U.S. immigration policy shouldn't aid those who flout the law

St. Petersburg Times via Salt Lake Tribune ^ | 10/10/2003 | Robyn Blumner

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

American society shouldn't be something you can cheat your way into. We are a nation based on laws.

-- In his desperate effort to stave off recall, California Gov. Gray Davis signed a law granting several million illegal immigrants in the state access to driver's licenses. He had vetoed the measure twice before, when his political cojones weren't so directly on the line, but he couldn't afford to alienate the Latino voter.

This crass calculation may be applauded by immigrant-rights groups such as the National Council of La Raza and all those participating in the recent Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride, who seek to undo distinctions between people who came here legally and those who flouted the rules.

But the move is a betrayal of Californians -- even those of Latino descent -- who already host more illegal immigrants every year than they can possibly absorb.

I am a firm believer in government policies that encourage legal immigration. Newly inducted Americans are the lifeblood of this society and economy. But people who ignore our formal immigration process and jump the line should not be assisted further by being given a credential that can be used to do much more than drive a car.

A driver's license is a de facto universal identification card. It eases the path to enrolling in government benefits, obtaining a bank account, renting an apartment or qualifying for credit. Why are we making the magnet stronger than it already is?

American society shouldn't be something you can cheat your way into. We are a nation based on laws. Yet by granting driver's licenses to undocumented immigrants, as California and 13 other states have done, or providing them college tuition at in-state resident rates, as Congress is considering doing, or by offering amnesty for those who successfully squatted here for years, a longstanding call which is gaining new momentum, we are giving succor to scofflaws.

Meanwhile, the future citizens we want -- those who respect our borders and rules -- are stuck on years-long waiting lists.

No one knows for certain how many undocumented aliens live in the United States. The 2000 census estimates 8.7 million, but others believe this is a severe undercount. What we do know is why the problem has gotten so out of hand: It serves nearly every stakeholder's interest.

The La Raza-left gets to expand its constituency while powerful economic sectors -- such as agriculture, the hotel and restaurant industry, and slaughterhouses -- gain a ready supply of cheap labor. And let us not forget the better-off families who hire illegal immigrants to care for their children, homes and lawns.

This influx also benefits Mexico, which rakes in $10 billion in annual remittances from workers sending money home, according to Victor Davis Hanson, a classics professor at California State University at Fresno.

Hanson, who wrote Mexifornia -- a State of Becoming, explained on C-SPAN's "Booknotes" recently that Mexico is also able to rid itself of "hundreds of thousands of potential dissidents who might otherwise march on Mexico City for redress of grievances," while acquiring "an expatriate community that romanticizes Mexico the longer and further it's away from it."

Maybe that is why Mexico refuses to allow the reintroduction of the interior repatriation program that existed in the 1990s, where illegal migrants were sent back to their hometowns. Being left just across the border makes it easier to try again.

Hanson's thesis is that we are damaging the character of this nation and the prospects for Latino success by allowing a flood of illegal immigration beyond our ability to assimilate. He sees the "therapeutic left" having formed an unholy alliance with the corporate conservative right.

A constant supply of Latino illegal immigrants keeps wages low, serving industrial interests, and this is exacerbated by the left's suggestion that it is nativist or even racist to demand that newcomers obtain English language skills and become part of the melting pot. Latino immigrants who don't acculturate miss out on the historical route to success.

Those who suffer most from the presence of so many illegal immigrants are low-skilled Americans and recent legal immigrants, who can't gain an economic foothold because wages are driven so far down. It is absurd to suggest that citizens won't do the "dirty" jobs taken by illegal immigrants. Government employees who maintain sewers or pick up trash have jobs about as unglamorous as they come.

Still, citizens fill them because they pay a living wage and offer benefits. But Americans are not going to play a race-to-the-bottom game with the exploited workforce of undocumented aliens.

Illegal workers lead oppressive, vulnerable lives. Policies encouraging them to come here are destructive, not compassionate, and fuel a cycle of misery that renews itself with every furtive crossing. In the big picture, Gov. Davis' action was no helping hand -- it was a license for social unrest and despair.

