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Arbitrary enforcement of the law spreads fear

July 16, 2006

The lesson for a construction worker in Rutland was that if you are in this country illegally, it's best not to shoplift beer. The arrest of a Mexican construction worker who had allegedly pilfered an 18-pack of Budweiser led to the round-up last week of 10 undocumented workers who had been employed at a construction project in Rutland Town.

It is a nasty business, arresting people for the crime of working, uprooting them, sending them packing. It seems all the more nasty in Vermont, which lacks the history of anti-Hispanic feeling that in other places gives a sheen of normalcy to the harsh treatment of immigrants.

Apart from the shoplifting, it would appear the only offense of the Mexicans in Rutland was to be there, which in the present atmosphere of anti-immigrant fervor has ignited the indignation of many people. And yet the presence of illegal immigrants is a fact of life throughout the nation. It is not just businesses in the West and Southwest that depend on the labor of undocumented workers. As many as 2,000 illegal immigrants work on Vermont dairy farms, and Vermont farmers say they could not stay in business without them.

Elsewhere, undocumented workers populate farm fields, meat packing plants and construction sites. New England fish canneries rely on undocumented workers. Politicians in some places are able to play on anti-immigrant feeling with promises to send the illegal workers back where they came from, but a deadlocked Congress has failed to take such draconian action. One reason is that they face opposition from business.

It is likely that the Mexicans on the construction job in Rutland were drawing a lower wage than would be demanded by legal workers. They were said to have been provided to the job by a subcontractor in Virginia. Now that they are gone, the contractor will presumably have to hire legal workers who are less desperate for employment and who are likely to expect better wages.

Economists are divided on the overall effect of illegal workers on wages, though they believe that the presence of illegal workers depresses wages at least to a small degree. Vulnerable itinerant workers do not have a mortgage to pay off and the accoutrements of modern American life to pay for, and they are able to send a significant flow of money back home even working at the lower end of the wage scale.

The arrests in Rutland reveal another reality of the immigrant's position: the arbitrary enforcement of the law. With millions of workers on American payrolls and their presence an open secret, it is a roll of the dice whether someone is apprehended and sent home. The arbitrary enforcement of the law has the effect of spreading fear throughout the immigrant community; it is the sort of law enforcement that is common in Third World countries where the rule of law is lax.

But arbitrary enforcement also allows the continuation of the present circumstance, where millions find opportunity working in the underground economy, or working above ground with a wink and a nod from their employers.

Gov. James Douglas and his administration have shown that they intend to be less than zealous in cracking down on illegal immigrants in Vermont. Douglas has acknowledged the degree to which the farm economy now depends on undocumented workers. There are programs in Vermont to make sure that children of illegal immigrants receive the education they need, but many Mexican families nevertheless live in an atmosphere of fear.

Vermont need not indulge in the xenophobia and demagoguery that have characterized the immigration debate elsewhere, and efforts should continue to ensure the welfare of our neighbors, whatever their immigration status. But everyone needs to learn from the incident in Rutland that it is necessary to pay for the beer.