Illogical Immigration
By Jan Larson (03/13/06)
Almost no one that can command an audience will publicly state that illegal immigration isn’t a problem for the United States, but many of the arguments in the debate are seriously devoid of logic.
Opponents of increasing border security claim that immigrants are hard working, honest people that are simply looking to improve their lives. In many cases that is true, but there is a second group of immigrants whose goals are not so noble – drug trafficking, gang-related activities and yes, terrorism.
“None of the 9/11 terrorists came across the border from Mexico.” Yes, and at one time Neil Armstrong hadn’t walked on the moon. What is your point? That was then and this is now. You can put locks and an alarm on your front door, but if you leave the back door open, your house will be burglarized sooner or later. The tightening of the borders that may prevent otherwise hard-working people seeking to improve their lives from entering the United States, but most Americans want the borders tightened to prevent terrorists from prancing across the border unimpeded.
“A fence won’t solve the problem.” That may come as a surprise to the folks at American Fence Company [1] who have been making their living building fences since 1948. If my recollection of history is correct, the East Germans had pretty good luck in reducing unwanted migration with the Berlin Wall and, frankly, there is very little pedestrian traffic through my fenced back yard. Fences and walls have been used for thousands of years and I think the track record is fairly compelling. To suggest that a fence won’t solve the problem may be technically correct when all aspects of illegal immigration are considered, it will certainly solve the problem of unfettered access across the border.
“Immigrants do the work that Americans are unwilling to do.” As anyone that has watched an episode of the Discovery Channel’s “Dirty Jobs” program can attest, there are virtually no jobs that Americans won’t do … if the price is right. There’s the rub. Illegals do those jobs because they will accept very low wages for doing them. This is simple economics. Want proof? Just see who applies for housekeeping or landscaping jobs if they are offered at $40 per hour.
There is debate as to whether illegal immigrants have a net positive effect (performing labor-intensive jobs for low wages) or negative effect (draining public services without contributing a corresponding amount in taxes) on the U. S. economy, but while I am personally not threatened by the prospect that my job will be lost to an illegal, illegals do take jobs away from Americans at the low end of the labor market. They take the jobs that low skilled and entry-level workers seek thereby preventing many otherwise hard-working Americans from improving their lives.
“Politicians are afraid of losing Hispanic votes.” If this were true, then we need to get new politicians (which wouldn’t be a bad idea even if this weren’t true). Considering that illegals don’t vote and the livelihoods of unskilled, legal Hispanics are threatened by illegals, I personally don’t understand why any politician would stand to lose any votes by advocating increased border security. The votes they should be concerned about are the Caucasian, African-American and Asian-American votes that they will lose if they don’t do something about border security.
“Let’s work with Mexico to solve the problem.” You might was well suggest working with your ex-wife to reduce your alimony payments. Mexico has no interest in limiting migration into the United States. The Mexican economy cannot support its population and for every person that crosses into the United States, the Mexican government says, “goodbye, good luck and don’t forget to send a check every month.” Make no mistake, Mexico benefits from migration to the United States. There is no downside. South of the border rhetoric aside, not only does Mexico have no vested interest in reducing migration, it is in Mexico’s interest to increase outbound migration. We are foolish to expect any help from the Mexican government.
“What about the Canadian border?” If your toilet valve is leaking two gallons of water per minute and your kitchen faucet drips once every five, which are you going to fix first? The flood is coming from the south, not the north.
Do we benefit from cheap labor? Certainly we do. Does the United States offer the promise of improving lives? Yes it does, but with estimates of up to 12 million illegals already in the United States, it only stands to reason that at least some of them are undesirable. Unless the ceaseless flow of immigrants is stopped, the number of undesirables will only increase. We need to stop making illogical arguments about the immigration problem and get to work to fix it.
[1] http://www.americanfence.com/finalsite/index.html
Copyright ©2006 Jan A. Larson All rights reserved.
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