The Disconnect between Hispanics and Other Americans

The recent ruckus about the new Arizona immigration law highlights the disconnect between Hispanics and Other Americans. Some like to draw a parallel between U.S. border security measures and the Berlin Wall. Of course, the situations are totally different. The Berlin Wall separated East Germans from their countrymen in the West. It was designed to keep people in rather than keep them out.

The East Germans, to their dismay, found out that mine fields, machine gun towers, and multi-layered fences and walls were not enough to stop people from escaping or attempting to escape to the West. Why? Because the people were willing to take incredible risks because they knew if they could escape to the West, they would never be repatriated back to the repressive regime in the East.

Similarly, in the U.S., illegal aliens know that if they can escape the immediate environs of the border or ports of entry, they will be home free because of the lack of vigorous internal enforcement and the lack of the threat of detention and repatriation. This is the lesson we should have learned from the East German experience. Unless there is a high probability that border violators will be apprehended, denied jobs, and repatriated, our borders will never be secure. Instead of repatriation, some Hispanics want all of the illegals currently in this country to be granted amnesty. This is a recipe for failure even worse than that of the East Germans.

This is the major stumbling block in the current immigration reform proposals. Some claim that the bill already represents a compromise and that therefore it deserves to be passed. But there has been no compromise on the amnesty issue. If an illegal has managed to enter the U.S. illegally, even it is just the day before the bill is enacted, he could qualify for amnesty eventually.

Why is it so hard to understand that amnesty simply doesn’t work? It would merely sweep the problem under the carpet and allow the counting of illegals to start all over again from zero. The number of illegals in the U.S. grew from the 1.3 million who were granted amnesty in 1986 to an estimated 12 million today. What will it be in another 25 years if another amnesty is granted?

We need to find a workable compromise on this single issue without delay. To send the right message, the compromise needs to result in the repatriation of a large number of the illegals. We need to be very selective about those who are allowed to stay and work. They should not be eligible for jobs citizens would do if offered a living wage and a hiring preference. Employers must demonstrate with irrefutable evidence that they are unable to fill their jobs with citizens before they can hire hire or retain any foreign workers. Employers must also pay any foreign workers at the same rate as citizen workers with the same skill level and experience. They should also be required to provide full family health care coverage for their foreign workers so that this expense is not offloaded on the unsuspecting public through higher insurance premiums.