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Choose a Category Education Immigration News Release

Illegal Immigration: The Only Reasonable Solution

Date: May 2, 2006

  Immigration: The Only Reasonable Solution

         Immigration, like business, is the business of America.  It fuels economic growth and keeps low paying jobs filled, as seasoned new immigrants move up the ladder in the American dream.  The sine qua non element is rapid assimilation of digestible numbers.  The current resentment towards illegal immigrants is not provoked by their foreign language, foreign culture, or different appearance; it is shock and despair over their overwhelming numbers.  Ten to Twenty million, whatever the real number, is far too many in too short a period of time.  Whether they come from Mexico, China, Turkey, Haiti or Lithuania, such numbers threaten to create permanent foreign pockets within our borders.  We allowed the crisis to develop and what we now face is without precedent. 

         Over ten million people in the category of illegal immigrants live in the shadows of our society, suffering abuse, neglect and fear.  Our national sense of justice and compassion has been aroused; something has to be done soon.  At the same time we also face an invasion of millions of new illegal immigrants; a human tsunami of border crossers and visa violators comes year after year ad nauseum.  National feelings of outrage and self defense permeate our society.  It must be stopped now.  The nation is divided again; this new polarizing issue is as ominous as resent past issues like civil rights and the Viet Nam War.  It will not be less painful, but it will be equally overcome. 

         One group urges total amnesty and agrees with the need for increased border security; a reasonable position.  The other group urges gradual amnesty and calls for secure borders; also a reasonable position. The devil, as always, is in the details.  We have managed to save our democracy by mastering the art of social compromise.  However, some of our half-baked solutions and national delusions have allowed some problems to grow to lethal levels.  Illegal immigration is one of them.  A simple don't ask don't tell policy is not going to resolve this issue. 

         The two imperative objectives, justice for all and secure borders, must be addressed simultaneously and credibly.  We know that the de facto citizens we call illegal immigrants are not really law breakers.  That they have been seduced into coming here by a combination of easily penetrable borders, blatant non-enforcement of immigration laws and the dangling of dream jobs in front of desperately poor people.  It would be a form of legal entrapment to now declare them criminals.  We also know that another empty promise of secured borders cannot be trusted.  Ludicrous proposals for fences, electronic gadgets and the doubling or tripling of immigration enforcement officers cannot by themselves succeed.  Illegal immigration would continue at an unacceptable pace and the problem would grow to explosive proportions. 

         What are needed are far-reaching policy changes that meet head on and deal with this and other vital issues.  On immigration the hard choices are crystal clear.  To secure the borders and truly enforce immigration laws, we need to create a very large force.  This force would number in the tens of thousands, in order to seal the border with Mexico, to investigate and fine countless business and personal employers of undocumented workers and to track down for deportation post-amnesty delinquents.  The millions of illegal immigrants already in the country are here to stay; it is a foregone conclusion that mass deportation is out of the question.  Few of them could or would agree to return home, even if just to touch base, as some proposals have suggested.  Perhaps, we may be able to extract some symbolic fines and superficially estimated back taxes to assuage the indignant majority.  Nevertheless, we must be sensitive of the need to legitimize their existence in our society, at our earliest possible time and without punitive artificial delays.  That is to say, as soon as they prove to be committed to become Americans above all, they acquire basic English language skills and they learn fundamental concepts of American history, government and law.  Let them all come in to register with the government to participate in guest worker arrangements and in citizenship preparation programs.  As soon as they are ready, let them pass the standard citizenship examination and let them join the rest of us as members of the American family.  It is also noteworthy, that many economists recognize the present pool of illegal immigrants, as necessary to sustain our economy.  We may need to reassess our immigration quotas, to provide the right numbers and to diversify our immigrant population.

         Both, the creation of effective barriers against future waves of illegal immigrants and the accelerated cultural immersion of existing ones, are objectives beyond our present manpower resources.  We will never be able to address this problem with insufficient resources, anymore than we have been able to pacify Iraq.  National service conscription of young Americans across the board may be necessary, with the use of a fair universal lottery system.  The nation must finally transcend the paralyzing intimidation of the civil rights explosions and the anti-Viet Nam War youth revolution.  We should stop expecting so little from our youth, it becomes a self fulfilling prophesy and they are not the better for it.  Most Americans would support a draft system that offers a free choice between military service and a host of civilian social services.  Those draftees, who freely choose the military option, would be part of what would continue to be an all-volunteer military.  The others, presumably the great majority, would provide many of our social institutions with desperately needed manpower at a plausibly affordable price.  They would become a rotating, but endless supply of well-trained supplemental labor.  This would be a labor supply, which could be decreased as easily as it could be increased to respond to changing needs; no high salaries, work contracts or pension plans would exist to hamper the progression.  Those draftees, who refuse to serve, would in the process forfeit many of the perks of American citizenship, which they now unthinkingly take for granted as birth rights.  Why don't we decisively tackle some of our major national problems without surrendering to them; why don't we let our young people make us and them selves proud by joining us in the effort?

 Carlos L. Arce

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