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Reality of Immigration 'Reform'
By Jon E. Dougherty
26 September 2005

[Voices Magazine] -- The Bush administration is about to engage the GOP-led Congress in a full-court press to convince reluctant members on both sides of the aisle why it is imperative to pass the White House's "guest-worker" immigration reform plan.

The problem isn't so much in the plan itself – it is no better or worse than many other "reform" packages offered by both parties over the past 20 years. And should it pass, you can be sure there will be at least some participation in it.

But it won't be anything like the widespread participation envisioned by the president, his advisors, and his legislative supporters. And yet, no matter how nominal the participation, the administration will most assuredly claim "guest-worker" to be a resounding success, and, as such, the beginning of the end of illegal immigration in our lifetime. Even the New York Times, in an editorial, believes "guest worker" will become an instance "legacy" of the Bush White House.

The reality is, this plan ignores a basic truth, which is that most migrants coming into the U.S. want to remain below the radar because they don't want to register with U.S. authorities; they don't want to pay taxes on their earnings; they don't want to take part in any tracking system; and most don't ever want to become U.S. citizens. They like things the way they are now – anonymous with relatively minimal risk (save for crossing U.S. deserts at high noon in mid-July) and high rewards.

Then again, maybe illegal immigrants have no worries anyway. Should this plan eventually become law, there is no way on God's green earth the federal government can register, track, and administer to the more than 13 million of them currently residing and working in the U.S. That amounts to a double insult to the American people: the government couldn't keep them out, and now that they're here "legally," it can't keep track of them.

Here's another fact. Tens of thousands of these people will never register because a) they are criminals in their home countries; and b) they are criminals here as well.

Also, creating millions of guest workers without getting serious – no, really serious – about immigration enforcement and border control will do nothing to staunch the flow of illegal drugs, weapons and, potentially, terrorists from crossing our borders.

Finally, legitimizing millions of illegal aliens who are already working at below market wages in many parts of the country will just solidify those below-average wages, thereby permanently freezing out American workers who, because the cost of living here is much higher, have to command better wages in order to make ends meet. Any politician who refuses to see and understand this very basic economic side effect of uncontrolled immigration does not deserve another term; worse, for the president of the United States to advocate permanently consigning millions of American jobs to below-poverty level wages is unconscionable.

Not to jump on a bandwagon here, but clearly this guest worker program is of benefit primarily to economic and business interests at the expense of American jobs and security. Having said that, and while I believe some uncompromising unions have priced many American workers out of the market permanently, it is not the role of our elected representatives to propagate economic policies detrimental to our own workers.

There are plenty of reasons not to implement Bush's guest worker program, especially under the guise of reforming "U.S. immigration law," but plenty of reasons not to do it. Considering how successful past attempts to reform immigration policies have been at ignoring some basic truths about the problem, you can probably guess what's going to happen next.