Common Folk Using Common Sense

Trackbacked at Don Surber, Adam’s Blog:

Diplomats from Mexico and Central America on Monday demanded guest worker programs and the legalization of undocumented migrants in the United States, while criticizing a U.S. proposal for tougher border enforcement.

“Migrants, regardless of their migratory status, should not be treated like criminals,” they said.

The countries represented at the meeting – including Mexico, Nicaragua, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Belize and Panama – created a working group to design a regional policy to avoid migrant abuse and to follow the course of the legislation.

Mexicans working in the United States are a huge source of revenue for Mexico, sending home more than $16 billion in remittances in 2004, Mexico’s second largest source of foreign currency after oil exports according to the country’s central bank.

So let me get this straight – a foreign government is demanding that our sovereign nation allow undocumented migrants from their nation to be freely allowed into our nation so as to enrich their banks with our money?

Let’s look at this another way:

We have two competing companies – Company A and Company B. Both manufacture items. But Company B has higher salaries and better work conditions.

So Company A demands that Company B hire a bunch of Company A’s employees. Company B is to pay them a high salary, provide good working conditions, provide them with healthcare, and educate them. These employees, then, will send their paychecks back to Company A.

Now Company A has fewer employees to pay and care for while also receiving money back from Company B. Company B now has more employees to pay and care for, and some of the money that they pay in salaries is going back to subsidize Company A.

Company A suddenly realizes huge profits from not having to pay and care for as many employees. Company A also realizes more money coming into the company from outside sources.

Company B suddenly realizes lower profits from having to pay and care for more employees than they need or want.

Am I the only person to see something wrong with this scenario?

Congress should continue strengthening border enforcement, consider a streamlined temporary worker program to meet our nation’s labor needs, and reject amnesty for those who have entered the country illegally.

The House of Representatives approved a tough immigration enforcement bill before the end of 2005, and the Senate plans to take up similar legislation soon.

But most of the people in Washington are politicians, not Americans, and anti-immigrant campaigns don’t win elections. And our “representatives” look to winning the next election than they do to taking tough stands to safeguard the U.S.

We must secure our borders against illegal immigration. Conservatives are right to argue that illegal immigration is out of control and that terrorists can smuggle their way into the U.S. along with workers. To the extent possible, the border should be sealed, and Bush should vow to do it.

What is so wrong about a resident of the U.S. paying taxes, learning English, and passing through a clearance procedure?

And admit it: the Hispanic vote is important in any election. We cannot say all Hispanics are illegals no more than we can say all Middle Easterners are terrorists. But some are, in fact, illegals, and those are the ones that need to be dealt with honestly and seriously, just as seriously as we have to be with some Middle Easterners who happen to be terrorists.

There is also a foreign policy angle to be argued. Even though Mexico’s current president, Vicente Fox, has bolstered the anti-immigrant cause with his loud complaints about U.S. policy, the United States has a self-serving interest in encouraging the election next year of Felipe Calderon, the Harvard alumnus who is the nominee of Fox’s PAN party.

Currently, the 2006 favorite is former Mexico City Mayor Andres Lopez Obrador of the left-wing PRD party – someone who’s likely to get financial assistance from Venezuela’s radical President Hugo Chavez and, if elected, could pursue economic policies that would cause a surge in illegal immigration. Just think about that for a minute – a Chavez puppet sitting on the other side of our least protected border.

The only way the United States is truly going to solve the problem of illegal immigration is with a comprehensive plan that not only controls the borders but creates legal means for immigrants to work – with the key words being CONTROL and LEGAL. We need tough border enforcement and something like the McCain-style earned legalization – and I repeat EARNED legalization. The U.S. cannot be simply exclusionist or isolationist. But at the same time we cannot, in this age of terrorism, always leave the front door wide open to anyone that wants to come in.

guest worker, migrant, Mexico

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