends meet with minimum wage jobs in corporate retail America, since that is what is left over, in abundance.  The same people who are inviting or bringing in cheap unskilled labor are the same people who are outsourcing our skilled or professional jobs out of the country.  It’s all to maximize profit at our expense.  These employers can afford to keep their wages low, and not pay benefits worth a damn, because workers are a dime a dozen, because there is an abundance of immigrant labor, much of which is illegal, from many third world nations, mainly from Latin America, especially Mexico.  They have been and still are creating, directly or indirectly, an employers market.  This is yet another way that we, the citizenry of the United States have been sold our by our leaders.  The welfare of the country and its citizens has been sacrificed so that a few can reap huge financial windfalls.

            Of course, NAFTA is also responsible for exploiting Mexican workers in their home country, destroying jobs in abundance, rendering them destitute, degrading their economy to an even lower point than it already was.  Sure, Mexico has been a poor country for a long time, but the situation has become much worse.  This created an even larger number of desperate would-be workers who would, and did, come to the U.S. in the hopes of finding something, anything.  They would even be willing to risk life and limb to come to a country where they didn’t know the rules, the customs, or speak the tongue.  The number of illegal immigrants from Mexico has been large for quite a while, as has been the destruction of middle class America, but NAFTA has aggravated the situation.  NAFTA didn’t really create this situation, but it did make an existing problem much worse, like throwing gasoline on a fire.

            NAFTA is another link in a very large chain of unchecked corporate power gone awry.  As it is now, corporate power has so much influence on U.S. policy that it strongly resembles the influence the mob had on local governments during the era of prohibition.  I hate to break it to you, but the level of corruption within the U.S. government is so strong right now, that corporate leaders and our so-called elected officials aren’t even bothering to hide their “scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours” policy, anymore.  It’s all out in the open, now.  The fact that they’re still getting away with it demonstrates just how far it has gone.

            Big business employs illegal immigrants while the government looks the other way or bends to their will to give increasingly greater ease to their policies.  In some cases, it’s no longer an issue of the U.S. government unwilling to enforce anything resembling an effective border patrol or a sane immigration policy.  At this point, illegal immigrants are even transported in by the corporations themselves, with only the flimsiest of documentation.  So, we do have the ability to guard the border and enforce immigration laws, especially in regard to holding businesses accountable for whom they hire.  However, the corporate power structure has tied our hands and rendered us powerless.

            Also, during the past few decades, we’ve seen a great increase in the use of the guest worker program, allowing a form of temporary immigration to take place, allowing people who are not citizens to enter the U.S. to work at various jobs.  This has also caused an increase in illegal immigration, since many of those who enter, having bypassed anything resembling a border guard, remain even after their temporary visas expire.  By the way what are we doing allowing this to happen in the first place when there are multitudes of unemployed, or underemployed workers already here in the U.S., those who are U.S. citizens?  They are allowed in or, more accurately, brought here so that the corporations and big businesses that hire them can keep their wages low, deny benefits, and remove any bargaining power that an American worker might have should they be employed.  In this vein, it also decreases or eliminates the power of labor unions.

            Overall, the effect of corporate policy on U.S. policy has been the destruction of the middle class, the backbone upon which the economy rests.  This reflected in the changing socioeconomic face of America.  The power, politically and financially, is increasingly concentrated in the hands of the few while the majority work as little more than wage slaves for a few dollars an hour.  The many, the increasing numbers of poor, are working for the few and powerful.  Many U.S. citizens, might put up some resistance to having to work for minimum wage with no health insurance or other benefits, while breaking their backs.  Desperately poor workers from desperately poor foreign countries, on the other hand, might be more compliant.  Compliance is needed in order for the fat cats to get fatter at the expense of the workers they take advantage of.