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

There are some Utah RINOs, like Salt Lake's mayor and the people who are fighting to be Utah's next Mexican Jesse Jackson, who could really learn a lesson from this, but they just view it as "hate speech".

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[misterrob]

In some ways I cannot fault people looking to make a better way for themselves and their families. I mean, given the choice would you rather work and live here or in Mexico?

The writer makes a good point that I don't see raised very often and that is in the way that illegals are used as tools to advance social, business and political agendas. The left wants to secure more votes and will sell out their country to do it all the while keeping these people in a perpetual state of poverty through welfare dependancy and an inability to speak the language. The "rich" want cheap labor to keep costs down which might help in the short run but longer term we have a problem in that jobs are being siphoned off from americans to immigrants which helps to create poverty. Furthermore, uneducated and dependant illegal immigrants don't advance economically, they don't create taxes and really don't participate in the economy. The figure of $10 billion annual outflow to Mexico is staggering. If that money stayed in the US think of the impact it would have on states like Californina, Arizona and Texas.

[Libertarianize the GOP]

ping

[shortstop]

I need help! I am agreeing with the lefty ACLU St. Pete Times columnist, Robin Blumner. What's wrong with me? It's probably curable with her next column.

[gubamyster]

ping

[KantianBurke]

"In some ways I cannot fault people looking to make a better way for themselves and their families."

Well then how's about they do the responsible thing and raise up their own country? NAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH, much easier to cross the border, get all the free govt goodies paid for by the idiot gringos and thumb their noses at all those trying to emigrate legally into this nation.

[misterrob]

They come here because we do have a better way of life and opportunity. And not everyone comes here to be a welfare queen either. Some people actually want to work and will take whatever job they can to survive and provide for their families. For those that only want to earn a living, well, I don't condemn them to hell for it.


Shame on Clinton, Bush and every other politician who have lacked the fortitude in dealing with Mexico and the border between us.

[AbsoluteJustice]

I have posted report after report on what it costs this country for immigration LEGAL AND ILLEGAL!!!

I will say this again to ALL FREEPERS. Legal immigrants today cost this country MORE than do illegal immigrants!!!

After all taxes are paid immigrants pay less in taxes than what they receive in "services".

This montage about how illegals pay taxes is complete BS through and through. Illegals pose the same problem as today's LEGAL immigration problem. We need a COMPLETE revamping of immigration. Look to California, most the state is immigrants and the State is bankrupt. Think this is coincidence?

We are approving immigrants by the droves who offer nothing productive to society. MOST receive some type of government subsidy and take more from the pot then they put in. I am tired of this crap that they take work that Americans would not....HOGWASH!!!!

[KantianBurke]

"And not everyone comes here to be a welfare queen either."

If they come here illegally I don't care if they become Rhodes Scholars or pool cleaners. They're criminals and should be removed, not coddled or romantized about.

[AbsoluteJustice]

Refer to post #9. If you wish to dispute my claims I would be more than happy to post links that backs up my claims.

[AbsoluteJustice]

BUMP FOR COMMMON SENSE!!!!!!

DING DING DING........

Trust me my friend legals are in the same boat. It is the immigration policy PERIOD!!!!

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

Illegals aren't here to make the country a better place, they're here to exploit it. I have no problem with a person coming here legally and taking the right steps to become a legal citizen (most of the legal immigrants that I've ever met appreciate the good things about the country more than most of us). But the illegals are a scourge and need to be forcibly removed.

It's OK for every other country in the world to guard their borders but it's mean and racist if we do it, go figure.

[AbsoluteJustice]

I understand that it is written for law abiding immigrants BUT and a BIG BUT....The U.S. Immigration service for the past 10 years have been granting citizenship to immigrants who are not productive enough in our society to put in their fair share. What I mean by this is that LEGAL Immigrants TODAY take more in services then they put in. Do they pay taxes? A lot do yes, but a lot do not because they do not make enough money. That being said if you do not pay in then requires "services" guess who that comes from? You and me, the tax payer. Sure they work hard but the fact remains we are becomming a broke nation as a result of Illegal AND LEGAL immigration.