The Great Diversion, 2006 Edition

I was going to wax poetically about the beauty of immigration; how this is a country of immigrants; how all of the great deeds and accomplishments in this country were somehow directly and indirectly done on the backs of immigrants. I was going to quote the saying on the Statue Of Liberty ("...huddled masses yearning to breath free..."), and I was going to go into our so-called "American Dream", how if you're willing to work hard, you are welcome to come to this country.

This is wasted sentiment, because our country clearly no longer believes it. We are turning people away at the boarder. The immigration process takes longer than it should, and we are throwing out those -- "illegally" here -- working and contributing to society. And now we are considering passing laws that would make it a felony offense to be an undocumented immigrant.

I'm willing to see the point of immigration opponents, at least from the economic standpoint. Illegal immigrants compete for jobs with legal and/or native-born workers, they don't necessarily pay taxes on the money they earn. And U.S. citizens do pay for the "burden" illegal immigrants place on federal resources, namely schools their kids attend with the rest of our kids, and housing.

But you know what? We've been living with this since the nation was founded. Immigrants have been coming to this country looking for work and a better life. Each wave of immigrants was resisted, often violently, by other ethnicities that preceded them, before finally being accepted and assimilated into the fabric of American society. Eventually, most immigrants became citizens. It wasn't until recently that we started giving undocumented immigrants the term, "illegal".

If we were truly interested in the plight of the native-born workers who are losing jobs to "illegals" (i.e. Hispanics, because you don't really hear about the "invasion" from Canada), then we would approach this from an economic standpoint. Supply and demand. Take away the demand for illegal workers and it takes away incentive for them to come over. Punish anyone who knowingly hires illegal workers. This ranges from farmers and other agricultural companies to the service industry, to families looking for servants. Don't make criminals of the immigrants, because they're only here because there's work for them here, not where they came from. The employers are to blame because they intentionally hire illegal immigrants, with the intention of paying only minimum wage (or lower). They are the ones who take away the jobs from native-born workers. And while we're at it, why don't we follow through on the promises of free trade? Oh sure, U.S. companies are big employers In Mexico and South America. But down there, more often than not, companies exploit workers even worse. We support warlords, and we're the biggest importer of drugs. Given these conditions, it's no wonder why people are trying to leave to come here. Oh sure, depressed economies of south and central America gave rise to oppression and poverty, but we haven't helped matters. It's hypocritical to think otherwise.

The hypocrisy continues. From the beginning of society, those in power try to find ways to distract from "real" issues. For those with Right Wing / Fascist leanings, the tendency is to stir up fear in the masses. The Republican party, The Bush Administration, and their followers have been good at it. The first one was easy: Terrorism. To keep people afraid of being bombed by Muslims, they brought up Iraq and WMD. When that lie started to surface, distract and respin with the fallacy that our presence/interference in the Middle East will somehow bring "stability" to the region. That, and our guys get to kill "ragheads". Then, as their poll numbers start to fade, the Right runs home to Mama: Abortion and Gays. Followed up by "The War on Christmas" and "oppression of Christians".

With Bush now at 29% approval, and with Republicans scrambling, they have resorted to the latest wedge issue that is meant to distract from our dismal failure in Iraq and the loss of trust in Bush/GOP with our national security: Immigration. Not only does this draw attention away from our failed policies, it gets the base riled up. Stirs up feelings of fear of being invaded by brown foreigners with racist rhetoric. The proposed law to make illegals felons (up to a year, I believe, or more imprisonment) will not solve anything. It will put more people in our already-overcrowded prisons. (But hey, that's a Republican pasttime; just shove people out of the way without treating the root cause). That is no insignificant financial burden on taxpayers. Also, it does nothing about why immigrants come here to begin with: the promise of work. Business/rich-friendly Republicans think that low, unfair wages will help the economy (or if not, at least it will give their rich buddies a nice lift). That's why employers will continue to hire illegal immigrants, and why the GOP will look the other way. Help business, and keep the rest angry about Latinos. A good plan to retain voters during this midterm election year.

There are no easy solutions to the problems with immigration, because in reality, it's more than an issue with just immigration. And it looks like it will take creative and brave decision-making to do it. Throwing people in jail, charging Mexico (for what illegal immigration has supposedly cost the U.S.), building a wall, and dialing up xenophobia and hate will not work. It won't stop people from coming over illegally.

On a related note, why all the attention on the Mexican border? Why not mobilize the Guard to our Canadian border as well? After all, that's where terrorists are trying to cross. And the 9/11 terrorists had visas. They weren't illegal aliens.

Update:
Bush gave a speech last night about immigration. Didn't watch. Apparently it was on before I left work. Anyway, apparently both sides in the issue weren't satisfied with what he had to say. Yglesias has a brief follow up, and a good point about Bush's proposed guest worker program.