            Let’s more closely examine the corporate welfare state we live in for just a moment.  First, American workers who are put out of their middle class incomes are forced to rely on social services and public assistance, if they can get it, in order to survive.  Second, the huge numbers of illegal immigrants allowed, or brought in, rely on these benefits.  These factors cause a huge drain on our tax dollars.  This is one way that big business and corporate America gets a handout of money from the government, our money.  This is money they don’t have to pay to their workers in the form of a living wage or in medical benefits.  Keep in mind that in an environment where cheap labor is abundant, it stands to reason that at any given time there will be a large number of people who will be using public assistance to survive, thus part of the drain on our tax dollars.

            This punches a hole in the argument that vilifies illegal immigrants, saying that they “mooch off” of our tax dollars by using our social services.  There may be some truth to it and the practice absolutely must stop, but the blame must be placed where it really belongs, the corporate oligarchy, the true culprit.  The illegal immigrants have no choice but to flood the county hospitals, clinics, and other medical facilities, all at taxpayer expense.  The corporations and businesses that hire them are the ones getting away with paying wages too low for anyone to live on and not offering medical benefits.  They are the ones who are really mooching off of the taxpayer, so that they can live in larger mansions and buy more luxury cars.  Shame on them.  Perhaps it would be more prudent, more sensible, and far more just, to require them to repay the government for lost tax revenue, instead of making the illegal immigrants pay their back taxes.  They are certainly more capable of making the payments!

            Since corporate America has undue influence on, even control of, our national policies, it stands to reason that the presence of millions of illegal immigrants in the U.S. is both a direct and indirect result of that power.  The cause and effect indicators are all present.  Their numbers certainly seem to coincide with the dramatic increase of corporate power since the 1990s.  Dealing with the illegal immigrant situation at face value may yield some positive result.  However, dealing with the real problem behind the scenes will have a much greater effect in the long run.  In fact, dealing with the problem of unchecked corporate power may be one of the very best ways to deal with this situation.  On the other hand, implementing the solutions I proposed earlier in this article may work from the other direction.  Eliminating the availability of a huge force of cheap, unskilled labor might check corporate power in favor of the American worker, the middle class, and our society in general.  It could be one effective way to put a wedge in the machinery of corporate corruption.  Of course, we have to successfully get to that point first.

            Closely related to the use of cheap labor for the abuse of corporate power is that of the minimum wage.  Raising the minimum wage would have a huge benefit here, but only if it is raised to a “living wage”, not the paltry sums that have been commonly proposed.  In my opinion, a living wage should be at least $12.00 an hour.  AT LEAST!  This way, if the minimum wage were high enough, there would be far fewer people in this country below the poverty line, and need money out of welfare, etc.  U.S. citizens would make enough money to survive in the short run and have greater access to jobs in the long run.  Once the minimum wage is raised, the incentive for big business and large corporations to hire illegal immigrants and influence national policy to make it easier for them to enter the country would be gone, or at least degraded.  While we’re at it, any illegal immigrants granted amnesty would be able to make ends meet more easily.  It’s a win-win situation.  Of course, this would break the backs of unbridled corporate greed.  The corporate rich and the unethical would be the only ones who would really suffer.  They would never go for this plan.  We will have to fight them for it.

            Aside from NAFTA, there is another reason that Mexico has been in such dire straits and it has been going on for a much longer time.  The drug war.  It’s the big dirty secret that few really want to deal with.  It’s been a failure.  In fact, it had been a dismal failure.  No matter how many times we revisit the issue, the conclusion is the same.  It doesn’t prevent crime.  It actually increases crime.  It destroys lives.  Fighting this beast only feeds it and makes it stronger.  Aside from how it hugely affects our social climate here in the U.S., it also has a very nasty effect on the people in countries where the drugs come from or through which drugs travel to get to the U.S.  Since these drugs are illegal, they feed the coffers of the black market criminal element that grows it, transports them, and makes them available.  This funds the drug lords in Latin American countries that we hear about in the news.  These drug lords are part of a huge criminal underground and organized crime network that riddles countries south of the border with corruption that would stagger the average American.  Of course, before too long, we will have a government here in the U.S. that is completely captive to the Corporate network, if it isn’t already.  In any country where the government is completely or nearly completely non operational, it’s no wonder that the welfare of the few in power are exalted at the expense of everyone else.  Sound familiar?  Looking at conditions in Latin America, Mexico included, should prove a dire warning for those of us here in the U.S. of things to come.  In any case, it should be no surprise that the masses of people in Mexico are so desperately poor that they would flood into the U.S. to find work and, hopefully, a new life away from corruption, violence, and a complete disregard for their welfare.  In addition, farmers in third world countries are priced out of their business because of U.S. corporate megafarming.  They often turn to cash crops such as opium, cocaine, etc. to make enough to live on.  So, if you want to really deal with the problem of illegal immigration in the U.S. from Mexico or other Latin American countries, a really, really good place to start would be to end the drug war, either by decriminalizing the illegal drugs or by making them legal.  While you’re at it, don’t buy non-organic food, either.

