http://www.oregonlive.com

Stop shadow-boxing and supply solutions on illegal workers
Gov. Ted Kulongoski makes an ill-advised decision: to yank state agencies from Mexican Consulate fairs
Sunday, March 19, 2006
W hat would Oregon do without its illegal immigrants? We're months away from harvest, but these undocumented workers, mostly from Mexico, are already proving again they're indispensable. Without even trying, they're helping gubernatorial candidates shake the trees for the May primary, and pluck up votes.

Voters are mad, facts are few. It's perfect. So when a Republican candidate such as Ron Saxton charges that the state is spending "hundreds of millions of dollars" on services for illegal residents, he gets away with it. Mostly.

Actually, at a recent debate, it got a bit awkward for Saxton. When candidates were asked whether children of illegal workers should be able to attend public school, Saxton said no. His campaign later equivocated, but it was left to Republican Kevin Mannix to point out, "This question was about children. It wasn't about adults. We have to answer the question humanely." Indeed.

Actually, to obtain most state services requires proof of citizenship or legal residency. But there are exceptions, and they have to do with "answering the question humanely."

It's estimated that 20 percent of the state's 100,000 to 175,000 illegal residents are children. Not too many of us want an Oregon where abused or neglected children aren't pulled out of households because their parents are illegal. (It happens about 50 times a year.)

Or where someone having a mental breakdown could not be helped, because he or she is illegal. Or where someone having a heart attack is turned away from an emergency room.

Recently, it seemed even the Democratic incumbent, Gov. Ted Kulongoski, was getting a few kicks in at illegal residents. The governor has ordered state agencies to stop participating in the Mexican Consulate's "carousels," which have been one of the state's best ways to reach illegal residents. (Or, as the governor himself argued just two months ago, "a growing, underserved and vulnerable population.")

But the carousels have also sparked protests. Now the governor says they aren't reaching a wide-enough audience to justify state participation. The governor's staff says it will suggest bigger, broader venues. Fine, but why drop the carousels while this superior list is being developed?

You aren't hearing serious policy proposals on illegal immigration from the gubernatorial candidates for a simple reason: Governors can't stop the flow of illegal immigrants. In Oregon, as elsewhere, these workers couldn't be extricated from farms and many businesses without doing serious damage to the economy.

The nonprofit Pew Hispanic Center recently estimated that nearly a quarter of all U.S. agricultural jobs are held by illegal immigrants. (It's even higher -- more than half -- of crop pickers.) And, as the gubernatorial candidates probably have noticed, illegal workers are the backbone of Oregon's nursery industry.

As we said, illegal immigration is a perfect issue. And there's another bonus, too. The real solution isn't at the state level. It's federal, a guest worker program along the lines that Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., have proposed.

But focusing on illegal immigration is a wonderful way to avoid talking about health care, school finance and other tough issues Oregon governors actually have some chance of solving.

About Oregon's nursery industry, by the way, are any of the gubernatorial candidates planning a crackdown on illegal workers?

Presumably, they'll get back to us on that after the election.