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Fences and neighbors

By David Schlosser, candidate for U.S. Congress

Week of 27^th September 2006

http://www.schlosserforcongress.com/media-press/op-ed/060927_Fences_and_neighbors.php

Illegal immigration evokes a very emotional response among most Americans.  Unfortunately, emotion tends to cloud a dispassionate assessment of this complex and challenging issue.

Because of the Federal government’s utter failure to secure America’s southern and northern borders, it is particularly challenging in Arizona.  We see the daily and dramatic impact of illegal immigration.  Shuttered hospitals, schools where English is a second language, and ecologically devastated borderlands conceal that even the most vehement opponents of illegal immigration recognize that the net national effect is positive.

Confronting Arizona’s daily immigration challenges, it’s also easy to forget that immigration is more than unskilled or semi-skilled labor coming from Mexico.  Immigration is also highly skilled labor coming from around the world to meet America’s shortages of nurses, engineers, teachers, and software developers.  The annual quota for these skilled labor visas means that American businesses must stop filling these jobs less than half-way through the year.  Because people connected to the Internet can complete many of these jobs (tax accounting, radiology interpretation, medical transcription) anywhere in the world, our immigration policy encourages outsourcing of high-skill, high-wage jobs.

We must acknowledge that supply-and-demand issues drive immigration, particularly illegal immigration.  As long as there is an unmet demand for labor in the U.S., immigrants will make every effort to supply it.  This is why a wall is an insufficient solution.  Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano is fond of saying that if you show her a twenty-foot wall, she’ll show you a twenty-one-foot ladder.

I will go Gov. Napolitano a few better: I’ll show you hot air balloons that float over the wall, boats that sail around the edges of the wall, helicopters and planes that hop over the wall, tunnels under the wall, and people going to Canada and walking across the longest unprotected border in the world.

I am not opposed to building a wall along America’s borders.  I am not opposed to a technology-based virtual wall.  But I am opposed to policy advocates telling the people of Arizona and America that either of these expensive alternatives will secure the border.  I am not opposed to enhanced border enforcement or tougher penalties for employers who hire illegal aliens.  But I am opposed to legislators who claim that rearranging the Titanic’s deck chairs is going to prevent the ship from sinking.  These kinds of responses merely extend the tragic heritage of turning over American immigration policy to coyotes, drug smugglers, and document forgers.

I believe the only realistic solution recognizes supply-and-demand factors by welcoming immigrants who want to become law-abiding and productive American citizens while scaling back the Federal mandates for providing free public services to illegal immigrants.  A policy that achieves these goals would include the following process for immigrants who want to come to America legally:

1.      Present yourself at an official border checkpoint.

2.      Prove your identity.

3.      Prove you do not have a criminal record or communicable disease.

4.      Acknowledge that you will not receive social services from the Federal government until you are a citizen.

5.      Receive the documents that you need to become a legal worker in the United States and start on the path to citizenship.

Immigrants already in the U.S. illegally would have to go through the same process as immigrants coming to America for the first time.  This policy offers several immediate benefits.

First, it eliminates the incentive to come to the U.S. for welfare, food stamps, or health care.  Second, it allows American law enforcement to easily identify and deport illegal immigrants, because there would be no reason for anyone to be in the country illegally.  Third, it allows immigrants to come and go as they choose.  The Heritage Foundation recently reported that sealing the border is likely to have an effect that is precisely the opposite of its intent.  While enhanced border security may decrease immigration into the U.S., it also decreases the volume of illegal immigrants leaving.  According to University of Arizona Professor Manuela Angelucci, each new border patrol agent stops between 771 and 1,621 individuals from illegally entering our country, but prevents between 831 and 1,966 illegal immigrants already in the U.S. from leaving, for fear of being caught trying to exit or re-enter the country.

Fourth, it keeps immigrant families together, rather than dividing them among two or more countries.  It has the added advantage of protecting immigrants from corrupt authorities in Mexico.  It also has the virtue of keeping immigrants’ money in the U.S., rather than having immigrants send their earnings back to other countries.  Fifth, it eliminates the profit motive for coyotes who charge thousands of dollars to border crossers, but abandon them to the deadly borderlands when threatened.  It has the added advantage of allowing immigrants to come to America with the money they would have paid to smugglers, which they can use to find a home or start a business.  Sixth, it allows America’s border enforcement authorities to focus all their resources on securing our border against people who intend on doing harm to our citizens and institutions.

Finally, it improves the economic dynamism of our country.  Instead of spending money on lawyers to process employment visas, businesses can invest that money productively.  Instead of outsourcing jobs, or leaving them unfilled, American businesses can efficiently meet the needs of their customers.  It allows immigrants to make a rational decision about whether and when to come to America, rather than trying to get across the border whenever it’s possible.  It forces other countries to get serious about fixing their internal problems, because they are now at risk of losing their most productive citizens.  And it allows America to capitalize on the extraordinary advantages of diversity in a global economy.

An emotional response to illegal immigration may have the virtue of satisfaction, but it lacks the virtue of solving any problems.  Perhaps that explains why Congress has refused to act on the issue.  Stuck between an angry electorate and a hard spot, our elected officials refuse to offer any leadership on immigration, contenting themselves with rearranging deck chairs instead of solving this crisis.

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Libertarian candidate for U.S. Congress David Schlosser, 38, lives in Flagstaff, Ariz., where he is a writer and communications consultant and has been a part-time instructor in the School of Communications at Northern Arizona University.  He brings nearly a decade of political experience to his campaign for Congress, and is a graduate of Trinity University and the University of Texas.  His wife, Anne, is a corporate training and development professional.  For more information about Schlosser and his campaign for Arizona’s First Congressional District, visit www.SchlosserForCongress.com.  Anyone can take his issues identification survey at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=947042343520.

Authorized and paid for by Schlosser for Congress, Scott Gude, Treasurer

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