Politicians would rather not face up to illegal immigration
By Eric Caine
last updated: November 20, 2007 08:10:37 AM
http://www.modbee.com/opinion/community ... 28514.html
Say the word and even the most experienced politicians go briefly catatonic. The veteran pols recover quickly and immediately recite the usual bromides: "Of course, except for Native Americans, we're all immigrants," or "Immigrant labor built this great nation."

Not since the severe blowback from Proposition 187, however, have politicians at any level been willing to take on the increasingly hard facts of immigration as they are reflected in current realities. Those facts are sobering, especially as they pertain to the Central Valley, where much of California's multibillion-dollar agricultural production is centered.

In a 2005 publication by the California Farm Bureau Federation, it was estimated that "70 percent of the state's seasonal farm workers are falsely documented." In the 1970s, '80s and early '90s, this figure might have merely given pause, but now it's a statistic that can't be ignored. Post-Sept. 11 concerns about terrorism and an increasing imbalance between the costs and contributions of illegal immigrants have changed public opinion about immigration in general and especially about illegal immigration.

According to the Federation for American Immigration Reform, illegal immigration costs Californians more than $10 billion a year. Even given illegal immigrants' many contributions to the economy, especially the agricultural sector, many California and Central Valley residents have concluded the costs outweigh the benefits; they are demanding their representatives at the state and federal levels implement immigration reform.

Perhaps the most critical statistic of all is the effect of immigration on population growth. In the '70s, 1.8 million immigrants entered the state; that number nearly doubled to 3.5 million in the '80s and continued unabated into the '90s, accounting for half the state's population growth.

As California faces a growing water crisis and struggles to accommodate ever more students in crowded classrooms, the realities of immigrants' effects on its natural and social resources can't be ignored. Yet politicians, Republican and Democratic, continue in their failure to address the problem. The result is a syndrome of negative effects that can only get worse over time.

It would be catastrophic to ignore the significant and necessary role immigrants -- legal and illegal -- play in our Central Valley economy. And we should never forget that agricultural income continues to have multiplier effects critical to our state and local economic success. For example, for every dollar brought in by our huge agricultural export business, we generate a $1.70 in economic activity. It would be foolhardy to eliminate the immigrant labor that provides a critical cog in the Central Valley's economic engine. But it's abundantly clear that we can't continue to ignore negative factors of immigration, especially illegal immigration.

Until California and the federal government face the hard facts of immigration, especially illegal immigration, we will continue to bear an increasing burden on our economy and state budget. And our Central Valley farm economy will continue to be jeopardized by the lack of a clear and consistent immigration policy.

State and federal politicians have put their heads in the sand and only a very loud public outcry will bring them out.

Caine, a Modesto resident, teaches in the humanities department at

Merced College. E-mail him at columns@modbee.com.