Border Wars

At the outset I’ve gotta admit that my family and I have a lot of illegal friends in our old neighborhood in So Cal. We lived among "wetbacks" for many years. The future of some people we care about depends on how this illegal immigration debate shakes out.

A few thoughts to kick off the discussion:

• The current firestorm over illegal immigration strikes me as a part of a wider culture of fear and polarization that got some deep roots in the country after 9/11. We might end up with better immigration policy if we’d calm down and slow down. There’s an urgency and extremity to this discussion right now that I don’t think is positive. We've been on a 5 year adrenaline high. Time to ease off and start celebrating patience and reflection again.

• Illegal immigration is good economic news for immigrants and for the countries south of the border. Illegals and their families make way more than they could at home and funnel big dollars into the economies of their mother countries by way of cash transfers to their families.

For those of us concerned for the economic uplift of the poor around the world and for the advancement of third world economies, that’s no small benefit. Some might even view it as a godsend. But what about the US economy?

I've looked at various studies and data including a recent Harvard study on the economic effects of illegal immigration. In spite of the extreme claims on all sides of the issue, I think it’s more honest to say that illegal immigration helps certain American industries by providing a low cost and large labor pool, is a boon for the immigrants themselves and their countries of origin, hurts poorly educated native born Americans, and has a very small but positive effect on overall US economic performance. That’s what the concrete data I've seen suggests.

• Basic social decency requires that we provide people—once they’re here—with essential services like health care, education for their children, etc. One Swiss observer wrote about his own country’s immigration challenges: “We wanted a labor force, but human beings came.”

• And Christian people will always want to take the values of hospitality and generosity to ‘the poor’ and ‘the stranger’ seriously. Even if that means committing civil disobedience, which may become necessary for some Christians if certain House bills pass. The LA Catholic Archdiocese has already announced they will disobey any law that makes aiding illegals a felony. Good for them.

• The real challenge that decency and Christian social ethics create is that low skill illegal immigrants don’t pay enough in taxes to cover the costs of the benefits they receive. That money’s gotta come from somewhere. So again, in spite of what a lot of pro-immigration types claim, illegal immigrants are—at least in the short run—a burden on various social services and on state budgets. A lot of people are pretty upset about that.

• Very few people are willing to say it openly, but much of the intensity and fear behind the debate is clearly about a clash of cultures. Some native born Americans simply don't like what they believe illegal immigrants are 'doing' to neighborhoods and cities. They look down on what they believe to be an inferior culture. So the illegal immigration debate is only partly about the "illegal" part of the equation. It seems to me that at least a part of it is rooted in straightforward cultural prejudice.

• I think a whole lot of Latinos got out onto the streets this past weekend because of that clash. And I understand their passion to defend their culture publicly against Americans who don’t understand what good and hardworking people the vast majority of illegals really are.

But why wave Mexican flags while you're at it? Every Mexican flag in an immigration rally guarantees thousands of mid-west and southern votes for the harshest kinds of anti-immigration laws and stokes even more fear and culture clash. Machismo and misplaced nationalism won't cut it.

• What about the Sensenbrenner bill that the House passed and got this whole firestorm started?

Other than turning them into felons, the bill does little to answer the question of what to do with the 12 million illegals already here. On the face of it, the bill would require a draconian 'round up' and expulsion of 12 million people, lots of 'em with kids who are born and bred US citizens. I don't think many of 'em would volunteer to simply get on a bus and go, so we're talking about a mass expulsion at the point of a gun. Very ugly. Fortunately, it will never happen. No sane politician would ever enforce such a law.

The bill would also make social workers, clergy, and medical personnel into criminals for offering aid or comfort to illegals. My wife and I would have been felons if this law had been in effect during our days in LA. It would erect a big wall along the border to keep illegals out.

Those types of walls may say more about the psychological boundary issues of their builders than they do about the common sense of the same :^) Like the Great Wall in China, an astronaut might be able to see this proposed wall from space but it will probably turn out to be largely irrelevant on the ground. Life and labor pools will always find a way.

• I’m pretty confident that a more common sensical and less punitive approach will eventually prevail. I like a lot of the McCain/Kennedy Senate bill—it seems to take the most humane and realistic approach that also makes room for legitimate border control and security.