Illegal Immigration and US Policy - Essay Example

Illegal Immigration and US Policy At any moment in time, the political forces in Washington DC engage in a war of rhetoric in order to gain the upper hand. Or at least a perceived upper hand. Conservative republicans lambaste liberal democrats for their stand on this issue or that. Democrats rail back with their typical class inflammatory comments which engender class warfare and suspicion of everyone except themselves. However, once in a generation an issue comes to the forefront which has the potential to genuinely undermine the US landscape of freedom and economic power. If politicians are unwilling to address the core issues, America will suffer for generations to come. Illegal immigration is one of these issues. Illegal immigration is a multifaceted problem for the United States, and therefore politicians are unwilling to develop a solution, at least not yet. It seems that our representatives in Washington are more concerned how their actions will affect their political base, and thus their ability to remain power rather than making honest evaluations of the impact 11 million illegal immigrants are having on the American economic engine. After all, if the politician isn't able to engender support and win voters by his or her policy decisions, why make a decision at all Why not pass the problem onto the next senator or congressman, and make them deal with the political hot button rather than risk taking a dive in the next popularity pole. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the current estimate on the number of illegal workers in America is over 12 million, with 400,000 arriving each year. 1 This number breaks down to 1100 illegal immigrants per day entering this country. For the Democratic Party, who typically builds large social support programs in order to influence voter support, this group represents an up and coming power base. For the Republicans who lean toward supporting business efforts in order to stoke the fires of our economic engine, this group represents huge amounts of inexpensive labor. However, for the people of our nation, these groups if immigrants represent the following problems rather than a potential voter block. For the labor unions, inexpensive labor represents a virtual coup which will undermine for their stranglehold on American labor force. For the American social services sector, these illegal immigrants represent a drain on the limited economic resources allocate to serve the poor and the needy of our country. For the educational system, the influx of non-English speaking students has created a significant strain on educational progress, and educational quality at a time during which the educational system is already lagging behind world standards. Affecting union and organized labor, education, medical and social services, and finally legal systems - this growing people group represents a threat to the very establishments which make our nation great, and set up apart from countries like Mexico, from which the majority of illegal are escaping. Illegal Immigration and Labor At the heart of the argument is the claim that illegal immigrants are only here to do work that Americans will no longer do. They work the fields, landscape, and take low wage jobs which Americans refuse to do. Vicente Fox, the Mexican president, has recently said that "Mexicans do jobs that even blacks won't do." 2 While this idea is distasteful to hear, the general concept is unfortunately accepted by many politicians. Therefore, according to those who support illegal immigration, they are a necessary part of the American economic landscape. To some level this claim is accurate. Our nation has always had a class of peoples which worked below the economic parity, and produced much for little pay. When our nation was settled, African slaves were imported in the South. Their work fueled the textile industry, and made it possible for America to move to the forefront in this industry. During the 1800's, and the nation's westward expansion, the Chinese immigrants, nicknamed 'coolies' fueled the expansion of the western frontier by providing labor on mines and carving the trans-continental railroad across the nation. These industries connected east and west, and again fueled the fires of the American economic engine. The contribution of the peoples cannot be ignored. However, after a civil war over slavery, and nation wide persecution of the Chinese at the turn of the 20th century, does America want to return to the position of taking advantage of one people group in order to fuel its own economy Should America's legacy be that we build a great civilization on the backs of the poorest and least educated citizens Caesar Chavez, an iconic leader for the poorer Hispanic worker, worked to bring labor standards up for migrant and laboring Hispanics. His ground breaking work (no pun intended) is honored as being equal to that of Martin Luther King's efforts for the black community. According to the Guerrilla News Network, Chavez and the united Farm workers of American fought against illegal immigration. 3 He knew that labor rates rose and falls, not as a function of the employer's good will, or their ability to make a profit, but rather as a function of availability. If the labor pool is small, then wages rise. If a labor pool is skilled, then they can ask for higher wages and expect to receive them. However, if the labor pool is vast, unskilled and uneducated, the employer often will take the risk of employing the lower skilled worker in order to increase their profits. The market forces on labor and wages cannot be abrogated, and as a result, the migrant worker's living condition stay low, and they have no hope of breaking the cycle of poverty. For this reason Chavez, along with government and religious officials of his day marched against illegal migrants, and often turned them into the government agents.4 In a nation that thrives on quality lifestyle and purports to be a leader in the world in the quality of life we afford our citizens, that same quality life must be supported by quality jobs, high quality skills, and higher than average wages. These three elements cannot be separated from each other. If the labor rates available to workers drop, so do their economic power to pull themselves out of poverty For this reason, illegal immigration is a treat, not a help, to the American economy Illegal immigration and education American educational progress has entered into a period of free fall over the past decade. Compared to the rest of the world, America is loosing ground economically because we are loosing ground educationally. America's social