Illegal immigration hurts U.S. citizens, so why is Washington proposing amnesty?

Twenty years ago, Congress supposedly solved the problem of illegal migration by granting amnesty to 2.8 million illegal migrants. It failed.

Congress then raised legal immigration by 40 percent, passed an additional six smaller amnesties. They kept coming. Despite admitting almost 1 million legal immigrants each year, more than any other country in the world, we’ve now accumulated an estimated 11 million new illegal residents, with at least a million more arriving each year.

Some solution.

The problem is now so obvious that even Washington cannot ignore it. And yet, guess what our president and the Senate are proposing? Another amnesty. They may call it a guest worker plan, or earned legalization, or comprehensive reform, but if it allows an illegal worker to continue to reside here legally, it is an amnesty. Big business has already issued calls for legalization, and even the Mexican government has hired an American public relations firm to mold our opinion.

Basic fairness would dictate that those who played by the rules should be allowed to stay here and those who didn’t should leave. But in the topsy-turvy world of Washington, basic fairness and common sense have no lobby.

Here’s a sampler of the arguments that guest worker or amnesty proponents are pushing to induce America to swallow yet another amnesty:

• “The only opponents to guest worker legalization are right-wing wackos” According to recent polls by CBS/New York Times and NBC/Wall Street Journal, the majority of Americans oppose guest worker legalization.

• “The only alternative to legalization is mass deportations.” Wrong. Like the rest of us, illegal migrants go where the jobs are. If we enforced existing laws requiring workplace verification, employment would dry up, and illegal residents would leave voluntarily. It isn’t convenient to stay without a job. Ask Mainers who left Aroostook County.

• “Workplace enforcement is impossible because employers can’t accurately evaluate immigration documents.” True, but they don’t have to. The government offers a free, Web-based program that does the evaluation for them. Called Basic Pilot, the program offers documentation verification within seconds, and, if the worker is later found to be illegal, the employer is legally protected.

• “Business can’t possibly afford to check all workers.” Remember, the program is free.

• “But we need those workers to do jobs that Americans won’t do.” I’ll let Robert Reich, President Clinton’s Secretary of Labor, answer: “Nonsense,” he writes. “The only reason any job remains unfilled is because the wage is too low. Require it to be filled with an American and employers have to raise the wage. But if they can get legal guest workers, they won’t.”

The best way to create a job that Americans won’t do is to drop the pay. As long as big business has access to cheap labor, they’ll do just that. Wonder why the U.S. Chamber of Commerce whines about a “restrictionist’ immigration policy and is lobbying for guest worker legalization?

• “If illegal immigrants went home, the economy would collapse.” Give me a break. Rich folks might have to pay more to the folks who mow their lawns, clean their houses, raise their kids and cook their meals. And construction firms peppering the West with fast food joints and 15,000-square-foot McMansions might lose their workforce – or have to pay fair wages. We’ll manage.

• “If we paid fair wages, consumers wouldn’t buy our produce and we’d go out of business.” Plantation owners before the Civil War used the same argument to defend slavery. But, in fairness, business is not advocating slavery, just low wages. Let’s look at some figures. According to University of California labor economist Phillip Martin, the average consumer spends $353 a year on produce, $20 of which goes to farm labor. If growers were deprived of ready access to cheap labor and wages rose 40 percent, the annual food bill would jump a whopping $8, from $353 to $361. Is this too much to pay for fair wages for agricultural workers?

• “But they pay taxes.” Some do, many don’t. They also use services. And with legalization, they will be eligible for even more services. A 1997 analysis by the National Research Council found that low skilled migrants, such as those eligible for the guest worker amnesty, use far more in services than they pay in taxes. In other words, cheap labor isn’t cheap. Big Business wins and you pay the tab.

• “Illegal migration doesn’t really hurt anybody.” Wrong. First of all, you pay for the myriad services they use that their taxes don’t cover. Second, the National Research Council and the Congressional Budget Office confirm that illegal migrants compete directly with immigrants and unskilled Americans, driving down their wages. Why are we siding with the illegal migrant at the expense of the legal immigrant? Third, the most violent gangs in America are predominately illegal aliens. The California 18th Street Gang has 20,000 members. This bloody group “collaborates with the Mexican Mafia, the dominant force in California prisons on drug distribution, extortion, drive by assassinations, and it commits an assault or robbery every day in LA county.” (“The Illegal Alien Crime Wave”; by Heather Mac Donald; City Journal; January 14, 2004.) And MS-13, which the FBI describes as “an increasingly efficient and dangerous organization that has become a significant threat to public safety.” (“MS-13 gang growing extremely dangerous, FBI says”; USA Today, Jan. 6, 2006)

Our population grew by nearly 50 million since 1990, and most of this growth was driven by immigrants and their children. Our generosity has been substantial, but we also deserve a lawful system based upon the will of the majority, no less than any other nation.

Rep. Barbara Jordan, chairman of President Clinton’s U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform, wrote, “it is both a right and a responsibility of a democratic society to manage immigration so that it serves the national interest.” The national interest, not special interests, based on bogus arguments from big business, immigration lawyers and foreign governments.

Jonette Christian is a member of the Mainers for Sensible Immigration Policy. She lives in Holden.