President Bush has announced an immigration reform proposal that would allow those undocumented aliens who currently reside in the United States and those in foreign countries seeking employment to apply for, and receive, a temporary worker permit. I have taken the official press release “fact sheet” from the White House Web site and in an effort to explore precisely what the president proposes, I will review several of the key elements.
The question to begin with though, is do we have a need for such a program? Currently those jobs that are attractive to illegal aliens are the types of job that most Americans are not interested in performing. They are hard labor, don’t pay well, often times grueling, and for someone who is desperate for a better life. The primary workers this program will be dealing with are the seasonal field workers, the day maids and the guys on the corner of Home Depot looking for construction jobs.
From the White House press release: ■The program would be open to new foreign workers, and to the undocumented men and women currently employed in the U.S. This new program would allow workers who currently hold jobs to come out of hiding and participate legally in America's economy while not encouraging further illegal behavior.
The two category of workers the program is focused on are people who are currently gainfully employed and those who are not here yet. The workers who are here have no reason to pay an application fee, get processed and suddenly become, “semi-legal.” They have their jobs, their apartments and for the most part, are living a better life than they had in their home countries. And the risk of deportation is slight, and even if they are deported, they just come back across the border anyway. The workers who are in a foreign country — if they had the money to file an application fee — probably have a job there, and do not need to come illegally across the border. ■President Bush also asked Congress to work with him to achieve significant immigration reform that protects the homeland by controlling the borders. It also would serve America's economy by matching a willing worker with a willing employer, promote compassion for unprotected workers, provide incentives for temporary workers to return to their home countries and families, and protect the rights of legal immigrants while not unfairly rewarding those who came here unlawfully or hope to do so.
This is a tall order at first blush, but what happens when you look behind the curtain to see what is really being sought? Homeland protection and border control. No illegal alien from Mexico is trying to blow us up, and our border is too large to be completely blocked. It is impractical to expect that we will be able to close our borders completely, and anyone that wants to blow us up is not all that concerned with observing our laws in the first place. We are a capitalist society and that seems to be working quite well right now with no great need for employees going unmet. The fields are picked, the stores are full of our products and the employees keep coming from south of the border to fill whatever positions need to be filled. The compassion argument from this president is just a smokescreen. He has no compassion for his own citizens so why would he care about the “furuners,” as he pronounces them.
As for “incentives for them to return home,” what the president does not realize is that many of the seasonal workers already go home, and then return the next season to make their living. Lastly, he wants to protect the rights of the legal workers, and not reward the illegals. That sounds to me like the documented field workers would be entitled to a minimum wage law, all employment laws and protections. This is ironic considering that the president is not willing to give American citizens the rights to which they are entitled as natural citizens, unless they own a major corporation. Of course, this would also increase the costs of goods and those would be passed on to us the consumers as a $7 head of lettuce. ■Illegal immigration, however, creates an underclass of workers, afraid and vulnerable to exploitation. Current immigration law can also hinder companies from finding willing workers. The visas now available do not allow employers to fill jobs in many key sectors of our economy.
Workers risk their lives in dangerous and illegal border crossings, and are consigned to live their lives in the shadows. Without harming the economic security of Americans, reform of our nation's immigration laws will create a system that is fairer, more consistent, and more compassionate.
The president’s sudden compassion for the underclass is laudable, if only it weren’t so laughable. This program does nothing to help people out of their environment. It offers no skills training or education, and provides no way for people to increase their value in the marketplace. In theory, it requires companies to seek to fill their needs with Americans first. In fact, the only people it will be helping are those hired by the government in what will be an increase in bureaucracy to administer this new program, thus adding to the federal budget deficit.
The proposal provides no real safeguards to the nation’s safety and will only increase the number of immigrants because there will be a new class of workers — those few who have their temporary cards, and it will not eliminate the illegal immigrant class of people who will continue to be employed in our society as field workers, maids, day-workers in all of the places they work now. The fact is our society needs illegal immigrants who work for below minimum wage rates, and that is not going to go away. (David Pisarra is a partner in the Santa Monica law firm of Pisarra & Grist, he welcomes questions, and (310) 664-9969 or e-mailed at).
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on January 13, 2004. Read the original PDF.