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Illegal Immigration: Barriers to Our Well Being The Reverend Mark Edmistion-Lange, December 3, 2006 Several years ago I made my first visit to a congregant in a prison. She had just been released from solitary confinement and wanted to see me about some assistance with her case. As I listened to her story I became aware that nothing in my seminary training had prepared me for this moment. The woman had become a one person campaign for alternative energy in the city where I lived. As part of her campaign she had stopped paying the federal excise tax portion of her power bill. Over a period of two years that accumulated amount became rather substantial. The power company had sent her numerous polite letters about the amount she owed reminding her, however, that she risked having her power shut off if the bill remained unpaid. Being the idealist, she refused to cave in. So the power company did indeed cut the power at her meter. Undaunted, she decided to take her case to the public by asking an accomplice to move her now non-functioning appliances out onto her front lawn, upon which she painted rather large messages condemning the power company. Well, the neighbors were upset. You would be too if your neighbor parked their home appliances on the front lawn, let alone painted inflammatory signs upon them. The police came the following day, intending to issue several citations, her worst offense concerned the refrigerator. She considered it a form of political theater. The officers did not see it that way at all. It is illegal to leave an empty refrigerator with the door attached in any location where a child might roam. There are far too many horrifying instances of children climbing inside, pulling the door shut, and, not being to open it from the inside, suffocating. Well, a struggle ensued and they ended up arresting her. There were several other complicated and painful steps in her journey that eventually led to prison. But I was amazed—I thought at the time that I had met the only person in the entire world who had been sent to solitary because she had not removed her refrigerator door. A refrigerator in the kitchen is called a home appliance. Out on the front lawn it is legally defined as an “attractive nuisance.” According to the Restatement of Torts second, which is followed in many jurisdictions, there are five elements which turn something attractive into an attractive nuisance. These could be summarized as: it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that a vulnerable person, such as a child, could easily be lured into harm by the attraction when it wasn't all that difficult for you to prevent the problem in the first place. Perhaps the most common example of “attractive nuisance” is the backyard swimming pool. Because swimming pools are so dangerous for little children almost all jurisdictions require that homeowners build a fence with a child proof gate to surround a pool. I was thinking of such fences when I first heard of the proposal to build a barrier separating the United States from Mexico. A fence surrounding a pool works with children because they lack the strength and height to get over or through it. Of course, adults are not so easily dissuaded as I know myself from several late night visits to public swimming pools in the not absolutely distant past. And as with pools, the practicality of a fence separating the two countries to keep out wily and dedicated adults seems preposterous. As an illegal border crossing is already extremely treacherous, the notion that a fence could put a dent in the stream of illegal immigrants from Mexico is absurd. The fence does nothing about the real source of the problem, that the United States is a real attraction. Whether we are a nuisance or not—well that depends. Economists have pointed out that there has only ever been one factor which stemmed the tide of illegal immigration from Mexico, Latin and South America—a recessive economy in the United States. During the “dotcom” economic bust in the Spring of 2000 rates of illegal immigration into the State of California plummeted and did not rise again until the state's economy improved. Economists have a lot to say about the real causes and affects of illegal immigration into the United States. And, as you might imagine, what economic experts say, and what political candidates have said, rarely converge. 85% of economists who have studied the statistics have concluded that undocumented immigrants have a positive (74%) or neutral (11%) effect on the national economy. For States on the border with Mexico the net impact is negative, while all other states experience a net positive economic effect. We, of course, here in Texas, are on the border so the issue is a little hotter than it is in, say, Maine. (I have a friend who once said I could send him a letter if it was the addressed, “The Chicano Guy, Maine.”) But even here in Texas, the net cost is not that great. The reason is fairly straightforward. Illegal immigrants pay taxes, but receive little in benefits. Schools and emergency medicine are the only reliably used community resources. Beyond that illegal immigrants, with rare exception, are loath to call attention to themselves. And if you add to the economic equation any program to send illegal immigrants back to their country of origin, the net economic impact on the border states would be greatly negative. The costs of trying, imprisoning and transporting millions of people is astronomical. It is estimated that there are currently 12 million illegal immigrants in the United States and approximately 850 thousand enter every year. One of the ironies of the current “get tough” mood is that