Thread: Arkansas: Diplomat: No Quick Fixes For Illegal Immigration

Diplomat: No Quick Fixes For Illegal Immigration Issue

June 11, 2008

By Rob Moritz
The Morning News
LITTLE ROCK - Illegal immigration from Mexico is a complex issue that probably cannot be completely stopped no matter how many laws the states and Congress pass, a longtime diplomat and international policy expert said Wednesday.

"We have got to get away from feeling that there is something magical about a piece of paper - 'Let's pass a law against something. Let's pass a law in favor of something.' That does not make it a reality," John A. Ritchie told the Arkansas Committee on Foreign Relations, a group of area business people keenly interest in U.S. foreign affairs.

Ritchie just completed a six-month stint as liaison for the U.S. State Department to Congress on immigration issues.

"Immigration from Mexico, both legal and illegal, will continue due to the geographic continuity and social and economic push-pull factors," he said. "Comprehensive immigration reform legislation will remain an elusive goal because of the multiple deeply held differences on the subject."

As many as one million people annually are crossing the U.S. border illegally, Ritchie said, driven primarily by Mexico's high unemployment rate - 60 percent among Mexicans age 16-24 - plus a lack of government benefits for the unemployed, an undereducated workforce and the high demand for cheap labor in the U.S.

Also, Mexico also lacks the money or technical expertise to take advantage of its own resources, he said, noting that the country is located on one of the largest natural gas reserves in North America but has to import natural gas from Texas because it can't afford to extract it.

Despite U.S. efforts to curb illegal immigration, Ritchie, a former consul general in Monterrey, in northern Mexico not far from the Texas border, said people will try anything, no matter how dangerous, to cross the border.

He mentioned the discovery a few years ago of an underground tunnel from Tijuana, Mexico, to San Diego and several illegal immigrants being found in a tanker truck filled with caustic chemicals outside Monterrey.

"There's a lot of discussion about building walls and sensors and towers," he said. "But no matter how sophisticated the system, the programs, the equipment may be, it is the drive to go, the risks to be ventured."

On drug trafficking, Ritchie said increased U.S. border patrols have inadvertently made the drug trade more lucrative for the Mexican cartels.

Because of the border patrols, more drugs are being seized at the border and more people are being arrested, but the demand in the U.S. is still high so the cost of the drugs has gone up as well, he said.

Drug trafficking "is a humongously big business" and the Mexican cartels are creative in how they get the drugs into the U.S., often using the same routes as the illegal immigrants, he said.

www.nwaonline.net

As many as one million people annually are crossing the U.S. border illegally, Ritchie said, driven primarily by Mexico's high unemployment rate - 60 percent among Mexicans age 16-24 - plus a lack of government benefits for the unemployed, an undereducated workforce and the high demand for cheap labor in the U.S.

He forgot to mention the rampant corruption and concentration of wealth in Mexico.

Bottom line: although we may not be able to completely stop illegal immigration, if our govt had the political will, we could slow it to a trickle -- which would also have the added benefit of likely forcing the Mexican govt to fundamentally reform.

Illegal Immigration is Illegal... we will NOT bend. Somehow these wacko's didn't get the MEMO.... the debate is over it is time to Arrest and deport if they do not seft deport on their own

We do not except your Bull SH_T excuses... matter of fact, take your corrupt incompetent self back south of the border and figure out where you and your country went wrong

Another pile of BULL CRAP....I think we Americans could fix the problemo really fast...... oh Mr Dumn Arse Diplomat...

This guy is so full of himself.

We have got to get away from feeling that there is something magical about a piece of paper

That's what I think about his resume and I bet he has a piece of paper from a prestigeous college too.

It's just too simple for him. Those that have documents and those that don't. Sort them out and send the ones that don't out of here.

Dixie