Immigration Wildfires

[Guest guest]

JULY 7, 2006: COLUMNS AND FEATURES: LETTERS AT 3AM

 

 

Letters at 3AM

 

Immigration Wildfires

BY MICHAEL VENTURA

 

The people who know our border best scoff at talk of

making it " secure, " especially by building a wall.

 

In Arizona, " Cochise County's 83 deputies patrol an

area of rangeland, high desert and mountains larger

than Connecticut. " Cochise County Sheriff Larry Dever

calls a wall " a waste of resources and money. "

(USA Today, May 1, p.1)

 

Those exact words were repeated on the Texas border by

Presidio County Sheriff Danny C. Dominguez. And T.J.

Bonner, president of the union that represents " nearly

all " U.S. Border Patrol agents, calls Bush's security

plan " a smoke screen " and " underwhelming. "

Bonner remembers " the last time cameras and sensors

were bought and installed ... millions of dollars were

spent on equipment that was either never installed or

improperly maintained. " (Lubbock Avalanche-Journal,

May 17, p.3) Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano: " We're not

going to seal the border, [because] we can't. When I

hear congressional and media people saying, 'Shut the

border,' I think to myself, 'They've never seen the

border.' You can't possibly have been to the

Arizona-Mexico border and believe that is possible. "

(The Washington Post, June 25, p.3) And even if a wall

were possible, she adds, " Show me a 50-foot wall and

I'll show you a 51-foot ladder. "

 

Proponents of a wall neglect to mention that 40% of

undocumented workers enter the country legally, then

overstay their visas. (The Washington Post, June 19,

p.1) Colorado's vile GOP Rep. Tom Tancredo can rave,

" They're coming to kill you, and you, and me, and my

grandchildren, " (The Washington Spectator, April 15,

p.4). But, in fact, the 9/11 hijackers entered the

country legally. " The 500,000 or so people who manage

to sneak in from Mexico each year are a minuscule

fraction – about 1% – of the tourists and students and

other visitors who enter America legally. ... Mexico

is not the preferred route of the suspected terrorists

caught so far because they prefer more convenient

options, like the Canadian border. " (The New York

Times, May 16, p.25)

 

Republicans rant about immigration, but their

behind-the-scenes behavior does not match their

rhetoric. The Washington Post, June 19, p.1: " Between

1999 and 2003 [that is, since Bush took office]

work-site enforcement operations were scaled back 95

percent. ... The number of employers prosecuted for

unlawfully employing immigrants dropped from 182 in

1999 to four in 2003. ... In 1999, the United States

initiated fines against 417 companies. In 2004, it

issued fine notices to three. " Convictions for hiring

illegals in 2004: 46.

 

The Post goes on to report that in 1998, during

Georgia's onion harvest, 4,034 undocumented workers

were arrested during a Justice Department sweep of the

fields – after which, not surprisingly, most of the

others didn't show for work. Onions lay unpicked,

farmers were livid, and Georgia's mostly Republican

representatives in Congress howled for immigration

arrests to cease.

They ceased. In 1999's Operation Vanguard, the

Immigration and Naturalization Service " subpoenaed

personnel records from Midwestern meatpacking plants "

and found that " at about 40 plants in Nebraska,

western Iowa, and South Dakota, " 19% had " dubious

documents. ... Of those workers, 70% disappeared

rather than be interviewed. ... Nebraska's members of

Congress at first called for tougher enforcement,

recalled Mark Reed, then INS director of operations.

But when the result shut some plants, 'all hell broke

loose,' [Reed] said. " Republican Governor Mike Johanns

(now Secretary of Agriculture) " appointed a task force

to oppose the operation. "

Former Democratic governor Ben Nelson, now a senator,

became a lobbyist for the meatpackers and ranchers.

Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel " pressured the Justice

Department to stop " the operation. It stopped.

 

The pattern repeats across the country.

Talk tough against immigrants for the redneck vote,

then stop any anti-immigrant operation that costs

businesses money – which means all of 'em.