normally some portion of the illegal immigrants wish to return home after they have made some good money north of the border.But because crossing has become so treacherous far fewer make the trek back. On January 29, 1948 a DC3 carrying the limit of 28 passengers along with a flight crew of three and one security guard crashed in Los Gatos Canyon in Fresno County, California. The pilot and his wife and flight attendant, Frank and Bobbi Atkinson, co-pilot Marion Ewing, and guard Frank E. Chapin were all mourned by their families. The remaining 28 were buried in a mass grave and only referred to in the newspapers as “deportees.” They were all illegal migrant workers being sent back to Mexico. Woody Guthrie heard the report of the crash over the radio and was struck by the fact that the illegal migrant workers on the plane were not named. He wrote the poem, “The Wreck at Los Gatos” which was later set to music by a schoolteacher Martin Hoffmann. The song concluding verse asks, “Is this the best way we can grow our big orchards, is this the best way we can grow our good fruit?” No. It’s not the best way. What is most haunting about the song to me is the unofficial title “Deportee.” thing that popped into my mind. As I reflected on the debate as it roiled through the press and on the streets over the past months the song pointed me toward the most crucial part of the debate that no one seems to mention. Most of the argument and data mining focuses on the illegal immigrants. Who are they, where do they come from, how much do they cost us, how many of their children do we educate, how many of them are in our emergency rooms, our jails, how much taxes do they pay? Who are they? But strangely enough, it seems that the answers we give to these questions have little to do with who they really are. They have no names. Perhaps the questions we ask and the answers we give to the problem of illegal immigration reveal more about us, the choices we make and the ideals for which we stand. If so we ought to be careful about our proposed solutions so that they reflect what we really want to be as a people and as a nation. Let’s first think about he distinction between legal and illegal immigration. The United States has quotas for limits on legal immigration from various countries around the world. We, as you might imagine, publicly favor healthy highly educated Europeans. Next in line at the current time are healthy, highly educated Asians. That is one end of the spectrum. What is the other end? An unskilled, uneducated, unhealthy latina or latino. One might suspect that the quotas reflect migration realities. One reason why official quotas favor highly educated Europeans and Asians is that few actually come. We can always use more. And perhaps one reason why official quotas discourage poorly educated latinas and latinos is that we do not need a policy to encourage their migration. We already are quite certain that, policy or no policy, they will come. The only thing that would keep them from coming would be if they did not actually benefit our economy. The fact that they are rewarded by coming here means that the economic system as a whole regards their presence as a net benefit. Add up the numbers and it’s hard to avoid the conclusion that illegal immigration across the Mexican border is our de facto guest worker program. And unlike guest worker programs in Europe, we don’t even have to pay to bring them here. President Bush has been one of the few rational voices in this part of the debate in his calls for at least being honest about the fact that illegal immigration from south of the border is our guest worker program. Even more interesting, the large pool of illegal immigrants in the United States represents one of the bright spots for Social Security and Medicaid solvency in the coming decades. They pay in, but they never draw out. Furthermore, the children of illegal immigrants represent a major pool of young workers who will be needed in the decades ahead to keep baby boomers like me from eating cat food in my retirement. And, if we do educate them well, the earning power of children born to illegal immigrants only increases. So resentment about health care and education for these children is not only meanspirited—it’s also financially wrong. As long as immigrants are classified as “illegal” they represent about a about a seven billion dollar per year plus in our economy. But if we were to make them legal and give them benefits the net result is not nearly so positive. Thus it is to almost every citizen's advantage to keep the very weird status quo. One should ask, in the tradition of that great theologian Aretha Franklin, “Who’s zoomin’ who?” Who is really gaming the system and taking advantage of the border? So we keep the quotas that exist in place, but still allow people to sneak in, pay them low wages with no benefits, fire them or kick them out as the need arises. Hell of a system, hearkening back to the American tradition of really sticking it to the poorest kids on the block. The Germans, the Catholic Irish, the Chinese, the Italians, the Polish, the Jews all experienced the same thing in past decades. Much of our country has been built on the backs of exploited immigrant, legal or not, labor. All of them were lured here by fantastic stories about what life could be like in America. Most of the time they were all treated shabbily at first. Even so, the hope of a better life, here in America, continued to burn brightly as long as they could believe that their mistreatment was a mistake. America really was something shining and golden in their eyes—an attraction. Some undoubtedly felt bitter, but as bad as it could be here most knew it was far better than