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Immigration policy is little more than a game of make-believe

Leave it to the country's most famous immigrant governor to trip himself up over the issue of immigration.

In a recent policy speech to newspaper publishers in San Francisco, Calif., Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger prescribed an unintentionally inflammatory remedy for illegal immigration: "Close the borders. Close the borders in California, and all across Mexico and the United States."

When the stuff later hit the fan, particularly in California's immigrant communities, over that statement, the governor clarified that he meant "secure the borders," a politically safe position these days for politicians as diverse as President Bush and Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.).

Yet, if stopping illegals, whether at the border or in the workplace, is such a politically safe position, many wonder, why don't Congress and the White House do more to enforce it?

The answer seems to be a variation of what Pogo the cartoon possum famously said about meeting the enemy: We have met the open borders crowd and they are us.

"This country has become hooked on cheap labor," Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.) said when Fox News Channel anchorman Bill O'Reilly recently asked why Congress doesn't order the president to secure our borders. "A lot of pressure is put on individual congresspeople to not do anything about the borders for fear of impeding the flow of cheap labor."

Tancredo is on the right track, but I would go a step further: Employers want the cheapest labor they can get, whether you're talking about a factory owner, a large-scale vegetable farmer or a family seeking a nanny or gardener. But Americans are not hooked on cheap labor as much as they are hooked on cheap prices. Illegal immigration is attractive because cheaper labor also leads to cheaper prices for the goods or services the cheap labor produce.

Ask people whether they favor a "fair living wage" for everyone and most would applaud. Ask those same people if they want cheaper prices, no matter what the workers who produce the desired goods or services are paid, and the applause may be a bit more muted but it will be there. Consumers are applauding every day with their feet.

President Bush and others refer, for example, to "jobs that Americans don't want."

More Americans might want those jobs if the jobs paid more money. But that would mean higher costs passed on to consumers who would rather not have to pay more for their T-shirts or fresh produce.

Because politicians don't get many votes by telling constituents that they're asking too much for their labors, the pols promise instead that they will protect us from "illegal aliens" coming in to "take your jobs" and from runaway employers who are "outsourcing your jobs overseas."

Yet, even with post-Sept. 11 concerns about possible terrorist infiltration, serious border security measures have a tough time getting through Congress, and President Bush seems more eager to talk about amnesty programs than border security.

Small wonder, then, that Schwarzenegger felt safe enough during a Los Angeles radio show appearance a week after his border gaffe to praise the "Minutemen," the armed volunteers who have set up their lawnchairs, SUVs, coolers, walkie-talkies, binoculars and sunscreen in Cochise County, Ariz. to patrol a 23-mile stretch of the country's most penetrated section of border.

President Bush called them "vigilantes," but Schwarzenegger was downright congratulatory. "They've done a terrific job," he said. "They have cut down the crossing of illegal immigrants by a huge percentage."

But the Minuteman craze probably will blow over and the illegal migration will continue apace. Our immigration policy, then, is largely make-believe. We need low-wage workers, so our invitation goes out with a nod and a wink to the notion of real immigration enforcement. Sanctions against employers of undocumented workers are barely enforced.

Politicians are reluctant to offend employers who give big campaign contributions and honest employers in general run up against a sophisticated industry of counterfeit document producers.

If the United States really wants to regulate its borders, we have the resources to do it. For now, we continue to play a cat-and-mouse game of chasing a few illegals across the desert, letting others sneak in, and Washington pretends we have a real policy. We have an enforceable policy. Maybe someday we'll enforce it. Until then, it's easy to blame illegal immigrants for doing what we invite them to do.

Clarence Page is a columnist for Tribune Media Services. Readers can write to him by e-mail at cpage@tribune.com.

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