My thesis for this article is that illegal immigration into the United States is an irresistible temptation for both the immigrant and our nation given the current circumstances. Both sides of this debate are loaded for war, and are quite willing to fire any salvo of destruction at the other just to maintain the status quo.
If I were from a poor rancho in Mexico and had the opportunity to steal into the United States for a better life it wouldn’t take more then a few moments to pack my bags and head toward the boarder. Corruption in Mexico and most of South and Central America is staggering and institutionalized from the bottom up. Poverty is the way of life for the majority of citizens in these countries, and despair is rife. Substance back breaking labor tends to be the standard and servitude is the norm.
Given these conditions millions of people make the perilous journey risking life and limb for a chance at a better life. These illegal immigrants know that they will be viewed as second tier humans by the country they’re running to, yet they come anyway. They come because their children eat better here, get some form of public education here, get medical care here, and corruption is not one-tenth as bad here as where they came from; except maybe in Chicago, or Cleveland.
The capitalists in our country count on these millions of third world workers to suppress wages for the native born, suppress inflation by keeping labor cheap, and exploit the third world willingness to do hard and dirty jobs without complaint. By extension our national balance sheet benefits from these workers. In all honesty our government has done very little to stop illegal immigration, our economy benefits from their labor and our consumers benefit by these laborers suppressive effect on inflation.
So millions and millions of people have come, by hook and by crook, and of the ten to thirty million illegal immigrants currently in the country there maybe fifty million immigrant children who are by birth citizens of the United States. Those fifty million citizens, the children and families of illegal immigrants have radically altered our health care system, education system, legal system, economy and culture.
The free market has spawned an elaborate system to smuggle illegal immigrants into our country, move them around to points of work, employ them, house them, entertain them, send money home to their loved ones in other countries and even move them toward citizenship.
Our government and most of our citizens have looked the other way while illegal immigration flourished and even benefited from illegal labor. I contend that all of us are responsible for this problem.
The question is, how do we find a solution that stops illegal immigration, isn’t racist, is fair and equitable, establishes a clear law that is both enforceable and enforced, and all of us can live with?
John