Tuesday, 29 April 2008
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So today I drank my first Mountain Dew in a week...ah, sweet nectar.
And now, on to the question of the day: there's this thing called illegal immigration...all these Mexicans sneaking in, and, depending on who you talk to, take all the good jobs, or take on all the jobs that Americans won't do.
Some people say we should just deport them all and build a fence along our southern border. We deport them and build a fence to keep them out, no more illegal immigrants. Problem solved.
Some say that if we gave the ones who are here legal status and made it easier for others to come, they would no longer be here illegally and thus there would be no illegal immigration. Problem solved.
Is it true that Mexicans will do work that most Americans won't? Absolutely. A lot of hard manual labor is done almost exclusively by immigrants, legal or no. The flip side to that, though, is that they are also more than willing to do work that Americans will do, and at lower wages.
When a Mexican decides to come here illegally, he has a fairly good idea what he's getting into. He's going to be risking his life and paying (relatively) big bucks to be smuggled through a desert, doing hard manual labor for minimum wage, face a big language barrier, be away from the friends and family he's always known, and face the risk of being deported and having of his hard work and money spent come to naught.
And yet they keep on coming. Why?
Mexico's economy really kind of sucks. Unemployment is high, and even when they do get jobs the wages are usually low. Apparently, what a person can make on minimum wage here makes the whole coming here illegally thing worth it, despite the risks. And as long as that's true, I don't think we will ever solve the problem of illegal immigration. Sure, we can deport them, but they'll only come back, because to them the risks are worth it.
That said, something needs to be done, because illegal immigrants bring with them associated problems related to gang warfare, drug dealing, and higher poverty.
So here's what I'm thinking.
Deporting them all probably won't work. There's at least 12 million of them here, and while I'm not a fan of so-called “amnesty,” I don't see how deporting all 12 million of them would be possible. And even if it was, I'm not even sure that it would be worth the time and expense involved.
A border fence is stupid. Sorry, but it is. What happens if we spend billions upon billions building this 1500 mile fence and policing the entire thing, only to have Mexico's economy go way up and render the whole thing moot?
Which brings me to my next point. If the Mexican economy got raised to a point where it made more sense to stay home than to come here illegally, that by itself would solve the problem. If the jobs and the wages available in Mexico outweighed the risks and benefits of coming here illegally, no one would want to do so.
A lot of illegal immigrants come here not planning to stay. They simply want to to support their families back home for awhile, buy a house, or raise money to start a business. And indeed, Mexico's second-largest income is from immigrants to US sending money back home.
So what happens if we decide to go with temporary work permits, make it easy for a Mexican to get one, and tell the ones who are here already that if they get one too they won't get deported?
As I see it, tons of Mexicans come legally, illegal immigration slows to a trickle because it's so much easier to come here legally, the Mexicans who come here send a lot more money back home, Mexico's economy gets a boost from all this extra cash, and a lot of Mexicans go home now that Mexico has more to offer in terms of jobs.
So, assuming agree or disagree? Thoughts? Did you even make it this far?
On a side note, is it just me or is everyone getting a facebook nowdays?
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Comments (4)
Its not just you. Everyone (and their uncle) is getting facebook.
How do you get Mexico to clean up their corruption so they can sustain a decent economy with decent opportunity for decent people?? I don't think an influx of cash alone will do it.
The immigration problem in America simply must be solved, for many of the reasons you've already listed.
The first step must be border security. It would be nice to think there's a solution that didn't require walls, and there is, but nothing expedient enough that doesn't warrant a wall at least for the short term. It worked for the Chinese and it will work for us, but I'm not really high on the current idea of a chain link fence. Anyone who's willing to risk life and limb to trek 100 miles through our deserts on foot for $4.00/hr isn't gonna have much of a beef with bringing some diagonal cutters for our suburbanite fencing. We need a barrier, not a fence.
Once completed we need to address the double standard within immigration law, you can't mention increasing the legal penalty for illegal immigration without a host of said illegals sacking a California post office in a manner that resembles feudal Europe. Meanwhile illegal immigration remains a felony in Mexico and our Latino friends seem to loose their anger when the law is enforced south of our border. We must also pass tougher laws enabling us to prosecute employers who knowingly, or through negligence, employ illegals. We must discourage the employee AND the employer.
I don't think "rounding up" the 12,000,000 illegals is a plan with any merit, both logistically and cost wise this just doesn't seem to fit. We can't even find a 6ft 4 Arab with a ZZ top inspired beard in an area of the world roughly the size of Ireland, so I think we'd be better off finding a way to reconcile and assimilate them. A 90 day period where they could come down to their local social security or immigration office to register themselves as immigrants would work. Once the period has passed those who didn't register (more then likely for legal reasons) should be fugitives who can be caught and deported or tried as needed as we find them. Once on the other side they'll find much greater difficulty returning.
The last piece is economic outreach and reform. If we're so hot on building other peoples governments for them then our next project should be Mexico. Ever wonder why illegals can't ever seem to learn English? Maybe it's because only 1 in 5 of them can read and write Spanish. How do you teach a second language without the ability to read and write? Between government corruption and education we could go a long way in helping our neighbors to the south find reasons they'd rather build a life in their own country.
Here's a random idea, if they're all so hot on the notion of making $4-5 dollars and hour why don't we build copious corn field and ethanol refineries in Mexico? The climate supports it, the economy needs it, and I need fuel that isn't $3.75/gallon!
That's what I'd do