            Now, about poor Mexico.  Let’s face it, this country is poor.  In fact, it’s so dirt poor that many of its people have a standard of living that is low even compared to other third world countries, and it shares an 850 mile border with us.  As a nation, the U.S. has a particularly nasty habit of wasting hundreds of billions of dollars on wasteful and unwise investments.  This includes the Iraq “war”.  By the way, where is all of that $300B really going, anyway.  It certainly isn’t going to the troops.  It isn’t going into reconstruction.  In other words, this money isn’t going toward any project that benefits anyone, let alone the U.S. or its people.  I do, however, have a better use for it.  Let’s use our vast national wealth to actually assist Mexico.  I know it sounds like a strange idea for some people.  We could use the money for the U.S. itself, such as social programs, infrastructure, education, a single payer medical insurance system, etc., etc., etc.  I would certainly give that first priority.  However, since it isn’t being used for that, an alternative would be to help the U.S. indirectly by helping Mexico.  Since we have a habit in meddling in other nation’s affairs, why not do it for the greater good of all?  Would it not be in everyone’s best interests to make an investment to turn Mexico from a Third world country into a first world one?  Imagine that!  Imagine a prosperous, Spanish speaking country just south of the border, where democracy and a high standard of living are alive and well instead of distant dreams.  Under such circumstances, would anyone come over the border en masse when they can find a good job and a good home in their native country?  Of course, immigration from Mexico will always be with us.  However, so might be the reverse.  I can imagine that some Americans who might speak Spanish, might want to move to warm weather and white sandy beaches in a wealthy, prosperous, and socially enlightened nation south of the border.  Migrations of people from one country to another is a fact of life.  It’s just that in my scenario, it won’t reach such monstrous proportions where people are abused and the social, economic, and political landscape is sent spinning.  This plan would work especially well in conjunction with ending the drug war.

The Farming Issue

            Since the issue of food production is such a big one, and comes up often in arguments about illegal immigration, I wanted to give it its own section.  The argument has been made that illegal immigration supports our way of life through doing various unskilled jobs in every sector of the U.S. economy, but especially by farming and picking our fruit and vegetables.  Arguments have been made that we pay as little for food as we do because of their cheap, non-unionized, labor and that if we didn’t have their labor, we would pay a lot more for food, or have a lot less of it.

            Well, there are two arguments that I will say to counter these.  First of all, would we really be in such bad shape if food cost more?  We would need to eat less and Americans are, by and large, well, too large as it is.  Maybe we don’t need to go to restaurants to get that extra helping of chicken fried steak smothered in rich, creamy gravy.  Maybe we could just pay a little extra, per vegetable, and go to a local farmers market, and buy food, organically grown, and live longer with a narrower waistline.  Would that be so bad?  Besides, corporate farming isn’t helping the environment much.  With chemical fertilizers and insecticides, the food produced isn’t nearly as high quality nor as healthy as those grown organically and at a smaller, more local scale.  Yes, in case you’re wondering, we can feed our population this way, provided we do a little reorganizing of our food production and distribution systems.  This would involve not having to transport food hundreds of miles to their markets, but rather producing it in the vicinity to where it will be sold and distributed to the populations that will eat it.

