By JOHN BLAKE
Special to The Pinnacle
The President says high immigration is good, because it brings
willing workers to jobs Americans do not want
… as if this were all there is to the subject. Opponents use
scare tactics, saying we must control immigration to stop all the
drug dealers, criminals and terrorists from coming in. Both sides
seem to talk past each other.
Hopefully this attempt to summarize the pros and cons can help
make the strident debate a bit more constructive.
By JOHN BLAKE
Special to The Pinnacle
The President says high immigration is good, because it brings willing workers to jobs Americans do not want… as if this were all there is to the subject. Opponents use scare tactics, saying we must control immigration to stop all the drug dealers, criminals and terrorists from coming in. Both sides seem to talk past each other.
Hopefully this attempt to summarize the pros and cons can help make the strident debate a bit more constructive.
The pros:
– Most immigrants, legal or illegal, are good people; they obey our laws, keep out of trouble, work hard and only want to better their lot. They deserve our respect.
– Immigrants help the economy. They work hard, they generally accept low wages, and they go where the work is.
– We need immigrants to fill jobs Americans do not want, particularly for some agricultural jobs. There is a little truth in this argument, but only a little.
– Our society benefits from the diversity immigrants bring us. Some diversity is good, and now we have a lot, but too much is divisive. Witness the riots by Muslims in France.
– The money immigrants send back home helps those countries and so serves our interests. The 8 billion dollars Mexican families receive each year from relatives here is that nation’s second largest source of foreign exchange.
– Those who oppose immigration are racists and bigots. Not entirely false, but close; this name-calling has been much used to stifle debate, even in the face of rational arguments.
The cons:
– Poor immigrants overload our social services (welfare, hospitals, Medicaid, food stamps, etc.) and crowd our schools. This is estimated to cost taxpayers $20 billion more annually than immigrants pay in taxes.
– More Americans would take unpleasant and low-paying jobs that immigrants now fill if the working conditions and pay were improved. Surveys show that this is, on the whole, true.
– When immigrants become successful and learn skills, as many do, they displace Americans in more desirable jobs. This happens frequently, but we can hardly blame the immigrants for this.
– Immigrants overburden our police, our courts and our prisons. Even though only a small percent of them run afoul of the law, the actual number is large, and this does put a burden on our criminal justice system and on taxpayers.
– Our porous borders allow easy entrance for terrorists and drug dealers. While security is important, this point is, on the whole, overused.
– Immigrants and their offspring are responsible for about 70% of U.S. population growth. The Census Bureau affirms the truth of this statement. This factor is very likely the most adverse consequence from our high rate of immigration, and also the one least discussed. Our rapid population growth (higher than any other industrialized country) creates any number of vexing and intractable problems: traffic, urban sprawl, scarce and expensive housing, environmental degradation, pollution, and a whole slough of other problems already addressed. Again, taxpayers bear the burdens of these problems.
Our high rate of immigration costs the country dearly. A big part of the problem is that the benefits accrue to some, while others must pay. And while the benefits to consumers as well as businesses are fairly visible, the costs are often less obvious. The beneficiaries, being well-focused special interests, are very effective in lobbying the government to protect their benefits. Besides this, several vociferous organizations and labor unions advocate immigrant rights and promote more immigration.
Only recently have voters generally voiced their concerns about our high rate of immigration, both legal and illegal. Many recent polls show that a majority of voters (about 70 percent) favor making a much larger effort to stop illegal immigration. Many would also like to reduce the number of legal immigrants we allow into the country.
But first we need a thorough, hopefully constructive debate to clarify the issues and avoid making a bad situation worse though hasty, ill-conceived and partisan action. We should be particularly cautious about adopting measures that are irrevocable – and amnesty in any form is irrevocable.
It would be prudent to approach the subject one step at a time. Specifically, we should first deal with the most pressing problem: making our borders secure. By increasing protection along the borders and enforcing present laws against hiring undocumented workers, we can reduce the big incentives that attract immigrants.
Any attempt to facilitate enforcement by some form of amnesty or by issuing green cards, it should be noted, would be certain to increase pressure along our borders and counteract these efforts to stop illegal entry.
Clearly any sudden action to displace the many persons working here illegally would cause considerable disruption, and wholesale deportations, as some have advocated, would be neither practical nor acceptable to most of us. Finding and prosecuting those who employ illegal workers is the necessary first step, but it, should begin slowly to minimize societal backlash.
Only after word gets around that anyone entering the U.S. illegally will find jobs hard to get, and only after we make our borders reasonable secure should there be any consideration of amnesty or a “guest worker” program. Again: amnesty would be permanent, with many serious consequences that could impact our nation for years to come.