experiments in the arena of education have produced a generation of graduates with less competitive educational skills, leaving them vulnerable to defeat in the swiftly evolving global marketplace. With the passage of the President Bush's No Child will be Left Behind act,5 the demand for measured performance in school had reached a new high. The national standards for educational progress have been steadily dropping for a number of decades, and although the United States spends more per child on education than most of western world, the measured performance of our students on standardized achievement tests is far behind many of our neighboring countries. In his introduction to the "No Child" act, President Bush quotes Thomas Jefferson as saying "If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be." 6 Applying this argument and the status of the nation's current educational system to the illegal immigration problem, the influx of Hispanic children is pushing out educational system to a breaking point. Imagine a classroom in which half the students speak one language and half speak the other. Communicating lessons and then verifying that the students understand the materials has just become doubly difficult. Now, in the same classroom 50 years ago, an unspoken expectation would be that the non-English speaking students would be, and would want to learn English. They understood that having mastery of the English language was an important aspect of attaining a good education and a good paying career. This expectation was reinforced to the student by the standards in the home. In that same classroom today, however, the bi-lingual environment carries no expectation of evolving. The Hispanic population, operating in their own sub-culture, carried no expectation of learning the English language beyond that they need to survive. In the home, parents who immigrated illegally, also remain in their Hispanic culture and language. Thus, the student is caught in a vortex. They create difficulty in the educational environment, they do not learn the new language because they are not universally encouraged to do so, and as a result, education suffers, along with their future potential for economic success. Fiscally, the presence of a two culture America is creating an additional drain on the educational system. Schools must either meet the bi-lingual needs, and absorb the costs, or risk failing the No Child standards and thus loose funding. The final result is that in an environment which illegal immigration is allows continuing unchecked, educational system and educational quality in our nation will continue to fall rather than recover. Thus this situation is a threat to the entire future of the nation. Illegal immigration and social services According to the LA Times, 5% of America's work force is illegal or undocumented workers. These workers, however, are eligible for a full array of social and medical services when they are in need. No hospital in the country will turn away an emergency patient. They will treat the person. And the costs for that treatment, well, when the treated worker is not paying into the system via taxes, their costs are passes along to the rest of the country. This may seem like a small thing, yet another industry in our action which is under elevated economic strain is the health care delivery system. Currently the nation's health care system is in need of a doctor itself. Increasing amount of demands with decreasing funding is leaving health care providers in a difficult position. Costs are rising. The baby boom generation, the largest sector of American population is aging and requiring more medical assistance. And the succeeding generations are begin straddled with the financial responsibility to support every widening social medical programs. The money needed for these programs is pushing the entire industry to a breaking bpo0int. Adding to those 11 million illegal immigrants and one can understand the magnitude of the problem. Conclusion This past week, the federal government has finally begun to debate the problem of illegal immigration.7 As the first bills appeared out of committees, protests erupted across the nation. Hispanic students in California and Texas walked out of classes in protest that their parents may be held accountable to the law. 8 Illegal immigration is just what the label implies - illegal. A nation that has made the decision to support those who are supporting it, i.e.: tax paying citizens, cannot support an ever growing population of no-tax paying citizens. While the mantra bantered about declares that these people only do jobs that American's won't, America should consider if it wants to be a nation that continues to build it's success on the backs of slaves, if the only change is the slaves nationality. American is a home of opportunity, based on hard work, and market driven forces. Illegal immigrants to want the opportunity without participating in supporting the foundations of our economy. The growing numbers of their community threatens to tip the balance of our entire economic system. It is time for politicians to think beyond their success in the next election, and make hard decisions regarding the future or our great nation. Works Cited Bush, G. (2001) No Child Left Behind. The White House: News and Policies. Retrieved from: http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/reports/no-child-left-behind.html Hartmann, Thom. (2006, March 30) Guerrilla News Underground. Today's immigration battle - corporatists vs racists. Retrieved from: http://www.gnn.tv/articles/2193/Today_s_Immigration_Battle_Corporatists_vs_Racists Lochead, C. (2006, March 30) Senate begins passionate immigration debate Specter trying to round up more GOP votes for bill. San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved From: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgifile=/c/a/2006/03/31/MNG0VI146K1.DTL Parsons, D. (2006, March 31). It's Time to Settle This Immigration Issue, Once and for All LA Times. Retrieved from: http://www.latimes.com/news/columnists/la-me-parsons31mar31,1,6981580.columncoll=la-news-columns Simmons, G. (2006, March 30) Immigration effects on economy is murky. Fox News: Politics. Retrieved from: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,189792,00.htm Ten's of thousands of students protest immigration reform. ( 2006, March 30) NC Times. Retrieved from: http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2006/03/28/news/californian/18_03_293_27_06.txt Wood, R. (2006, March 27) Immigration policy for United States: look away. Eastern Michigan University Echo. Retrieved from: http://www.easternecho.com/cgi-bin/story.cgi31271 Read More