            Large scale corporate farming in the U.S. produces a huge surplus of agricultural goods, so much so that the world market is flooded with them, driving down prices worldwide.  This makes it harder for impoverished farmers in third world countries to sell their goods at competitive prices and still makes ends meet, making them even poorer.  No wonder immigration to the U.S. is so attractive.  I wouldn’t be surprised if Mexican farm workers have the same problem.  In addition to NAFTA and the drug war, this is another reason it’s hard for Latin Americans to make ends meet in their native lands.  It’s in no small part because of us.  They can’t make ends meet in Mexico, so they come here.  Makes sense.  Guess whose labor makes it possible for the large corporate farms to succeed as they do?

            In addition, since much of the food we produce doesn’t even stay in this country anyway, getting sold in foreign markets, would producing less really hurt us?  I don’t think it would and it may actually help us.  The only ones who would suffer if we didn’t have the huge surplus would be the corporate farmers.  It wouldn’t be the poor in foreign countries, who would get along much better without our “help”.  Without cheap agricultural labor, we wouldn’t produce as much food, but there would still be more than enough to eat for those here in the U.S.  Without that huge surplus getting sold outside the U.S., the global prices of agricultural products would increase in value, making it easier and more prosperous to be a farmer in those third world nations, including Mexico.  Mexican farmers would have an easier time making ends meet and won’t be in such a hurry to risk their lives to come to the U.S. and work on American corporate farms.

            The second argument that I am making on the farming issue is even stronger.  Simply put, I do not approve of slavery.  Did you get that?  Slavery.  Let’s say that again.  Slavery.  It doesn’t sound so good as it rolls off your tongue, does it?  Slavery.  This is exactly what is going on here and it’s not just in regard to farming.  Many U.S. based corporations either actively import, or lower the boundaries for illegal immigrants to enter the U.S. because they want people to work for them for next to nothing, for wages that they would have no hope of supporting themselves with, without medical benefits, without the means to care for themselves if they got hurt, without any recourse if they complain that they have to work extra hours without pay in unsafe working conditions.  They are here illegally.  Therefore, they have no rights.  Threats of deportation, imprisonment or simply the loss of their jobs are taken very seriously.  It also doesn’t matter to them if they speak English.  In fact, their employers likely prefer that they don’t.  It makes them even more vulnerable, makes it harder for them to obtain information that might empower them, and makes them less likely to improve their situation and possibly leave employment at said corporations.  They don’t want skilled laborers.  In fact, the more unskilled the better.  They want slaves and slaves is what they now have.  Their numbers are increasing.  You see them everywhere, in the cities, in the countryside.  Regions that never saw any substantial population of poor people from Mexico or other Latin American countries are now seeing vast populations appearing in a very short time.

            Arguments abound that poor immigrants from third world countries know the value of hard work for little pay because they don’t have the same opportunity in their native countries and that Americans don’t and are inherently lazy.  It has been said that Americans are lazy because so many refuse to work for minimum wage in harsh working conditions.  Hogwash!  Utter hogwash!  Americans are inherently some of the hardest working and toughest people in the world.  American citizens would never willingly become slaves.  Americans have a tendency to complain when they are treated unfairly by sadistic and greedy corporations.  American workers tend to complain when they are being abused, underpaid, and overworked.  They are more capable of fighting back, too.  Corporate America knows this.  That’s why they want illegal immigrants to come.  They want them from third world countries so that they can take advantage of them!  Surely, there must be other ways to get by without using slave labor.

            Illegal immigration is a “hot” issue, not only because of all the powerful feelings and opinions that it brings up, but also because it is intertwined with so many other issues, not the least of which is the human rights issue.

In closing

            Of nearly anyone that I have ever spoken to, read about, or heard from, there is agreement that illegal immigration is a very serious problem.  This is certainly my personal perspective.  This view cuts across the entire political spectrum, whether liberal or conservative, whether democrat or republican.  Again, it’s not about one’s political views.  It’s about good sense.  Right now, it seems, our national policy seems to have abandoned it.  This doesn’t surprise me, however, as many of our national policies seem to have abandoned all sense or reason.