 

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff: " It

would be hard to sustain political support for

vigorous work-site enforcement if you don't give

employers an avenue to hire their workers in a way

that is legal, because you're basically saying,

'You've got to go out of business.' "

Or: You raise wages to hire U.S. citizens – and the

price of everyone's goods and services goes up. The

Post article reports that after 1999 (in other words,

during the Bush administration), the " numbers of fines

and convictions dropped sharply, with fines all but

phased out. "

 

Republican voters are being taken for a ride by

hypocritical politicians who don't intend to do a

damned thing because the people who fill the campaign

coffers of these politicians are the same people who

hire the immigrants.

" In contrast to the typical image of an illegal

immigrant ... a majority now work for mainstream

companies, not fly-by-night operators, and are hired

and paid like any other American workers. "

The undocumented are too wedded to American commerce

to be weeded out without major economic disruption:

20% of our cooks, 25% of our construction workers, 22%

of our maids and housekeeping workers, 25% of our

ground maintenance workers, and at least 29% (some

surveys say as high as 50%) of our agricultural

workers. (NYT, June 19, p.1)

If they were paid like Americans, prices would go up

across the board. In addition, " Latinos open new firms

at a rate of three times the national norm. " (The

Economist, June 17, p.32)

All of which is why " 500 economists ... signed an

open letter to Mr. Bush arguing that immigration is a

net plus to the economy. " (NYT, June 22, p24)

 

One headline summarizes the problem: " With Illegal

Immigrants Fighting Wildfires, West Faces a Dilemma. "

Half the firefighters in the Pacific Northwest are

Mexican immigrants, and " government officials won't

even hazard a guess " as to how many are illegal.

" Forestry workers say firefighting jobs may simply be

too important – and too hard to fill – to allow for a

crackdown on illegal workers. " (NYT, May 28, p.1)

 

Take North Carolina, where researchers " found that

Latinos paid $756 million in taxes annually and cost

the state government $817million.

That works out as a net burden of $102 per head ...

[but that] is dwarfed by the positive impact of Latino

spending in North Carolina, [estimated to be] at $9.19

billion in 2004. That translates into nearly 90,000

new jobs. " (The Economist, June 17, p.32).

 

The problem, in North Carolina and all across the

country, is that these sizable immigrant taxes are not

paid to the state, but to the federal government –

leaving the state to pay all the millions that

immigrants cost in services.

The Washington Post, May 26, p.21: " Immigrants cost

local governments money even as they fill federal

coffers with income, especially from payroll taxes.

'The tax costs are local, but the tax windfalls are

national,' says Cecilia Muñoz, vice president for

policy at the National Council of La Raza. 'There's a

local-national imbalance. It becomes a potent

political issue locally, and there is nothing local

governments can do.' "

 

Walls, secure borders, mass deportations – these are

fantasies. But localities and local taxpayers are

rightfully enraged at paying the bills for America's

overall profit from the exploitation of the

undocumented.

 

Why don't the states use the same means the IRS uses

to collect local taxes from immigrants? Because most

state, county, and city governments are controlled by

those same business interests that depend on

immigrants, and those businesses don't want to pay

more taxes.

It is those state and local governments, and the

business interests behind them, that properly should

be the objects of citizen rage.

Some states that depend heavily on the undocumented,

like Texas, have no state income tax. Such states are

supported by property, sales, and business taxes, plus

licensing fees. Raising the specter of a state income

tax of any kind, for anyone, is taboo.

 

These are the real issues, but they're not discussed

by most national or state officeholders, at least not

in public. Either the states must find a way to tax

the undocumented as the IRS does, or the federal

government must give their windfall back to the

states.

But a GOP-controlled Washington, running up

tremendous deficits, won't give that money back unless

pressured by their base. (It goes without saying, or

it should, that any immigrant paying taxes should be

given a green card.)

 

USA Today, May 30, p.5: " Hard-liners " against the

undocumented are " mostly male and overwhelmingly

white. Three of four don't have a college degree. "

They mostly " live in rural areas and [are] least

likely to live in cities. " They are, in short, the

voting backbone of the Republican Party, opposed and

betrayed by the financial backbone of their own party.

 

 

Solutions to our immigration dilemmas are within

practical reach, requiring only the three things in

shortest supply amongst our politicians: honesty,

frankness, and a passion for justice.

 

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