Wednesday, January 12, 2005

Immigration reform needed, but not the Bush crypto-amnesty proposal

GOP torn on immigration:
"The issue pits some of the most conservative Republicans in Washington against their president and against an agricultural community that depends more and more on foreign workers."

The link is to a good discussion from the Birmingham News of the way the immigration issue is playing out in heavily agricultural, and Republican, Alabama. I must admit I have little sympathy for the sod farmer discussed in this article who legally imports Mexicans to work ten months of the year; nor do I have a lot of sympathy for the mushroom operations in Pennsylvania which have come to depend on illegal Mexican labor; but for those farmers who need short-term help to hand pick fruits and vegetables, a much more compelling case can be made.

Although I haven't seen anyone else mention it, part of the problem seems to be that there are too many restrictions on child labor and kids have ready access to money that is easier to come by than agricultural labor. When I was a kid, I had cousins in Indiana who lived in town but worked seasonally in agriculture detassling corn. And one of my college roommates, also not a farm kid, picked citrus near his home in Florida all through high school and college vacations.

There is another reason why this problem has developed, and that is through the direct intent of the US government. Back in the 60s, as a part of the Kennedy-Johnson era War on Poverty, the government set up within the Office of Economic Opportunity a migrant farmworker services program. What began as an effort to provide educational services to migrant worker's children and preventive health services in the migrant camps was transformed into an organized effort to convince migrant workers to settle permanently in places where the bureaucrats could more readily lavish attention on them as permanent resident welfare clients and organize them politically for the benefit of the Democrat Party. At the same time, the "bracero" program was importing farm labor from Mexico to make up for the lack of migrant labor exacerbated by the migrant farmworker program.

"It's a compassionate way to treat people who come to our country," Bush said, referring to his crypto-amnesty plan to let illegals stay here, sign up for a renewable three year work visa and then be fast-tracked for permanent resident status. I wish Bush were more compassionate toward Americans who were born here and toward those who have been anxiously waiting for years for legal permission to enter the US rather than rewarding law breakers.

The administration frequently points to an unemployment rate in the five to six percent range as evidence of its successful economic stewardship. But, they know full well that we have inner city neighborhoods where the unemployment rate for young African American males is perennially in the double digits; and we have Indian reservations where the overall unemployment rate is even higher. We ought to do something for these folks whose families have been here for centuries and millenia before we sell American citizenship to a large segment of the population of Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean for a few years of low wage employment.

I'm not saying there is no room for temporary workers, especially in agriculture. But we need to look for ways to employ Americans first. Bush's plan, to have employers put an ad in the paper or file a job announcement at the local employment security office and then self-certify that no American wants the job they need to fill, does not go nearly far enough to put Americans to work in America and for America.

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