            This is an issue that really needs to be dealt with seriously, but hasn’t been.  The only reason it has come up recently is the action by Congress and the counteraction by a few million protesters on two different occasions.  What I would really like to know, and need to understand, is what the protesters are really fighting for, because it’s not clear to me.  Are they fighting for the right to come en mass and unchecked across the border and flood the labor market with their numbers?  If so, then I absolutely cannot support or abide it.  Are they asking for unchecked access to our social services, such as welfare?  If so, then I cannot agree with that.  Those services belong to U.S. citizens or, to a lesser extent, legal residents.  If they are asking for accommodation, which seems to be the case for those that ask for a path for citizenship for all illegal immigrants, then that’s not reasonable, either.  However, if they are fighting for the same fairness that any American worker would expect and deserve on the job, for fair wages, for safe and humane working conditions and treatment, and for medical insurance, then I can certainly understand and support that.  A raised “living” minimum wage would benefit everyone, in this case.  If they are demanding not to be declared felons and put into prison, then that’s reasonable.  If they are asking for the possibility of citizenship for some, those who meet certain criteria, then that’s reasonable, too.  Confusion about the protests are further aggravated by some of those who attended that were interviewed by reporters.  Some of those present stated that they were immigrants or the children of immigrants and came out in support.  As is typical, unfortunately, this clouds the distinction, yet again, between legal and illegal immigration.

            It’s really hard to say what type of effect the protests are really going to have on U.S. policy toward illegal immigration.  It’s possible that the protests could have a negative effect on the very cause that they are fighting for, causing a backlash against what is perceived as a demand for accommodation, if that is what they are asking for.  Again, I’m not really sure.  It’s also possible that their sheer numbers may panic both those who would have deported them outright and those who might have otherwise supported them.  I’m not even sure where I fall in that statement, to be perfectly honest.  Even for one such as myself, who is a strong supporter of peaceful protest, especially against oppression, it seems a little strange that so many people that aren’t supposed to be here are out protesting.  I’m trying to picture a scenario of several million Americans migrating to another country illegally, then protesting against their government for their rights.  At least one good thing has come of it.  It has brought the issue to the surface, where it belongs, so that serious dialogue now seems possible.

            One thing that I find very interesting and curious, aside from the protests themselves is that millions of illegal immigrants and their supporters actually came out to protest at all.  I suppose they can fight back, after all.  That’s a good thing if abuse stops and corporate power is checked.  That’s a lot more than one can say for the so called U.S. citizenry.  When the going gets tough, we shop at Wal-Mart, buy gas and drive our cars.  What is with us these days, anyway?  It’s like we are asleep and we need to wake up!  I hate to say it but, in a way, the protesters shamed us.  How did they get organized so easily, anyway?  Why aren’t U.S. citizens getting out and protesting by the millions for any number of important, if not vital, issues?  Imagine what would happen if we all stood up like that and fought for what we believed in.  What if we turned out in such numbers to demand the end to the Iraq “war”?  What if we protested drilling in the Alaskan wilderness?  What if we demanded an end to building exurbia after exurbia and demanded compact, walkable, transit friendly cities that run with green power and without cars?  What if we demanded localized, non-corporate, organic, environmentally friendly farming in this way?  What if we really, I mean really, protested the robbery of hundreds of billions of dollars from the taxpayers coffers, of hard earned tax money, by greedy corporations, with the blessing of our government.  HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS!!   Democracy and freedom are not birthrights.  They must be earned and maintained through constant vigilance.  We must fight for our democracy or else it will be taken from us.  The real enemy is not the illegal immigrants.  Rather, it is much closer to home.

            I hope that I have impressed upon you, the reader, that the illegal immigration issue, along with the related issues, is one that needs to be dealt with, seriously and soon.  There has been a lot of argument about the morality, ethics, or feasibility of implementing one plan or another.  While we are arguing, however, the situation is becoming increasingly more dire.  This isn’t something that can be delayed.  Some form of constructive action must be taken now.

            The U.S. citizenry has been sold out and the situation continues to get worse.  It won’t stop until the U.S. is an empty shell of its former self.  The process has already begun and has progressed quite far, already.  While the president has us distracted in a war without end in the Middle East and Persia, we are having the life sucked out of us right here at home.  Bait and switch.

