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Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled
masses...
Mark Alexander
1/9/2004
Available Online at:
http://www.federalist.com/alexander/edition.asp?id=237
In the best of all possible worlds, our nation's
borders would be airtight, immigration would be
meticulously monitored, countries of origin
would be cooperative, and worker supply and
demand would be in perfect lock-step.
Alas, this is not the best of all possible
worlds.
In a move that may ultimately define the Bush
administration's domestic policy as much as the
war on terror has defined its policies abroad,
the White House announced plans Wednesday for
massive revisions in U.S. immigration laws. The
administration is calling the series of
immigration reform proposals a "temporary worker
program," designed "to match willing foreign
workers with willing U.S. employers when no
Americans can be found to fill the jobs."
The plan, if adopted by Congress, will allow
undocumented, illegal immigrants residing in the
United States to obtain a legal work status for
three years, with options to renew, and to apply
for permanent residence status or citizenship.
The plan also offers workers incentives to
return to their countries of origin following
the end of their work permit in the U.S. The
program, the administration says, "would allow
workers who currently hold jobs to come out of
hiding and participate legally in America's
economy while not encouraging further illegal
behavior."
In other words, the program will forgive past
criminality in order to deter future
criminality. (Stay with us here, fellow
Patriots, as we try to make some sense of this.)
Mr. Bush emphasizes that this is not an amnesty
plan, because the program does not grant
permanent resident status or a citizenship track
to illegal immigrants. (That's debatable.)
Instead, says Mr. Bush, it grants temporary work
permits to alleviate this widespread illegal
influx into the U.S. "I oppose amnesty, placing
undocumented workers on the automatic path to
citizenship. Granting amnesty encourages the
violation of our laws and perpetuates illegal
immigration," the President said. "America is a
welcoming country, but citizenship must not be
the automatic reward for violating the laws of
America."
In the 48 hours since the announcement, the Bush
immigration-reform plan has met with vehement
resistance from every band of the political
spectrum. Indeed, a sizeable majority of
Americans are opposed to any expansion of
existing immigration, or any legitimization of
existing illegal aliens. While a great deal of
this reticence was anticipated, and some of it
justified, a number of qualifications on the
issue of immigration reform must be brought to
light.
First, this is not a new issue. Following a
February, 2001, meeting between President Bush
and Mexican President Vicente Fox, a U.S.-Mexico
High Level Working Group on Migration was
established. This group would be tasked with
addressing the problem of illegal immigration
from Mexico to the U.S., which is estimated to
compose more than 60% of all such immigration
into the U.S. On September 6, 2001, the U.S. and
Mexico agreed to "match willing workers with
willing employers" and "ensure migration takes
place through safe and legal channels." Five
days later, of course, the discussion of
immigration reform, border policies and economic
integration would come to an abrupt halt with
the terrorist attacks of 9/11.
Second, the Bush plan is, in part, politically
timed and motivated. With the ascendancy of
Arnold Schwarzenegger, California will likely be
hotly contested in the upcoming presidential
race. As such, the Hispanic vote will become
critical to either party's hopes of carrying the
Golden State -- and its treasure trove of 54
electoral votes. Should President Bush carry
California, his re-election would be assured.
However, when seen alongside a strong economic
recovery and significant progress in the war on
terror, California is not essential to the
President's prospects.
Consequently, charges of "hispandering" don't
stand up to scrutiny. Rather, the Bush
immigration-reform plan should be seen as a
first step toward the more substantive reform we
anticipate after this election cycle. Even
congressional proponents of the measure do not
anticipate a bill to pass in 2004, indicating
that the Bush team is using this occasion to
gauge and build public support for
farther-reaching reform beginning in 2005 with
the President's second term.
Third, and perhaps most significantly,
immigration reform should not be confused with
the issue of border security. Rather, the
proposed plan is designed to deal with current
realities: Millions of illegal immigrants
already live in the U.S., and millions more will
push across our borders unless circumstances
change. The President's reform plan is designed
to curb illegal immigration and also includes an
initiative to improve border -- and hence
homeland -- security. Essentially, any nation
wishing to participate in the temporary-worker
program will also be required to stem further
illegal immigration from its own country.
Fourth, while such an immigration policy may be
blamed for stealing jobs from American citizens,
this is simply not the case. The Bush plan
stipulates that in order for a worker to
participate in the program, the prospective
employer must make a reasonable effort to ensure
that a U.S. citizen is not available to fill the
job. Simply put, American workers come first. In
almost every case, illegal immigrants in the
U.S. are doing jobs that American citizens are
either unwilling or unavailable to perform. In
reality, immigrant labor -- both legal and
illegal -- forms an important underpinning to
the whole of the American economy. The new plan
will remove hindrances for employers eager to
hire and immigrant workers eager to work. Also,
the administration's plan emphasizes the need to
increase enforcement against companies that
break the law and continue to hire illegal
(unregistered) workers.
Fifth, the administration's plan does not reward
illegal immigrants with citizenship, nor does it
place illegal workers ahead of legal immigrants
who have lawfully sought to obtain a green card
or citizenship.
Summing up, the plan is intended to confront the
realities of illegal immigration. Illegal
immigrants are in the U.S. now -- between 8
million and 14 million of them, according to
various estimates. Simply by being here, these
illegals benefit from a wide array of social
services at the local, state and federal levels;
they do not, however, pay taxes on their
earnings. A temporary-worker program like that
proposed by the Bush administration will channel
this immigrant labor into the tax base, rather
than permitting it to siphon off government
resources.
A closing thought: President Bush was formerly
Governor Bush -- of Texas. Mr. Bush is thus well
acquainted with issues of migration and border
control. In the same vein, the sponsors of
similar legislation in Congress are two
representatives and a senator from another
border state, Arizona. In other words, the
proposed temporary-worker program has its
origins among those who will be affected most of
all.
Quote of the week...
"A legalized system of migration would allow
American producers in important sectors of our
economy to hire the workers they need to grow,
and it would enhance our national security. It
would begin to drain the swamp of smuggling and
document fraud that facilitates illegal
immigration and would encourage millions of
currently undocumented workers to make
themselves known to authorities." --Dan
Griswold, associate director of the Cato
Institute's Center for Trade Policy Studies
On cross-examination...
"The Democrats won't take to it because they
want a quicker amnesty, and Republicans are
going to be hostile because it's an amnesty
after all. I'm not sure what the constituency is
for this thing, but the National Restaurant
Association probably loves it." --Mark Krikorian,
director of the Center for Immigration Studies
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