This last one is going where most of the heat in this debate is going to be. Just like with HCR we are going to hear a lot of outright lies about what giving these people a path to citizenship is going to mean. Which is why it is a good idea to talk about some actual facts before this debate really gets going.
Let's start with the phrase "illegal immigrant". It is true that it is against the law to come to the United States and work here without proper documentation. However, being labeled illegal is an over the top reaction. Entering the U.S. without a visa or working here without a green card is a crime on the level of speeding 25 miles an hour over the posted limit. It is against the law, yes, but it is not and never has been a felony like assault or burglary. Nearly everyone reading this has broken the law at this level at some point in their lives, so unless we are ready to start calling ourselves illegal Americans, this turn of phrase should be resisted.
Next let's talk logistics. The current census is going to find that the United States has about 305 million citizens. This means that if there are 12 million undocumented people living and working here, that is 4% of the total population. Even if you think it is a good idea to try to round them all up and deport them, it is a nearly impossible job to do so.
Deportation is not an automatic process. Everyone in the United States, regardless of immigration documentation, has the right to due process. This means that all 12 million of these people will have to have their day in immigration court. While they are waiting they will either be on parole or held in custody. If it is known that we are trying to deport them all, there will be very few who will be paroled. It would then require huge holding centers (jails) which would require huge numbers of guards. We would also have to feed, clothe and generally care for those in our custody.
The cost of a program like this would be enormous. Even if it worked, which I have grave doubts it would, it would become a sunk cost. When we had reduced the undocumented immigrant population to some arbitrarily low number we would no longer need those jails or the workers that man them. All that money and effort would have been spent on a temporary problem.
Then there is the moral aspect of this. We should never forget that these undocumented immigrants are people first. They are husbands and wives, they are sisters and brothers and children. Some of the children are U.S. citizens by virtue of being born here, just like most of the people reading this. If we send their parents back to wherever they came from, what happens to these citizens?
The 12 million who are here without permission are here to work. They want what we all want, to earn a living that will allow them to have a home, to put food on the table and to raise their kids where they have a chance of doing better than their parents. The work they often do is back-breaking. It is often hard, dirty and dangerous. They do it for very low wages and almost never any benefits of any kind.
There will be an argument that these workers depress wages. This is only true as long as there is a pool of workers who can be abused by lower than minimum wage pay due to their immigration status. The ability to hold their status above their heads and pay substandard wages ends when these people are granted the legal right to work. It puts the floor back under the wages in this nation and in the long run benefits us all.
There are political reasons that we should take up this issue as well. While there will be a lot of diversity of opinion within the Democratic Party on this, it will be nothing compared to the split it will cause in the Republican Party. The few grown ups left in the Republican Party understand that if they can not court the Latino vote back, or at least a strong portion of it, they are doomed as a political party.
In the last election the Republicans got less than 5% of the African American vote. Part of this was due to the fact the first African American candidate was running, but a large part was the understanding by that community that the Republican Party had no interest in their issues. There is a chance that the Latino community will come to this overwhelming conclusion too. Since they are the fastest growing segment of the population, losing them means gaining a majority and the White House in the future will be much more difficult for the Republicans.
Even if the Republicans have some kind of unity, they will not be able to resist the overheated and frankly racist rhetoric on this issue. They have already spun their Tea Party base up to the point that calling Representatives ni****rs and f****t goes by without condemnation. Is there any doubt that some of their supporters will engage in racial slurs about Latinos?
The Republicans might be able to hold enough unity to kill comprehensive reform. After all it will take all of the Democrats in the Senate, plus one Republican to move this bill forward. Right now Majority Leader Reid says that he has 56 votes for reform. That is four short of what he needs. If the Republicans hold together and kill reform, it is still worth the attempt as it will show the Latino community that whatever common ground they might think they have with the Republicans the fact is they will not alienate their base to do the right thing and rationalize our system of immigration.
This fight will be ugly. There are those in all stripes of political belief who believe we must do this and those who believe that we should never legitimize the status of the 12 million informal immigrants. The fact we have a high unemployment rate and the economy is going to be flat at best will complicate things.
However the time to do this is now. It is better that we look at the reality; there are 12 million people living here who want nothing more than to be part of the system. They want to be able to pay taxes. They want to be able to get drivers licenses; they want to be able to participate fully in our society. As long as we let them live in the shadows, problems that we have already addressed in the light will continue to fester.
We are a nation of immigrants. It is a big part of what makes us a vital force in the world; it is part of the optimism that is an American trait. We should not let racism and fear determine how we deal with this issue. We should look at it from a logistical and humane stand point and put the 12 million informal immigrants on a path to being proud citizens of this nation.
The floor is yours. |
