THE GREAT WALL OF MEXICO

Issues surrounding immigration in America are many. However, the root of the debate centers on the border itself. There are laws regarding the proper way to enter the country, but literally millions of people are living here in the U.S. having gotten here by dashing across the border without regard to the rules of entry. While building a wall across our southern border is met with overwhelming support, nay sayers use such rhetoric as it is racist to do so or it does not address the issue at all. However, 57% of all non citizens entering this country illegally in 2006 were from Mexico. This figure clarifies both the need to address the southern border and the fact that our problem with the southern border is not WHO in terms of race is crossing but the NUMBERS that are crossing illegally. This is an economic problem both from the standpoint of the invader and the invaded. While there is a valid argument that many illegals come to the U.S. and work productively with no other crime than to have broken the law to get here, the fact of the matter is, crimes perpetrated by illegals crossing the southern border is frightening. As a matter of fact, 2% of all illegals in this country commit violent sexual crimes. And the sexual crimes were often preceded by other crimes as the criminal behavior of the actor escalated. Those crimes are committed against both U.S. citizens and other illegals. With neither group being safe from the criminal population crossing the border, it is clear that to build the wall and enforce the border would reduce crime and make life safer for those non citizens who come here legally to work and be productive. The wall itself is not the only piece of border security. Those who oppose it cite such things as tunnels that exist even today as a way to by-pass the wall. No matter what we do to secure our border, those who seek to come here will try to overcome that obstacle. However, a strong border policy combined with a sensible and workable work program would curtail the numbers of people who find the desire to break the law necessary. If, as is stated by many against border control, the people coming here are productive, law-abiding, tax paying people, they will gladly access a program that allows them the ability to come here and not have to skirt the law, get a social security number that belong to others, avoid medical and legal services out of fear of deportation and find the need to produce anchor babies.

My relatives came here from other lands just as did most people in the U.S. However, during the great immigration from Europe and the Irish Diaspora, people were processed in at such places as Ellis Island. Some were allowed to stay, others were not. But it was as fair as humans get and it provided the bedrock of a great nation. My own great-grandfather sought to settle in Canada, but was stopped at the Canadian border and turned back because the border agent thought he looked ill. Thank God for serendipity. As that ensured my being born in America. The greatest nation on the planet.

We need border control. We need to know who is in our country. We need to continue building a nation that is unified even with its diverse make-up. I have always thought that the innocent pay for the transgressions of the guilty. Rules and laws are made to keep society organized and civil. A border wall helps separate the wheat from the chaff and forms an element in a program that would allow worthy individuals to come here and realize their dreams while filtering out those who have nefarious motives. One last thought before I close. Not everyone can come here. Even in the pool of those we would not disallow under perfect circumstances. But we must balance proper, legal immigration with the infrastructure we have to support the current, legal population as it ages and those we allow to come here from outside. Even a melting pot has its limits before the pot itself melts down.

---Rightzilla

Ann Coulter discusses an illegal immigrant woman who has lived here for 10 years working as a cleaning lady at the airport and concludes “[s]o far, the only thing Arellano has contributed to America is one illegitimate child.” Most interestingly Coulter makes reference to this woman’s most serious crime of “using a stolen Social Security number to get a job as a cleaning woman at an airport.”

Wow! Life must be easy when everything is looked at through simpleton glasses. The obvious answer for conservatives is to build a fence along the United States/Mexico border to protect us from criminals who take jobs from legitimate Americans by using false social security numbers.

The problem with this theory is that it forgets it takes two to tango. Immigrants would not be pouring across our borders unless there were a demand for their services and if employers were not so eager to maximize profits by hiring workers for wages far less than would otherwise have to be paid. For conservatives this is admirable because “profit” is what drives our free market society. Unfortunately we cannot have it both ways. Basic economics is the reason no artificial barrier is a solution to the problem even assuming we could actually build an impenetrable wall.

I will make reference to numerous economic studies that contradict the common conservative argument illegal immigrants are an economic burden to our system and contribute nothing.

http://www.mobudget.org/Undocumented%20Workers%20Impact%20on%20Missouri%20Economy%20June%2006.pdf. http://blogs.chron.com/lorensteffy/2008/05/the_price_for_i.html.

http://www.hacer-mn.org/downloads/English_Reports/EconomicImpactUndocumentedWorkers.pdf.

Such an argument simply is not supportable. My reference to these studies, however, is not done to advance the argument we should ignore the issue. Preventing illegal immigration is a worthwhile goal. The economic truths simply demonstrate how futile efforts to stem the tide of illegal immigration will be unless these economic issues are addressed.

The guiding economic truth is that if there is a demand for cheap, illegal labor there will be a supply no matter how big you build the fence. The question becomes who is responsible for establishing the demand for cheap labor? The answer obviously is the employers who want cheap labor, even if the workers are illegal.

Illegal workers are not preventing otherwise motivated workers from finding employment. Hotels on the Las Vegas Strip hire workers on a daily basis, many of who undoubtedly are illegal. An unemployed single mother from the depressed iron belt is not prevented from moving to the sun belt for job opportunities because of illegal workers. She does not move because she is not motivated.

In an April 2007 study the argument is made the migration of illegal workers benefits both the undocumented workers who desire to work and live in the United States and employers who want flexible, low-cost labor. The author makes the case that unless a system of legal immigration that reflects the economic advantages of illegal labor is devised, such programs, including guest worker programs, will not significantly reduce illegal immigration.

