Two Cents on Illegal Immigration
I've been reading with interest the conversation over at Bacon's Rebellion regarding Jim's post on illegal immigration. Agreed, most of the response thus far to Jim's thoughtful invitation to debate and discussion has been both political and irrational.
This having been said, I am going to offer a conservative response to why Speaker Howell's proposed initiative to combat illegal immigration is counterproductive, not to mention that it shows some very disconcerting flaws.
For starters, we have to ask the question whether or not we are truly acting, or whether we are simply reacting towards a problem. Illegal immigration is nothing that the Commonwealth of Virginia can tackle on it's own. The problem of illegal immigration is correctly framed as a federal problem. Unless Virginia intends to put up fences and post guards along our own borders, we have no choice but to deal with the problem constructively.
This begs yet another question. Will these policies of shooing out illegal immigrants of workhouses, denying them in-state tuition, sanctioning businesses who hire illegal immigrants, etc. cure the problem? Or are we yet again treating the symptoms? By imposing these regulations, we fail to ask the immortal question: Quo vadis?
What then will Virginia's illegal immigrants do? Will they work? Will they stay at home? How will they earn a living? Even if Virginia were to actively enforce the plank of Speaker Howell's initiative where state police could detain and remove illegal immigrants charged with a crime (loitering?), where will they go? When will they come back?
We can all see where this leads. Virginia, much like Arizona or Texas, will embark on a plan that is tantamount to a revolving door policy.
But let's stop for just a moment and reflect on what we're really saying here. Check off the arguments Howell makes against illegal immigrants. Why should we shoo them off? Why, the reason they must go is because (apart from the fact they are illegally here, a federal problem) they impose upon our social safety net! As Jim Bacon comments :[I]llegal immigration is a unavoidably a state/local problem when illegal immigrants apply for food stamps, seek medical care and attend overcrowded, fiscally stressed schools. These problems cannot be fobbed onto the federal government. The problems are inherently local, and they're real. Do we hear that? Republicans. Arguing that people should be shooed off because they are adversely impacting our socialized safety net of food stamps, medical care, and public schools.
Does anyone else see the problem here?
Let's be brutally honest. The reason why these programs are failing isn't because of the impact of illegal immigration. They're failing because they are traditionally societal roles that are being hijacked by a government bent on stressing socialism rather than individualism.
To fork over the failure of these institutions upon a convenient class of people isn't exactly what I would call just, though it certainly is a predictable repetition of history with respects to human nature.
Setting aside the contradiction conservatives offer defending liberally-imposed social agendas, what we have here is an appeal to that old American fear of "the other". That when something doesn't go well, we find some group of people to blame. At first it was the British, then the French, then Indians, next the Irish, extending to Catholics, then to Slavs, then to African-Americans, and currently with anyone of Arab descent. History does indeed repeat.
Now in an age where our open borders and socialized government system have been under threat, we are presented with illegal immigration. And it's not a stretch to say that when people speak of "illegal immigration," it's shorthand for Latin Americans crossing the Mexican border, and not grandma from the Ukraine stuffed into a duffle bag on the next Delta flight.
Here is where the rubber meets the road. Conservativism in my mind (and a slight deviation from the definition Ken Cuccinelli gave this morning) operates on the principles of free markets, free people, and a free society. That comes with a price tag, starting with the rules necessary to make socieities free.
If the concerns from the Howell bench stem from the impact illegal aliens have on our social programs, then what precisely is the problem then? As a conservative, I might suggest that the problem isn't so much the presence of illegal immigrants per se, but rather the presence of government, a presence conservatives are supposed to be fighting against.
Seeing this, let's argue in hypotheticals. If the social programs these illegal aliens are supposedly straining to the breaking point ceased to exist tomorrow, would the opposition be so strong?
Now one might argue yes, and I'll offer two generalized scenarios:
(1) Yes Shaun, they should still be removed because they are here in the United States illegally.
Then remove them, as is the federal governments responsibility to do so.
(2) Yes Shaun, they should still be removed because they are filthy Mexicans.
Then I say you're a racist, and deserve to be beaten to a damn pulp.
