Bangor Daily News, July 16

The short-term health of a significant portion of Maine’s logging industry will shortly be determined by the Department of Homeland Security. The financial importance of the situation requires a swift answer from Secretary Tom Ridge, who should recognize that the national security he is working to improve has little to do with the presence of longtime Canadian woods workers in northern Maine.

Canadians have cut trees in the Maine woods for as long as anyone has been paying attention to the border, and though they have more recently belonged to the visa classification H-2B, which caps the national total of immigrant workers at 66,000, they have not been prevented from entering the United States before because the cap was routinely ignored.

Now, with national security at issue, the cap is no longer ignored and these workers face similar difficulties as Canadian nurses, who have also worked here for years and are now finding it difficult to get across the border.

The numbers on the woods workers, according to Maine woods associations, are these: The logging industry has 700 job openings that are typically filled by Canadians who, unless employed, will reduce the wood harvest 38 percent across six counties, causing a reduction in the supply of sawlogs and of pulp to paper mills. The associations assert that this will directly affect 3,000 jobs and cost many hundreds of millions of dollars. Keeping out these loggers, many of whom come here year after year, does nothing to enhance security.

Maine’s senators have asked Secretary Ridge to grant what is known as “temporary parole” to the loggers so that they might immediately begin work even as Congress contemplates various immigration reforms.

Secretary Ridge has granted parole to workers in other cases but he has done so individually; asking him to grant this status to a group would be a first. The senators are still waiting for a response from the secretary’s office.

Enforce the tax code


TimesDaily, Florence, Ala., July 20

… Today’s Hispanics, like the Europeans before them, are coming to America to improve their lots in life. Work is plentiful, though most of the jobs they fill are grueling. The majority of them make a good living compared to their counterparts back home.

One reason is because most don’t pay income or property taxes. Since they are undocumented aliens, state and federal governments have no records of them. Employers contribute significantly to the problem. Most know that an illegal immigrant will work for whatever wage the boss sets and not complain. …

It’s unrealistic to think the influx of illegal immigrants can be stopped. Not only is it logistically and financially impractical, the politics of corporate profits and votes must be factored into the scenario. Anyone who lives and works in this country has an obligation to pay their fair share of the cost.

That means paying taxes, which employers have an obligation to deduct from paychecks. Enforcing the tax codes is more feasible – and practical – than expecting any real reform in immigration laws soon. Enforcing tax codes would also go a long way toward easing the burden immigrants are placing on schools and hospitals.

Paris and Berlin must act


Expressen, Stockholm, Sweden, July 20

The Sudanese government has no ambition to stop the massacre in Darfur and when the African Union and the Arab League ignore the humanitarian crisis, a Western intervention is called for.

The good powers in the European Union and the United States should use the United Nations to put pressure on the regime in Khartoum. The Sudanese government should be aware that foreign troops may be used to protect the civilian population from further assaults.

But, then again, demands by Washington are not enough. It’s time for Berlin and Paris to wake up.

The treachery at Darfur risks to be just as devastating as that which we all so recently wept for, Rwanda.

Chaos rules under Arafat


Dagsavisen, Oslo, Norway, July 20

There is total chaos in the Palestinian administration under Yasser Arafat’s faltering leadership. …

It is not the Palestinians and their president’s responsibility alone. Israel in recent years has done its best to undermine the Palestinians’ ability to govern themselves. … But the Palestinian authorities also have a responsibility for the misery. Widespread corruption has contributed strongly to destroying the economy. Nor has Arafat made any serious attempt to stop destructive activities by extreme groups, such as Hamas.

Attempts to create a workable government will not succeed as long as Yasser Arafat is president and controls security forces that he won’t allow to do what they should: Stop the militant extremists.

Arafat is still an important symbol in the Palestinian struggle for the right to their own country, but he is completely incapable of pushing the peace process forward, restoring order and stabilizing the economy.