What's Right on Immigration?

Tech Central Station ^ | January 12, 2004 | Stephen M. Bainbridge

[quidnunc]

It's been a very long time since U.S. politicians addressed illegal immigration in anything approaching a comprehensive way. President Bush came into office planning to change that through negotiations with Mexico and new legislation. Those plans got derailed by 9-11, but last week the President put illegal immigration back on the policy front burner with a major policy address.

The reactions across the political spectrum were predictable but still disappointing. The extreme left dismissed President Bush's plan as an effort to revive the controversial post-World War II bracero program. The Democratic presidential candidates mostly supported the idea of immigration reform, while claiming they would do it better, fairer, or whatever. And, not surprisingly, many voices on the right condemned the plan as an amnesty that will encourage even more illegal immigration. The National Review Online's Corner blog, to cite a particularly prominent example, has been dominated by vehement attacks on Bush's plan, such as Rich Lowry's call for "conservatives [to] go to the mattresses on this one."

Granted, the devil is in the details, but the broad outline set out by President Bush deserves praise rather than censure. The plan is good for the economy. It will contribute to our national security. It will address pressing humanitarian problems posed by the current system.

-snip-

[Beck_isright]

Bookmark for later.

[joesnuffy]

We need to go for quality instead of quantity...for one thing...

[NetValue]

All President Bush is proposing to do is make illegal behavior universally welcomed.

Welcome to the neighborhood, Senor. Have some free public services, education, health care, and get your EITC too. Senor, President Bush welcomes you. Send for your parents immediately.

[Mr Spock]

All President Bush is proposing to do is make illegal behavior universally welcomed. Welcome to the neighborhood, Senor. Have some free public services, education, health care, and get your EITC too. Senor, President Bush welcomes you. Send for your parents immediately.

As long as Bush's plan includes that they have to pay taxes also, what's the big problem? Also, you assume that all illegals are coming over here for a free ride. Based on my experiences with illegals, most of them are proud, hard working people. Most won't take handouts. They are willing to work jobs that us (myself included) won't touch with a 12 foot pole. I am willing to give Bush's plan a chance.

[Thorin]

The writer is just plain wrong. Harvard economist George Borjas (himself a Cuban immigrant) has concluded that mass immigration decreased the wages of college graduates, on avearge, 4.9% in 2000, the wages of college graduates with 11-15 years work experience by 5.9%, and the wages of Americans without high school diplomas by 8.9%

Bush's plan will greatly magnify this negative impact, since it has no numerical limit on new immigrants and will allow employers to bring in as many immigrants as they want--provided they can't find Americans willing to do the work at minimum wage, which works out to a little under $11,000 per year.

Of course, downward pressure on wages is only one negative impact of mass immigration. There's the great fiscal drain of providing social services to immigrants--estimated to cost $1200 per household in California. And, at the wages these immigrants are likely to be paid, they'll actually be a net drain on the US Treasury even if they pay taxes, since they'll most likely get more money back than they put in under the Earned Income Tax Credit.

Finally, the creation of many, many more foreign enclaves in our midst will simply pour fuel on the fires of multiculturalism and political correctness. Does anyone seriously expect real assimilation in a country where one major party holds a "Black and Brown Debate" and the other is led by a President who seems to think Spanish is our official langauge?

[azhenfud]

"As long as Bush's plan includes that they have to pay taxes also, what's the big problem?"

In your area, the average wage/hr is $20. Any business can afterward advertise any $20/hr job for minimum wage. So does the next, and the next, and the next. Soon, the average wage in your area is minimum wage. Can you really afford or do you really wish to exist on a standard of living equivalent to that of Juan in El Salvador or Julio in Guadalajara?

[LouisianaLobster]

The population of Western Europe is slowly being replaced by the people they allowed in to do their dirty work, mostly Turks and Arabs. If Bush's insane plan is pushed through, a similar thing will happen here in a few decades. The first generation of legalized Mexicans will more or less adapt, but their children won't even bother to learn English.

[INSENSITIVE GUY]

"NO VACANCY"!!

[azhenfud]

Sarcasm has shared some staggering numbers on the costs associated with Illegaliens from the South.

http://www.cis.org/articles/2001/mexico/means.html

[Ohioan]

The plan is good for the economy. It will contribute to our national security. It will address pressing humanitarian problems posed by the current system.

