Thread: Forgetting the American Dream

http://www.stanfordreview.org/Archive/V ... ns17.shtml

Forgetting the American Dream

by Niraj Sheth
Staff Writer

It’s safe to say that in the last two weeks Governor Schwarzenegger has brought at least some of California’s attention to the issue of illegal immigration. It’s too bad that most of this attention has been on the words “close the borders� and “Minutemen.� For those not in the know of California politics, Schwarzenegger suggested in a speech that we close the border, though he later explained the comment as a result of his poor English; and on a radio show praised the Minutemen, who are a private group of armed citizens in Arizona who have taken the security of the border upon themselves.

Amid all the political hoopla that followed the governor’s remarks, much less attention was given to more serious proceedings in Washington. Just this past Wednesday, President Bush signed into law a bill that included a provision requiring states to certify legal residence before awarding driver’s licenses. This is exactly the same issue that has appeared periodically in California politics over the last few years. And while this federal bill may end the debate over licensing once and for all, the larger debate over how we should treat illegal immigration is as strong as ever. What benefits should they have at public cost? If not driver’s licenses, how about health care, or public schooling?

Before all this gets out of hand, let’s remember that immigration, when done right, has always been, and still is, crucial to the United States. And that’s exactly why we need to take a harder line on illegal immigration. “Now wait a minute!� you might tell me. “You’re saying that the reason we can’t give illegal immigrants any benefits is because immigration is so important?� In a word, yes. Yes, because illegal immigrants not only harm legal immigrants, but, more importantly, because illegal immigration is as far away from the real American ideal of immigration as Pat Buchanan’s national fence.

To start off with, giving benefits to illegal immigrants would be completely unfair to those who entered this country legally. As many members in my family can tell you, getting into this country through the proper channels is a lot harder than wading across a river. It would take you years of waiting and piles of paperwork, especially after 9/11. And after so much effort, how would you feel if you found out that those who simply cross the border get some of the same benefits and education for their children that you put so much effort to get for yours?

Add to this the fact that merit, a key qualification in the immigration process, has nothing to do with illegal immigration. Many legal immigrants need to prove that they have the skills American employers need, but illegal immigrants don’t. They come to this country thanks to geographical proximity, not merit. Isn’t it enough that there are already two standards for immigration, a loose one based on geography for those from Mexico and a tighter one based on merit for people from everywhere else? If illegal immigrants are allowed to be eligible for benefits, this inequality would just become absurd.

Lots of sympathizing liberals like to criticize the United States for not giving benefits to illegal immigrants even though it is a land of immigrants itself. One more use of the hypocrisy machine, I guess. What they ignore is that illegal immigration today is not the same thing as immigration when your great-grandfather (or my father) came to this country. For legal immigrants, the pursuit of the “American Dream,� a materially comfortable life with substantial personal freedoms, is at least a theoretical possibility. There are no legal problems with thinking that the sky is the limit. For illegal immigrants, the American Dream comes in an abridged version. While they might earn more in terms of wages than they would south of the border, it’s ludicrous to think that they could even start their own business, let alone strike it rich.

When illegal immigrants provide only unskilled labor, to give such immigrants benefits would twist the ideal of immigration even more. These benefits, like drivers’ licenses, are more in the interest of their American employers than in the immigrant’s interest. I mean, who is it that really wants the illegal immigrant who works at a nanny in two places to spend less time getting to work – her or the working mother who is running late? And what better way to entice a cheap labor force than by promising health care for them and schooling for their children? By giving illegal immigrants benefits that allow their employers to exploit them even more, they are pulled even further away from the dream that immigrants are supposed to be able to pursue.

You know there is something wrong when liberals expound policies that lead to more exploitation. In the rush to do something to deal with illegal immigration, they have forgotten what immigration is supposed to mean. If they really thought about it, illegal immigration is not what makes America a land of opportunity.

Niraj Sheth is a sophomore at Stanford University.

If they really thought about it, illegal immigration is not what makes America a land of opportunity.

Well Said