Here I sit in Tucson, 60 miles from Mexico, +100 degrees with chance of showers building later in the day. It is monsoon season in the old pueblo and as our streets and riverbeds fill up with water, a flood of unknown immigrants enter our southern border each day. Hundreds die each year, thousands survive the trek and make it into our cities. They have pooled into an hidden underclass of cheap labor.
I hear it every day with varying degrees of concern for and racism against these immigrants from Mexico and Latin America; the usual cry to build a wall and send them home. You out there in the Kos community would probably think I'm kidding when I tell you that it comes from all sides, Republicans and Democrats...even those calling themselves 'progressive'.
I've heard a lot about the problem. We in Southern Arizona live with it every day. Now it is time to think about real solutions.
There are many who think that if we build a wall, we'll stem the flow of immigration. That is not the root cause of the people coming here. People come to America for the same reasons as people came hundreds of years ago. They come for economic opportunity.
The simple and evident truth of the matter is that Mexico and many other Latin American countries (not all, but many) have economies that cannot support their people. The deleterious effects of free trade agreements such as NAFTA have caused the bankruptcy of the micro economies of the people of these countries and thus the northward flow of immigration. In plain English, the US flooded the market with cheap corn. This put all the Central and South American corn farmers out of business. Faced with starving to death or trying to cross the US-Mexico border illegally, they choose the latter.
This is the real reason for the problem and the solution is to assist the economies of these countries. We can do so without spending a huge amount of money. Projects can be undertaken on a relatively small size with private funds to restore the vitality of these economies. For example, in Rawanda, USAID and some private entrepreneurs increased the per capita income by about 4 times by helping the local farmers to process their coffee better. Going back to bilateral trade agreements with labor and environmental standards is also a step in the right direction.
These are all long term solutions, but what do we do right now?
We can start by enforcing the laws on the book regarding hiring undocumented workers. Currently we are not doing this. There were about 20,000 cases of illegal hiring practices brought against the employers of undocumented workers in the late 1990's, but last year there were 3. If we were to do this, it would cause the employers to ask for real change in the immigration laws.
The US Chamber of Commerce estimates that the US economy produces 500,000 more jobs for unskilled labor per year than it can fill. There is some dispute about this number, but it is certainly a lot. Currently the US allows about 60,000 unskilled laborers into the US. If the employers forced the congress to substaintally increase the number of laborers allowed into the US, the number of people crossing without proper documentation would drop precipitously.
Who would still want to come across a blazing hot desert and risk dying if they could enter through ports of entry? Only drug smugglers. This would make the Border Patrol's job a lot easier and we'd be able to keep a lot of illicit drugs out of the country. It would solve the humanitarian and environmental crises being caused by the border crossers and it would eliminate the human smuggling industry.
Detractors might say that the only way to stop people is to put up a wall. Well, that just dosn't work. The wall has holes in and under it. It would cost billions of dollars and be very ineffective. The only way to stop people from coming here, just like the only way to stop terrorists, is to take away the reason that they do what they do. These people who are immigrating from the South don't even want to stay here, we just make it impossible for them to ever leave. Most of them would love to return to their home country, but if they do, they have to make another risky crossing.
Here in Southern Arizona, we have a chance to elect candidate to congress who really understands this issue. One who has thought deeply about how to solve the problem and has come up with the above plan. His name is Jeff Latas and his complete stance is here. Jeff is a Fighting Democrat and is among the most thoughtful and intelligent candidates I've ever met. He is well deserving of your time or a donation.