There were damn fools in the time of Louis XV, who doubtless thought their excessive living would somehow be good for the economy. But I doubt if even in their debauchery, they considered their self-indulgence good for national security.

But what is really offensive to common sense and an understanding of the duties of Government, is the suggestion that this is somehow "humanitarian." The "humanitarian" considerations of any Government, must be those of its own people. An American immigration policy must always be an American First policy. We may, as individuals, have a wealth of sympathy, compassion, admiration and whatever for other peoples. But when we act as an American Government, our duty is to the discharge of the Constitutional functions of an American Government, for the common defense and general welfare of the American people.

Until President Bush shows real concern for Americans as an ongoing people; real concern for preserving the unique ethos of the Americans; those common traits peculiar to Americans North & South, East & West, flowing out of the experiences of the settlers who built the foundation for everything that followed; and for the interests of the descendants of those settlers, as well as those who came later to join them and embrace that peculiar American ethos, he is going to have very little credibility on issues such as this.

Unlike some of my allies on these threads, who are happy to denounce Mexicans, per se; I have no problem with according the people of Mexico respect. That does not mean that their values are my values, or that my values are their values. I am fully willing to see them preserve their values in their land, and to do business with them and trade with them, with fairness and honesty on both sides. But nothing in that call for mutual respect is the slightest justification for any program which will tend to homogenize the unique culture of either land with the other. And that is precisely what this sort of proposal will tend to do.

William Flax Return Of The Gods Web Site

[Roughneck]

It will address pressing humanitarian problems posed by the current system

That's it in a nutshell.

Never figured GWB as a bleeding heart, guess I was wrong.

ANYTHING that allows illegals to "get away with it" is wrong for the USA and wrong for the TAXPAYERS subsidizing this k%*p.

[Roughneck]

As long as Bush's plan includes that they have to pay taxes also, what's the big problem?"


AT minimum wage, for the jobs "no american wants". Nope. They aint paying a red cent in taxes - and if they do, it comes back in a refund.

This is BS amnesty no matter how it is sliced.

I am also happy that I wont live long enough to be fully engulfed by the socialistic, third-world country the USA WILL BECOME if illegals are not stopped now.

Bush needs to follow his constitutional mandate NOW!

[PuNcH]

Fox's envisions that it will bring american wages down to mexican standards and then it will be easier to completely remove the borders.

[Happy2BMe]

A FReeper's Guide To Immigration Reform

~ Take the FReeper Immigration Reform Poll ~

[bastantebueno55]

"The President's plan rewards work -- matching "willing workers" with "willing employers." Only those undocumented workers with jobs will be eligible. If there are freeloading illegal immigrants sponging off the welfare state, as some of the more extreme voices on the right claim, this plan does nothing for such immigrants."

"The plan in fact acknowledges that undocumented workers are here illegally. There is no blanket amnesty."

"Finally, nothing in the President's proposal contemplates "handing out Green Cards." The President's plan explicitly states: "Some temporary workers will want to remain in America and pursue citizenship. They should not receive an unfair advantage over those who have followed the law, and they will need to be placed in line for citizenship behind those who are already in line. " (quotations from excerpted paragraphs of article)

This is a well-reasoned and thoughtful analysis of the issue. I'm so tired of reading the knee-jerk responses of the immigrant bashers on this website. Their arguments so often boil down to nothing but prejudice, bigotry, and resentment of them goldurned furranurs.

Thanks for posting such a good article!

[putupon]

Illegal Alien Killed This Little Girl

Click here and here and here for more victims of cheap lettuce.

[Ohioan]

This is a well-reasoned and thoughtful analysis of the issue. I'm so tired of reading the knee-jerk responses of the immigrant bashers on this website. Their arguments so often boil down to nothing but prejudice, bigotry, and resentment of them goldurned furranurs.

Accusing those you disagree with, with "prejudice, bigotry, and resentment," without actually addressing their arguments, suggests that you, not they, are the ones suffering from those irrational motivations named. What is wrong with the President's whole approach is that he is not even addressing the real issues. Agree or disagree, there are real issues here: Immigration & The American Future.

William Flax