We all know
the immigration story and how illegal immigrants have been a politically difficult
subject. As a country that achieved unparalleled
success because of broadly liberal immigration rules, it has seemed absurd that
the U.S. remained stalled on the issue of what to do with the current
immigrants that haven’t, or in most cases, are unable to achieve legal
status. Most everyone that has
citizenship or legal residency in the U.S. has benefited from previous sensible
policies.
By
conservative estimates, there are 11 million illegal immigrants in the
U.S. There are likely many more. Almost 80% are Latin Americans and 75% of
those are Mexicans. Several years ago I worked with an immigration attorney to
help a Mexican employee gain a visa. She
commented that if the employee were Chinese, Russian or Indian, she would have
a 10,000 times greater chance of gaining permanent residency, but because she
was Mexican, her chances were low. Our
country’s policies and our views as a people towards Mexican immigration, is
blatantly racist. Many times I have
been in debates with people that blurt out ridiculous statements such as
Mexicans should just do it legally and then we wouldn’t find it so
objectionable. When I explain that our government
hands out very few visas to Mexicans, and we make it almost impossible to be
legal, my debate foes dismiss me and change the subject.
Mexicans
that come to the U.S. to work, want exactly the same thing all other immigrants
want. They want to improve their
standard of living and give their children a better life than they had. These Mexicans want to accomplish that by
holding jobs and working hard. They don’t
want handouts, welfare or benefits they haven’t earned. They would actually like to pay taxes, but
often cannot without disclosing their lack of legal status. In fact they usually pay into the social
security system with FICA withholding applied against social security numbers
they will never use again. Because we
make it impossible to be legal, Mexican workers will often keep their families
in Mexico, sending their wages back home, and treat their jobs as
temporary. If they had legal status and
could bring their families to the U.S., imagine the economic stimulation
keeping their wages in the U.S. would provide.
These people respect home ownership, family and education. Having 5 million or more people attempting to
become a first time homeowner in the U.S. would be great for the housing
market.
We need the
Mexican workers and many employers have treated their illegal status as an
inconvenience. While we have a high
unemployment rate in the U.S., many employers cannot find an adequate supply of
workers. Why is that? That is an entirely different
discussion.
Countries
with no population growth, and restrictive immigration policies, are facing
difficult times. Norway is one of the
wealthiest countries, but cannot find enough workers to fill basic level
jobs. Rather than allow for greater
immigration, they choose to suppress their life quality; there are not many
restaurants in Norway because of a lack of workers, and Norwegians begrudgingly
eat most of their meals at home. No wonder they cuisine doesn’t get any better.
Japan’s population is projected to decline from the current level of 128
million people to 86 million in 2060, due to low fertility rates and
restrictive immigration. Japan already
has the highest debt levels in the world and the population decline will
decimate the country economically. Yet they do nothing to change the inevitable.
The
Republicans have recently embraced citizenship for illegal aliens, attempting
to take this reform away from Obama. I’m
sure the inevitable collapse of the party has led to discussions about gaining
new support from the fastest growing demographic. Regardless of the motives, I am happy to see
real momentum to a problem we have ignored for too long. The economy is set to grow and what better
way to stimulate growth than to provide legal status for this hidden class of
hard working people.
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