Whilst this might not sound like a very enticing title, it's a subject which has caught my attention for a while.
Bear with me. I'm going to try to separate two types of illegal immigration, those which are 'pure' economic migration, see Enrique's Journey, currently the subject of 'One book, One San Diego', and seasonal migration, exemplified by the guys who hang out at the bottom of my street, hoping to get some work picking avocados or lettuce.
I'm going to try to show that the seasonal guys need to get cut some slack.
I'll start with some basic assumptions:
- No-one would voluntarily leave their family and loved ones, and brave the 'coyote' trafficker system, Mexican authority abuse, and the Border Patrol if they could see a way to survive in their current milieu. (1)
- The US Immigration process is broken beyond belief. In my own case, I found that the USCIS was unresponsive to the point of not providing phone numbers to enquire, not responding to written mail, repeatedly requesting appointments for fingerprints (as though they might have changed, somehow - 'Oh, the FBI discards them after two years, so we need some new ones' - yeah, right). If you think that the DMV is inefficient, they are paragons of virtue compared to the USCIS.
As an amusing aside, when the latest batch of fingerprints of me were taken, I was told that my fingers were 'too old', so they couldn't get a repeatable set. Perhaps if they'd taken them when I was a bit younger....
But this is not intended to be a rant.
- Almost all illegal immigration into the USA is economic migration.
The point of this diary is to identify a subset of economic migrants whose presence here is seasonal. They cut the lettuces, pick the avocados, harvest the garlic, almonds, whatever.
I believe that they need special treatment.
Times past, it would seem, they made their way across the border, did their stuff for some months, and then made their way home. Yeah, they put up with pretty shitty accommodations, were browbeaten by their employers (Grapes of Wrath style), but, to some extent, it was a deal that they (it would seem) were prepared to accept. Never mind OSHA, minimum wage, and all that stuff.
It made economic sense, at the time, as we got cheap lettuce and they got to send some serious (to them) money home. And they got to get home for Christmas, you get my drift. Not fair, but, what the hey, this is capitalism at work, is it not?
In my opinion, what's changed is the ability of these seaonal migrant workers to get across the border and back safely and economically.
Check: do we want these willing workers to provide us with cheap lettuce? If yes, then continue, if no, then tell me who the heck is going to do that work.
<aside> me wonders whether a cheap automated lettuce harvester might have already been developed if we didn't have access to this cheap labor</aside>
OK. The situation we're in is the situation we're in.
We make it really difficult for these (mostly) guys to come across the border, but once they are here, it seems to be really easy for them to get a job doing seasonal harvesting. The deal is that they need thousands of dollars to pay a 'coyote' to not harass them, nor shoot them, nor rape them, nor leave them to die in the desert or the mountains.
No wonder then, these folks have resorted to bringing their wives and children (apparently in a one-time deal) all across the border, because they don't want to risk the 'to-and-fro' across the border that seasonal migration used to be.
So, now we have the drain (I have to comment that we deserve it) on community resources (hospitals, schools, etc.) to sustain the families of these folks who would otherwise have been 'at home'. Just because we have no mechanism to treat these folks with gracefulness. They don't want to be here to suck up our economy, they just want to take advantage of seasonal opportunity, I think.
So, here's my idea: Treat 'seasonal migration' differently from 'economic migration'. Let's get some passes that allow seasonal workers through the border for 'n' months in a year. Have that pass renewed every year. Have them be subject to State and National laws with regard to minimum wage. Have minimum standards applied to their accommodations.
No more need for 'coyotes'. No more need for whole families to come here. Reasonable treatment of those who work.
Pay a little more for lettuce.
- unless they had expressly criminal intent, which is not unknown.