            Most people believe that we are in an epic battle between the Conservatives, or the Republicans and the Liberals, or the Democrats.  The truth is far more complex that this.  Like many of the Republicans in office, this administration is very unlike the true Republican template.  That’s because it isn’t true Conservatism.  They promote Federal power over state’s rights to an extreme that is uncomfortable even for me.  They give lip service to morality without practicing it at all.  The Republican party has been hijacked by corrupt corporate pseudo-Christians who are taking apart the Constitution with such vulgar maliciousness that no sane Conservative or Liberal would ever approve of.  Those who call themselves Democrats surprise me even more, going along with the corporate oligarchy in a way that is contrary to any sane policy.  In effect, there seems to be no difference between many of the Democrats or Republicans who hold public office.  They mostly seem to be abandoning their party lines, or loyalty to what our nation stands for, and pledging allegiance to the corporate state.  Illegal immigration is one, though very important, symptom of this corruption.

            In regard to those who hold public office or who aspire to do so, I give this dire warning.  Think seriously about the issue of illegal immigration and have some progressive and far reaching ideas in mind for reform.  In addition, think seriously about the other issues I’ve mentioned, which compose part of the larger picture of which illegal immigration is a part.  Think very seriously.  In regard to the issue itself at face value, it could be a deal maker or breaker in the upcoming elections.  I give this warning to those who may otherwise have many great ideas and the will to implement them, but who may find himself or herself on the wrong side of the issue.  I, for one, may actually vote against a candidate, even a Democrat, who fails to grasp the seriousness of this issue or who continues to support the irresponsible and frighteningly reckless policy we’ve been acting on so far.

            Although I don’t have all of the answers, I strongly believe that the solutions that I have presented are both constructive and effective.  If more than one of these are implemented together, they would compliment each other very nicely, magnifying their positive effects considerably.  It might even solve the problem completely.  Liberals may accuse me of being too conservative.  Conservatives may accuse me of being too liberal.  I don’t care.  My objective was to be objective and to offer my views on the subject.

            Lastly, step back from the idea of Republican versus Democrat for a moment and ask yourself what you really want your country to be.  You want the skilled and professional jobs to come back.  You want cities you could be proud of.  You want us to be the leaders again in technology, philosophy, ideology, and social advancement.  You want our civilization to be the shining light that everyone looks to for examples, not a raped and pillaged shell.  Implement the ideas that I mentioned throughout this article.  It could certainly help.  However, be absolutely certain to lay the blame where it really belongs.  This isn’t a liberal issue.  This isn’t a conservative issue.  It’s about sanity and good sense.

These are some, but not all, of the sources used for this article:

1)      “Drug Crazy”, by Mike Gray, c. 1998.

2)      “Fifty Million Californians”, by Leon F. Bouvier, c.1991.

3)      “How Many Americans?”, by Leon F. Bouvier, c. 1994.

4)      “Fast Food Nation”, by Eric Schlosser, c. 2002

5)      “Nickel and Dimed”, by Barbara Ehrenreich, c. 2002.

6)      “The Hightower Lowdown”, by Jim Hightower, June, 2005 Issue.

A Brief Amendment

May 15, 2006

            I was just finishing up this article when it became known that “W” would be making a presidential address in regard to the subject of illegal immigration.  After listening to the address, I was amazed that “W” made some points that closely resembled those that I had made in this article.  I am, of course, deeply suspicious of anything he says, no matter how good it sounds at face value.  I suspect that much of what he is proposing has a hidden, and destructive, agenda to it.  That’s how much his credibility has degraded, not that he had much to begin with.  Reading between the lines is even more important that what he says at face value, placing his words in the context of who he really represents.  It certainly isn’t us.  Also, there were some points that he made that I did not agree with by any means, and would only serve to cause more problems.  I would have expected no less from him.  I may address these points more fully in an upcoming article.  Until then, I ask you to watch what happens next on this subject very, very closely.

                                                All the best to you, America,

                                                                                    Marc I. Pezzell