From my own personal experience I have seen contractors submit bids that would indicate 50 man hours will be incurred when the other competitors must bid based on 100 man hours. The winning bid also would have used 100 man hours because the contractor was employing twice the number of illegal workers being paid half as much as a regular employee. Does that employer want to stem the tide of illegal workers?

If we really want to eliminate the use of illegal workers, we need to focus on who is employing those workers. Complete the social security data base, require employers to verify the status of all workers and enforce strict penalties against employers that hire illegal workers. That would be money better spent. Ask the DEA how effective a program is when you try to eliminate the supply without addressing the demand.

-- CounterCoulter

CounterCoulter Responds to Rightzilla

There is one important point I do not want overlooked. I do not challenge the idea of trying to eliminate illegal border entries. Border security is a legitimate pursuit. But before we spend $8 billion or more for a state of the art fence, assuming those estimates are reliable, I hope there is a better argument other than believing 51% showing some level of approval for a fence is considered to be "overwhelming" support. By that standard I guess we could argue Gore thrashed Bush in the popular vote in the 2000 election.

Rightzilla's own references reveal the folly of believing a fence is feasible, either practically or economically. The first 11 miles of fence built in San Diego was over budget by 3.8 times. The last three miles cost a whopping $10 million per mile. With these estimates it is not hard to envision the total cost of a 2000 mile fence coming in at a paltry $20 trillion. That is trillion with a capital "T!" Should we spend this amount of money, or any amount of money for that matter, for a fence that even today cannot keep out the undesireable? At least 40 tunnels under the existing fence have been discovered. How many have not?

We can build all the fences we want, but as long as employers in this country want cheap, illegal labor and there is a supply of that labor, economics dictate the two forces will find a way to come together. The only solution is to attack the demand for this illegal labor. I am afraid conservatives think they need to address the supply side of the equation because of their infatuation with anything labled "supply side" economics.

Rightzilla argues a fence will filter out the wheat from the chaff and keep out those that come here only for nefarious reasons. Who is considered the chaff and how do you define "nefarious reasons?" More importantly, how can we build a fence that will be any less of a sieve than the fences that exist now. If we do not intend to address these real problems then the proposal for a fence is nothing more than a symbolic gesture to make us feel like we are keeping out all the undesirables. We need real solutions not symbolic gestures that make us feel better.

I suspect, based on private discussions with Rightzilla, she included illegal workers who work "under the table" in the category of those that are here for nefarious reasons. These illegals prevent legitimate Americans from getting employment. The existence of this under the table workforce is exactly why we need to tackle the problem by targeting the employers willing to hide income from being taxed. Need I remind everyone it is the employer that violates federal laws when he pays a worker cash and fails to withhold and/or report that income. These employers do not report these cash wages because they want to pay less for labor costs. They not only forego income taxes but also other employment taxes like employment security and workers' compensation. As long as this arrangement remains unchecked by weak enforcement efforts, the tide of illegal workers will not be stemmed.

If we do not learn from history we are bound to repeat it. This adage is more true today than we may want to realize. I finding unsettling comparisons between the current illegal worker problem and the economic tribulations that resulted from the slavery ban following the civil war. The economics of slavery resulted in the freeing of the slaves in name only. Sharecropping and unfavorable land lease arrangments kept the former slaves in a virtual state of indentured service because the plantation owners did not want to lose the benefits of cheap labor. Hopefully we will not suffer as long today many of the inequities we suffered for 100 years following the civil war before we as a society finally step up to the plate and confront the economic realities we face today.

We have the capability of putting into place an employment identification verification system, but the economics will not change until we increase the cost on those employers who want to circumvent the system. When the risks become too great the demand for the illegal labor will diminish. Higher wages will have to be paid, leading to an increase in the cost goods and services. As a society, do we have that resolve?
---CounterCoulter

Rightzilla responds to CounterCoulter:

The first point I would like to take issue with in CounterCoulter's direct argument is that the free market economy and the greed of the business owners looking for cheap labor is what causes the problem, not the getting of fake or stolen social security numbers. First, that is simply a dodge. The fact is identity theft is a huge issue in this country, and illegal immigration contributes to that phenomenon. Moreover, CounerCoulter's contention is more a talking point than it is an argument. The fact is, our economy is not made better by the parasitic relationship we have with illegals.

The center for immigration Studies asserts that the cost of illegals in this country is from 11 billion to 22 billion dollars. Mexican migrant workers abroad send back to Mexico 17 billion dollars annually. That is money taken out of our economy, not put back into it. And it is state and local tax dollars and wages being shipped out while the tax contributions made by the same workers are largely federal, never replenishing the resources they extract. There is also an important nuance missed by CC: many jobs now done by immigrants were previously done by American's. And to answer which came first, the chicken or the egg, it was the illegal came here first and THEN the American worker was shut out. So, of the hemorrhage of workers flooding the border were stopped, the American worker would get his former job back and those whom just cannot stand corporate America making money would be happy again to see the profits going to the workers. While I whole heartedly agree that employers need to be penalized for hiring illegal workers, the fence is still an integral part of how we will address the problem. As I said in my original argument, there are many parts to the fix. To suggest that because employers need to be penalized we don't need a fence is not a conclusion which follows from that premise.

We have a huge problem in this country. We have millions of people here illegally. They sap our local recourses and send it back home to improve the economy of the motherland. We have people to work in this country. Of course, if we are willing to pay someone not to work *cough*welfare*cough* then low end jobs are not going to entice those people to resume their rightful place in the work force. This problem is not just as a result of corporate greed, it is also the problem of the philosophy of the redistribution of wealth. If we keep this up, we may just find that redistribution coming back to haunt us later from south of the border.

----- Rightzilla