Thread: Coming to grips with border woes

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Coming to grips with border woes
By Frank Ward
February 15, 2006

Those who rant and rave about illegal immigration, and who would build walls and send in the troops and so on, need some history and economic lessons.

This planet did not come with borders assigned. Our border with Mexico was not granted in the Constitution. The reality is we systematically drove the Mexicans out of land they owned for centuries. Much as we did to the Indians, the U.S. used any means necessary to seize the land it needed for its mainly white citizens of European ancestry.

The westward and southwestward expansion we so proudly hail was achieved by military force, coercion, intimidation and countless treaty violations and breaches. Thus, the borders the talk-radio mobs are so angry about are less sacred than arbitrary and artificial.

By the same token, being a legal citizen via birth is also random and arbitrary. No human controls his place of birth. So before raging about the desperately poor who risk so much in order to come here and improve their lot in life, our legal brethren should pause and ponder their good fortune at being born here. Citizenship by birth does not make us superior beings.

Much of the venom directed at illegal immigrants revolves around their use our schools, hospitals, roads and so on without paying taxes. I strongly suspect that a rigorous economic analysis would show this is a very small part of California's budget woes. Meanwhile, what about all the well-to-do citizens who set up bogus "legal residences" in Nevada, and yes in Mexico, so as to dodge state taxes?

Nor is anyone troubled by the thriving black economy in which services of all sorts are, wink-wink, performed for cash, no tax paid.

In large part, it is the middle and upper class who sponsor and underwrite illegal immigration in the first place. Without illegal workers, the economy would grind to a lurching halt in many areas. Without work/jobs, immigrants would not come here. And who provides that work? Privileged U.S. citizens of course.

To paraphrase Bill Clinton, it's supply and demand, stupid! With the number of young people entering the work force in decline, while the over 60 segment expands rapidly, we need more, not less immigration. Otherwise, who pays the taxes needed to support all the benefit programs the baby boomers voted themselves?

So rather than throwing angry fits, we need to become very efficient at providing sufficient immigrants legally. Those who qualify for legal status should be provided secure, fake-proof IDs. Then no employer can hide behind fake Social Security cards and the like, or claim ignorance.

What about all those already here illegally? There is no overnight solution. It took time to create the problem, and it will take time to solve.

"Rounding them all up and deport them," as the militant fringe urges, would be economic and moral suicide. Looked at rationally, none of this makes the list of the Top 10 problems facing our nation.

— Frank Ward lives in Oxnard.

RR

Wanna bet that Mr. Frank Ward owns a business that hires illegal aliens. I won't get into a long history lesson here, but Mr. Ward doesn't know what he's talking about. Apparently Mr. Ward would have us believe that anyone, from anyplace, can live, anywhere they want to. The arguement that you can't "round them all up and deport them" is a red herring meant to keep us from doing anything. Build a wall to keep new illegals out and enforce our existing labor laws, so that illegal aliens already here, can't find work. With no jobs, they'll go home on their own, provided our elected representatives don't put them on public assistance.

With the piss-poor funding they get, ICE would take 5 years to round them up anyway. Plenty of time for an orderly transition in the workplace.