• Immigration – Opt for amnesty Immigration – Opt for amnesty President George W. Bush deserves praise for publicly opening the can of worms that is American immigration policy. His solution – a guest-worker program – is perhaps not the
• Immigration – Opt for amnesty
Immigration – Opt for amnesty
President George W. Bush deserves praise for publicly opening the can of worms that is American immigration policy. His solution – a guest-worker program – is perhaps not the best; a broad amnesty would be better. But Mr. Bush has revived the debate out of which humane improvements may emerge.
The problem is that America cannot control its borders – especially the Mexican border – short of imposing iron-curtain barriers that few Americans want to see. So, despite tightened border security, we face a continued flow of poor people risking death in the desert in hope of a better life.
There are now about 7 million illegal immigrants in the United States – about 5.2 million of them from Mexico and Central America. There are 22,000 in Missouri and 432,000 in Illinois.
They constitute a fearful underclass ripe for exploitation by unscrupulous employers and criminals. And they’re not going to leave.
Mr. Bush would offer three-year work permits to illegal immigrants now in America. That would end the immigrants’ fear and lessen the exploitation. They could cross the border freely to visit their families until their permits expire. Employers could also import temporary workers from abroad for jobs Americans are unwilling to take. The work permits might be renewed, but the workers eventually would be sent home.
Mr. Bush’s plan offers mercy in the form of a three-year reprieve from exploitation for immigrants. Some who might sneak across the border could cross safely instead. But he offers no hope of permanent residency and citizenship. Workers would fade back into the illegal netherworld when their work permits expire.
The lack of a path to citizenship is a serious problem. This country was built on the premise of equality, and we prospered by assimilating newcomers. Immigrants arrive, learn American ways and become loyal citizens. We truly are a melting pot, if an imperfect one.
The president’s plan would toss aside this history of assimilation and replace it with something different. Instead of future citizens, we would admit hired help who have little hope of ever entering an American voting booth or becoming truly secure in our society.
We would take an underclass of illegal workers and turn them into an underclass of legal ones.
The president was vague on details. But the guest-worker program could become indentured servitude, with workers bound to the employer who sponsors them and subject to deportation if they quit.
Leaky as they are, American border controls do restrict the flow of illegal immigrants. But a badly run guest-worker program could open the floodgates to a vast supply of low-wage labor for American employers. The result could be lower pay for unskilled Americans.
Mr. Bush says that immigrants would be admitted only for jobs that Americans won’t take. But willingness to take a job is often a function of what the job pays. If there are not enough willing workers, employers must raise wages – unless they can import cheap labor. A $9-an-hour janitor won’t keep that wage for long if his boss can import a poor Guatemalan willing to take $5.25.
America is already losing manufacturing jobs to low-wage countries. But many service jobs – for hotel maids, cooks and the like – can’t be exported. It makes no sense to import low-wage labor to fill them. Better that we all pay a little more for hotel rooms and hamburgers so that American maids and cooks can get higher pay.
The problem of illegal immigration will never really be solved. Only a fence and a stream separate our rich nation from poorer ones to the South. A better option – although not a perfect one – would be to grant another blanket amnesty for illegals who are working here now and have no criminal record. We could instantly pull 7 million people out of fear and set them on the road to citizenship. We did the same thing in 1987, and millions of new Americans are better off for it.
Contrary to critics, an amnesty would not encourage more people to hop the border. Illegal immigrants come because they are desperate for work right now. The possibility of yet another amnesty – perhaps in another 16 years – isn’t much of an inducement.
Combine amnesty with a carefully controlled increase in legal immigration – and continued vigilance on the border – and we might achieve a better life for our immigrant neighbors without hurting American workers.
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