what they had left behind. So the dream is held onto in tough circumstances and thus burns only all the more brightly. Aren’t we thus powerfully reminded about who we really are supposed to be as a nation? We think the immigrant story is all about them, whoever they are. But it turns out that the immigrant story is really about us, we who have come before but might have forgotten the blessed dream that is what America is at its best. The most important gift, worth far more than the cheap labor, is that immigrants, legal or not, believe, often far more deeply than we, that there really does exist a country, somewhere, that actually means it when the people say, “All are created equal, with inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” We who so easily take these blessings for granted are thus given a powerful reminder of who we really are supposed to be. We are forced to look in the mirror and decide for or against our ideals. But this potent reminder of our most important ideals is undermined by two concerns, one problematic and the other very troubling, about illegal immigration. The first concern? Little holds us together as a people in our nation. One of the few things we are supposed to have in common is a respect for the rule of law. Illegal immigration deeply undermines that respect. Both the people who work and the people who hire them live in a mutually beneficial legal twilight zone. Thus we have millions of people in the United States who every day break the law. Such routine disrespect for what should be one of our most abiding obligations should be deeply troubling. And we are all involved in this disrespect because we all benefit from it. We need to change this for the good of our own commitments to honesty and fair dealing. The cheap labor we receive is not worth the steep cost to our self respect and threatens the well being of our citizens who are at the bottom of the wage scale. There is, of course, a far uglier reason for thinking we can seal our southern border and send our guest workers back. Some people have done some counting and do not like the results. Currently the overall population of the United States includes citizens and non-citizens 4% of whom came from Asia and 12% who came from Latin and South American countries. By the year 2050 those numbers will change dramatically. 10% will have come from Asia and 25% will have come from Latin and South American countries. The complexion of America is on track to change dramatically over the next four decades. Such trends make some Anglos pretty nervous. And here, a city in southern Texas, we will see a majority population of people who came from Latin and South American countries. It will be Tejas all over again. Such nativist instincts in the United States are not new but they are patently ridiculous and entirely contradictory to our best traditions as a country. When the Irish Catholics began flooding Boston after the potato famines in the mid 1840s the Boston blue bloods, largely of English protestant stock, became very nervous and worried that they would lose the America they loved. The blue bloods believed that the Irish were cheats, dirty uneducated lowlifes who couldn’t speak properly. Forgotten in this reactive commentary was the fact that one of the bluest of the blue bloods, John Hancock, the John Hancock who had signed the Declaration of Independence, the John Hancock whose name was synonymous with honesty, integrity and fair dealing, was the same John Hancock who had become fabulously wealthy in the colonial period by smuggling contraband past the British blockade. English Protestant smugglers are apparently better than Irish Catholic smugglers. Of course, only a few generations later one of those Irish Catholics would make a fortune running rum up from the Carribean during the Prohibition. That Irish Catholic would be the father of one of America’s presidents, John Kennedy. The nativist concern, aside from being patently ugly, makes one grave error. The nativist makes an assumption that the people coming to the United States represent a barbarian invasion and will radically alter who we are. It is true that every immigrant population has made an addition to American culture. Almost every single person who has come here and hoped to remain has arrived on these shores with no intention of looting or sacking. They have wanted nothing other than one thing, to become an American. And all those people who have come have done nothing but enrich our culture, added to it, added spice and flavor and song and amazing color. Sometimes it seems to me that it doesn't matter how stupid our government can be, the people know that this a is a place that is incomparable. That is why people are so desperate to come here. They believe that when they set foot on these shores they will be given a chance to live and breath like they have never before. They believe they will be given a chance to raise their children to become the magnificent creatures they are meant to be. They believe America is great and we, we should take their hopes seriously and try to be the great and generous, optimistic and fair minded people they believe we are. We can be that, you know, on our good days. You see, we have not only gotten their cheap labor and wild crazy cultural habits, we have also gotten their dreams—which has kept this country young and vibrant, and ever more beautiful as we take to those dreams closer to heart. So what's with this fence? To protect us from the people we exploit? What we really need at our border is a statue that stands as a powerful witness to who we truly are. Oh wait a minute, we have that Statue—her name is Liberty. |
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