So the argument boils down accordingly. The argument against illegal immigration is either (1) a decision policy makers in Washington - not Richmond - need to develop and enforce, or (2) one motivated purely on the fear of "the other" and based on race. Propping up decaying social programs and using illegal immigrants as the scapegoat is only making a bad situation terribly worse.
Yes, those who want to come and be American citizens should go through the process as law-abiding citizens, and no, I am not arguing for amnesty for illegal immigrants or condoning the practice. But the market has provided a makeshift solution that should not be ignored.
Local and state governments are doing what they can to help, but private solutions (businesses hiring undocumented workers, workhouses offering employment to otherwise idle and listless workers, opportunities for bettering one's station through education) are already being implemented.
Society adapted to fix problems imposed upon us by the federal government's ineptitude. Fixing federal problems at the state level is like swirling a stick in the a muddy stream and expecting the water to clear up. It doesn't work that way.
What's the alternative if the federal government will not exercise it's responsibility? I don't have that answer. But I do know that "cracking down" on illegal immigrants, as a state issue, is either poorly though out or diabolically motivated by racist hate.
Which one it might be, I'll allow the gentle reader to decide. But let us not confuse reaction to a problem with true and constructive action.
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D.J. McGuire 
5 Comments:
Illegal immigration does impact state politics and economics. The impact on private sector employment should not be minimized. If Virginia authorities put the clampdown on anyone who hires illegal aliens, the word would go out that Virginia is not the place for illegal aliens to be. From a federal perspective, the issue wuld still be a problem, but at least Virginians would not be paying the local economic cost.
As for the cited programs in general, you have a point; their respective validity is not dependent upon the uses of the illegals in the system. However, very few Americans, or even Virginians, are prepared to consider those programs as surplus or unnecessary.
Additionally, the allowance of illegals to use those programs is, in and of itself, a further incentive for illegal immigration. The difference may seem marginal to us, but millions of people make decisions on the margins. The impact cannot be minimized.
In a perfect world, the federal government would recongize its role. However, when the federal government abdicates its role, states (especially states where illegal aliens have destroyed property in an act of war, as was done here in Virginia on 9/11/01) can and must step up and do what they can.
You are right. We shouldn't confuse reaction with action. And, it would be good if folks got some of the facts right.
People who are in this country illegally, and some who are in this country legally, are not eligible for food stamps, medicaid, medicare, or other so-called safety net benefits, and there is NO evidence that they have gotten them in Virginia.
To get those benefits (under a federal law in place for about a decade, the welfare reform act) you must prove legal presence and citizenship or an immigration status that is not disqualified from receiving benefits (e.g., persons who are permanent residents lose eligibility for benefits after five years if they haven't become citizens, which is unlikely because the average wait for processing is longer than that).
Every child in this country has the right to go to school (our constitution provides equal protection to people not citizens) so there are some costs for educating kids who are not here legally, and, unfortunately, almost all the tax revenue generated by their parents goes to the federal government rather than the local governments who absorb much of the cost(FICA, e.g.).
People who need emergency medical care or treatement for communicable diseases can get it regardless of legal presence, but not regular or preventive health care, except in free clinics and similar entities engaging in outreach to immigrant communities.
There is no economic "cost" of illegal immigration. We have more service and similar unskilled jobs in Virginia than people with the physical strength and willingness to fill them (e.g., tobacco picking, tomato picking, chicken processing, hotel maid services, landscaping, etc).
85% of farmers interviewed by JLARC said that they'd go out of business without foreign born workers and the tourism, construction and hospitality industries are heavily dependent on such workers.
42% of all job growth in Virginia in the 90's was immigrant men, according to the Business Roundtable.
The reason that the US Chamber of Commerce is solidly for legalizing temporary foreign workers is because our economy would be down the tubes without them.
The incentive for people to come here illegally is our strong economy and the demand for willing workers to fill (mostly minimum wage)jobs. The gap between such jobs and available workers will increase as us baby boomers age and become a larger and larger segment of the population demanding services that none of us can provide because we'll be too old and infirm.
If Virginia is seen by immigrants as being "unfriendly" and they start voting with their feet, you'll see a real "economic cost" in Virginia that few Virginians will be prepared to live with.
It's time to stop bashing immigrants and implement a rationale program that addresses our economic needs and keeps our borders secure.
These are NOT mutually exclusive goals.
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