I have seldom gotten involved in what is called the "immigration" debate because my views are so outside the mainstream. (Picture from Investor’s Business Daily.)
Not being a politician, and not being on the Teevee, I can state the obvious point famous people ignore. Which is there are two immigration debates.
There is a general debate, about how many new people should come in, which ones, under what circumstances, how do we enforce it and all the rest.
Then there’s the racial debate. Here it involves Mexicans. In Europe it’s Muslims.
These debates are quite similar, in that they involve a complex mix of anger and guilt over how the parts of the world involved interact. For Europeans, there’s the colonial experience, the Palestinian issue, oil, and terrorism. For Americans, there is our history regarding Mexico as a country, and indigenous people in general.
Because when you look in the Mestizo face of what we might call the average Mexican-American worker, that is what you are looking at. Indigenous, native American heritage, the people who were here for thousands of years before the Great Nations of Europe settled on the shore.
Now I want to further subdivide this issue, separating the issue of Mexico from that of race to tell you an even harder truth. Mexico has a race problem, too. Mexico consists of a small elite, mostly of European heritage, a modest middle class, and a vast underclass, most of whom are indigenous. The rape of the west which marked our 19th century is still going on in Mexico, only there it is the rape of the south, including Chiapas, Guerrero and Oaxaca, where there is an ongoing insurgency.
When European countries join the European Community they are forced to
adhere to a set of rising standards, in terms of how they treat their
people, how they treat the environment, and how they manage their
affairs. The great debates within the EC involve how well those
countries are living up to those standards, and whether the community
should be expanded given that record.
We signed a free trade agreement with Mexico without even thinking
about these issues. We didn’t consider whether Mexico was a functioning
democracy. We didn’t consider whether Mexico was in a state of civil
unrest. We didn’t consider how Mexico treated its workers, or its
environment. We wanted the market. We wanted their oil, duty free. We
wanted their workers, at Mexican wages, holding down the cost of
"American" manufacturers located on the border. We wanted their market,
transformed into a giant Wal-Mart, Home Depot, Coca-Cola dreamhouse.
Since NAFTA was signed, both sides have gotten what they wanted. Mexico
has gotten a better deal for its wealthy and middle class, and it has
exported some of its internal unrest, using the U.S. as a safety valve
for its own failures. The U.S. has gotten a valuable export market,
oil, and cheap labor.
Any solution to the problem of Mexican immigration must include a
serious, honest re-think of our relations with Mexico. The deal that
looked good wasn’t good. We exploited them, they exploited us, and
that’s not the way a relationship among equals is supposed to work.
Now let’s go back to the racial question.
When people talk about an "invasion" of the United States, this is what
they are really talking about. Race. If the white elite of Mexico were
piling across our border, we would not be so panicked. But because this
is a racial question, with language as an added component, demagogues
have taken over. Just as they have taken over in parts of Europe, where
Islam adds to the mix.
Here in the American South, where race is still the dominant issue in our politics,
this is especially true. The "Mexican flood" argument has become a
prairie fire in the South, and no southern politician can stand against
the demagogues, not when they’re so dependent upon their votes.
So the Bush Immigration bill is going down. It will not pass. Southern
politicians want the issue so they can beat liberals over the head with
it. It may be a loser in California, but it’s a winner in Voic.Us
country. Without it the Right has got nothing. With it, they figure,
they’ll keep the majorities they need to put the niggers down harder,
with "voting fraud" investigations, ID checks, unaudited voting
machines, which they can then use to make their local tax systems ever-more
regressive.
And the great irony in all this? These Southern politicians are acting just like their Mexican counterparts.
Just remember than Ross Perot was against NAFTA and actually made a big deal of this in his abortive campaigns. At the time, I thought he made some very good economic (and tangentially social) points. I wonder what would have happened if he had run more consistently, instead of playing peekaboo? I guess the problem was never really wanted to be President (Nader has the same issue, but Perot actually had a shot at winning in 1992).
Just remember than Ross Perot was against NAFTA and actually made a big deal of this in his abortive campaigns. At the time, I thought he made some very good economic (and tangentially social) points. I wonder what would have happened if he had run more consistently, instead of playing peekaboo? I guess the problem was never really wanted to be President (Nader has the same issue, but Perot actually had a shot at winning in 1992).
