[Mb-civic] IMPORTANT: Bad times for immigrants - Robert Kuttner - Boston Globe
William Swiggard
swiggard at comcast.net
Sat Mar 18 05:17:03 PST 2006
Bad times for immigrants
By Robert Kuttner | March 18, 2006 | The Boston Globe
CONGRESS IS belatedly grappling with immigration reform. There is no
more difficult dilemma, both in terms of the politics and the need to
balance contradictory policy objectives. The heightened concern with
terrorism only complicates the job.
America today is failing to control its borders. Most estimates place
the number of immigrants here illegally at around 12 million. Despite
heightened security since 9/11, the Pew Hispanic Center estimates that
well over 500,000 entered illegally in 2004, more than in 2001.
As antiterrorism measures have increased, all these people are outside
the law in both senses. They are here without papers, and they are also
beyond normal legal rights and protections.
On immigration, two prime Republican constituencies are diametrically at
odds. An anti-immigrant backlash has been brewing in the heartland. It
was reflected in a harsh bill passed last year by the House, rejecting
even President Bush's call for a guest-worker program.
The House bill would deny undocumented immigrants a path to citizenship,
build a two-layer, 700-mile wall between the United States and Mexico,
and redefine undocumented presence in the United States as a felony.
Good Samaritans who helped illegal immigrants could be punished. The
bill's sponsors have the fantastical hope of literally rounding up all
12 million and sending them back.
By contrast, Republican business groups like lots of vulnerable
immigrant workers, whose presence drives down wage levels. The last
major reform, passed in 1986, failed because it was not serious about
punishing businesses that hired workers illegally. If an employer tells
an applicant with a wink and a nod to ''come back when you have papers,"
and the papers are forgeries, the employer is not held responsible. Nor
is a large corporation liable if the worker was hired through a contractor.
The Bush administration has weakened enforcement further. The Wall
Street Journal recently reported that the number of employers notified
of possible fines for illegal hires in 2004 was exactly three, down from
an already low 417 in 1999.
The Senate is debating a variation on the bill that Bush wants, with
tougher tracking and border-control measures, a provision for temporary
''guest workers" without normal rights, and stronger penalties (at least
on paper) for employers who hire illegally. Senator Arlen Specter's
version of the bill, like Bush's, denies both guest workers and people
currently here illegally a path to citizenship.
A sensible a bipartisan effort by Senators John McCain and Edward
Kennedy offers a grand bargain: much tougher border enforcement,
employer penalty, and ID requirements, in exchange for a path to
citizenship. Of course, this logical compromise is off the table.
By coincidence, I made a long-deferred visit last weekend to the Ellis
Island national museum of immigration. Ellis Island, which served as
principal screening point for immigrants between 1892 and 1954, evokes
an era of awful Atlantic crossings in steerage, culminating in
terrifying inspections that divided immigrants into tolerably fit people
who could stay and those who were sent back.
But, compared with what many immigrants face today, Ellis Island was a
pretty benign system. The majority of people were admitted. Until 1924,
there were no quotas. The huddled masses were welcomed to the island
with decent meals, cups of milk for the children, physical exams,
showers, blankets, and some rudimentary explanations of how things
worked in the new land.
In best Progressive Era fashion, inspectors sought to exclude people who
they thought had been recruited by unscrupulous labor contractors. It
was a time of massive citizenship education. Immigrants were seen as
future citizens, not just cheap workers.
As a consequence, most foreign-born people quickly became part of
American democracy, and its most enthusiastic champions. They
participated. They voted. Soon, they made amazing economic and cultural
contributions.
Today 12 million immigrants, mostly poor, are outside our democratic
system. The obsession with terrorism, ineptly administered, has played
havoc with cultural and scientific exchanges and admissions of foreign
students. Even legal entrants can face political hazings, as well as
denial of social benefits.
Workers without documents are at the mercy of a harsh labor system, and
the risk of random roundups. Street-corner day-labor contractors have
returned to America's large cities. People who have lived here
peacefully for decades, running businesses, can be deported for minor
misdemeanors, separating parents from children. Ellis Island looks
pretty good by comparison.
Robert Kuttner is co-editor of The American Prospect. His column appears
regularly in the Globe.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2006/03/18/bad_times_for_immigrants/
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