10.17.06

Trying to make sense of the border fence

Posted in Politics at 9:34 am by Administrator

So Congress voted for a bill, signed into law by President Bush earlier this month, to build a 700-mile fence on the U.S.-Mexican border at a cost of at least $2 billion. Is this a solution to our illegal immigration problem or a band-aid promoted by some in Congress to capitalize on the anti-immigrant sentiment in the country? See this Washington Post story that includes interviews those with experience on the border who believe this is no solution.

Thousands of desperate Mexicans risk their lives to get into this country by any means necessary and some die tragically in the deserts of the Southwest. Reported deaths on the U.S.-Mexican border have doubled since 1995 and those numbers are most likely underreported.
Click here for the GAO report on the deaths of migrants trying to cross the border. This is an economic problem that expensive fences are not going to solve. Where there is a will there’s a way and people may be deterred for awhile but not stopped.

When American parents take their children out of the public school system and send them to private school, most people recognize that they are simply doing what they perceive is best for their children. That’s their right and no one criticizes them for that. Many parents would do the same if they could. But when people from Mexico come here—granted some illegally—and get jobs that most Americans won’t take, to provide what they perceive to be a better life for their families, the hard-liners argue they are criminals who are mooching off the system. From their perspective, they are here to make a better life for themselves. But is it really at Americans’ expense? That’s a tough question.

First off, whether or not you believe illegal immigrants ought to be here, they do buy stuff and pay sales taxes. Secondly, immigrant laborers from Latin America, legal and illegal, are a significant part of the construction industry and the people who harvest most of the fruits and vegetables you eat. (Having worked at farms and nurseries during the summers in middle school, high school and college, picking strawberries and cutting flowers, the Mexican workers were the most efficient.) As far as screening for illegals, its the employer’s responsiblity but no matter how thorough and legit the employer is, illegals can slip through because they lack the time and money or will to go over everyone’s papers with a fine-toothed comb. Many places use the same workers year after year but when there is crop to be harvested or building to be built and Jose shows up with his cousin Lupe, you might just hire Lupe because he knows Jose (networks of family and friends often is how migrants find work) and not check his papers very closely if at all. The demand exists for workers and Mexicans are in supply. For more information on Mexican migrants economic transition to America, especially among undocumented workers see this Pew Hispanic Center report from 2005

A third point about immigration, is that all of us, unless you are Native American or a descendant of black slaves, got a break to get into this country. Who decided or decides who is legal or illegal? At times in our history, laws have been passed to limit the numbers of those from particular ethnicities (in the 1920s after 14 million immigrants came between 1900 and 1920, quotas were set with Anglo-Saxons being favored and other groups usually black and yellow people, along with Jews, slavs, Latins and other being severely limited [see A People’s History of the United States, by Howard Zinn, p. 382) Of course, cheap immigrant labor is something that’s fine and dandy, as it was with Chinese building the railroads in the 1880s. However, the Chinese were not welcome as equals.

Still in light of all of the above, we do need to manage immigration, especially from Mexico. Illegal immigrants need to come out of the shadows. One way to accomplish this is to grant the illegals who are here working productively legal status so they won’t be exploited by employers and so competition for wages and contracts is fair among building contractors and farmers. Some politicians hate the idea of amnesty but as long as there is work here people will come, that’s the reality. If illegals turn out to be drug runners or involved in other criminal activity they should be deported, but most are here simply to work. Finally, the only way to slow illegal immigration is to encourage, support and enact political pressure on Mexico and other Latin American countries to build better market economies and better educational systems that can support more stable and better paying jobs for their citizens. The economic inequality in those countries is prompting people to go to El Norte. None of this is easy or cheap but it’s the pragmatic approach. Building fences are costly too and won’t solve the problem in the long-term. Besides as comedian Carlos Mencia put it, who is going to build the fence anyway?

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