I think the status quo of a week ago was the most preferable solution, with passage of McCain-Kennedy an acceptable alternative. Heritage has been sending out a video over the past couple weeks saying that each illegal (or each illegal family, can’t remember) costs us $22K/year in government services. Say it’s each illegal. Overestimate 20 million in the United States at some point during the year — many do go home seasonally, just like the crab fisherman on Discovery Channel’s Deadliest Catch. That’s $440 billion/year, a scary amount out of context. In November, 2006, there were $1.4 trillion of open construction projects in the US, representing about 8.5% of our economy. That doesn’t include agriculture or service industry, other sectors that heavily employ illegal immigrant labor. $440 Billion is a drop in the bucket, and doesn’t count the offset in FICA taxes (many illegals use other people’s SSNs). Illegal labor is less about skirting the minimum wage than filling labor slots and avoiding problems of the low-end of America’s labor pool. Mexican workers tend to be hungrier and do more work with fewer complaints.
At any rate, McCain Kennedy was the best deal the left was going to get. Two weeks ago, people like the Minutemen were basically a bunch of crackers that good thinking people left and right mostly laughed at. Now we know that a lot more people sympathize with the crackers. And because Bush was weakened by Iraq, there wasn’t much he could do to shore up the Republican side. This is perhaps the one and only issue where liberals would have done well to support Bush. It’s in his heart and a result of growing up, doing business, and raising a family in rural Texas. Yeah, Iraq is arguably a clusterf–k, but it’s not a Vietnam scale clusterf–k. Treating it as such cost any hope of a reasonable immigration reform.
I think the status quo of a week ago was the most preferable solution, with passage of McCain-Kennedy an acceptable alternative. Heritage has been sending out a video over the past couple weeks saying that each illegal (or each illegal family, can’t remember) costs us $22K/year in government services. Say it’s each illegal. Overestimate 20 million in the United States at some point during the year — many do go home seasonally, just like the crab fisherman on Discovery Channel’s Deadliest Catch. That’s $440 billion/year, a scary amount out of context. In November, 2006, there were $1.4 trillion of open construction projects in the US, representing about 8.5% of our economy. That doesn’t include agriculture or service industry, other sectors that heavily employ illegal immigrant labor. $440 Billion is a drop in the bucket, and doesn’t count the offset in FICA taxes (many illegals use other people’s SSNs). Illegal labor is less about skirting the minimum wage than filling labor slots and avoiding problems of the low-end of America’s labor pool. Mexican workers tend to be hungrier and do more work with fewer complaints.
At any rate, McCain Kennedy was the best deal the left was going to get. Two weeks ago, people like the Minutemen were basically a bunch of crackers that good thinking people left and right mostly laughed at. Now we know that a lot more people sympathize with the crackers. And because Bush was weakened by Iraq, there wasn’t much he could do to shore up the Republican side. This is perhaps the one and only issue where liberals would have done well to support Bush. It’s in his heart and a result of growing up, doing business, and raising a family in rural Texas. Yeah, Iraq is arguably a clusterf–k, but it’s not a Vietnam scale clusterf–k. Treating it as such cost any hope of a reasonable immigration reform.
“Illegal labor is less about skirting the minimum wage than filling labor slots and avoiding problems of the low-end of America’s labor pool.”
Bullshit. To pretend that these are somehow two separate issues is disingenuous. How can you claim to be a capitalist and not embrace the correct free-market response of raising wages to improve your applicant pool? Businesses using illegal alien labor are no different morally than those using substandard out-of-code building materials — they are both willing to break the law to achieve greater profitability.
You are absolutely right about Bush’s ideology being formed by his background as a Texas gentleman-rancher. He has brought exactly that misguided nobleman looking after his serfs to the Presidency. To hold up Texas as an example of a good way to deal with any social issue is laughable. The State’s entire history has been a desperate struggle to hold on to the 18th Century in the face of a changing world.
“Illegal labor is less about skirting the minimum wage than filling labor slots and avoiding problems of the low-end of America’s labor pool.”
Bullshit. To pretend that these are somehow two separate issues is disingenuous. How can you claim to be a capitalist and not embrace the correct free-market response of raising wages to improve your applicant pool? Businesses using illegal alien labor are no different morally than those using substandard out-of-code building materials — they are both willing to break the law to achieve greater profitability.
You are absolutely right about Bush’s ideology being formed by his background as a Texas gentleman-rancher. He has brought exactly that misguided nobleman looking after his serfs to the Presidency. To hold up Texas as an example of a good way to deal with any social issue is laughable. The State’s entire history has been a desperate struggle to hold on to the 18th Century in the face of a changing world.
Dana, You are absolutely right. Beyond the general “rule of law” debate is the larger “race” issue, particularly for the ANTI comprehensive immigration reformers. The southern politicians are jumping on the ANTI bandwagon. I agree, that´s all they have to hang their hat on. Great post!!
Dana, You are absolutely right. Beyond the general “rule of law” debate is the larger “race” issue, particularly for the ANTI comprehensive immigration reformers. The southern politicians are jumping on the ANTI bandwagon. I agree, that´s all they have to hang their hat on. Great post!!