The immigration shouting match—er, debate—hit a new low last week when the Republican National Committee ran a series of television ads in Spanish accusing Democrats of supporting a bill to turn illegal immigration—currently a civil offense—into a felony punishable by jail time. In fact, Republicans had written and supported that bill, but with the massive protests across the country, they decided to have their cake and eat it, too, hoping to keep both the Hispanic vote and their anti-immigrant bloc.
As several pundits noted, however, lying is still lying if it is in Spanish. What will it take for sanity on this issue? A compromise like the one that almost came through the Senate last week, one that protects illegal immigrants, gives them a chance at citizenship and most importantly secures our borders.
This country needs to face the fact that, due to our economy’s success relative to Central and South America, for the foreseeable future there will be an overwhelming incentive for immigrants to come into our country illegally. Amidst this flood, there is increasing concern that terrorists and criminals are also entering the United States. Maintaining this status quo—and the invisible second-class of workers that comes with it—isn’t tenable or conscionable.
Nor is creating a visible second-class of workers without the rights of citizenship, the solution proposed in President Bush’s guest worker plan. One need only look how well similar ideas worked with Muslim workers in Europe. And the legalized harassment programs in Arizona and California, which attempt to cut immigrants off from social services while many of them pay taxes with fake social security numbers, are both ineffective and inhumane.
All these ideas treat the symptom—illegal workers—instead of the cause. What we need is a plan that recognizes illegal immigrants currently in the country and allows them to begin a process towards citizenship, perhaps with the a penalty fine to demonstrate that our laws will be enforced. While some might balk at this amnesty, the costs of finding and deporting illegal immigrants are astronomical. Besides, the majority are law-abiding people looking to raise a family and make a buck—if that’s not American, what is?
Meanwhile, we need to expand the visa program for unskilled workers above the current 400,000 person limit to create an incentive for people immigrants to come to the U.S. lawfully. While modifications to minimum wage and labor laws might be required to prevent a drop in wages for Americans and new immigrants alike, this would be economically beneficial across the board.
With policy preventing a flood of illegal immigrants, the Border Patrol could do a better job guarding against terrorists and criminals. Public social services wouldn’t be overwhelmed because we could recognize and tax immigrants. They could raise their families and participate positively in society without fear. And we will no longer be caught in the cauldron of xenophobia, lies and political devilry that the issue of immigration has become.
