On the Fence | Immigration policy a key issue for 2006 elections

Ian Saxine Columnist

The 2006 United States congressional elections won’t be about the war in Iraq. They won’t be about taxes either. And you can bet they won’t be about pressing environmental issues. No, the topic of the year, and probably next year, too, will be immigration. The House of Representatives has recently passed legislation that will turn undocumented immigration into a felony, rather than a misdemeanor. Debate is already raging at all levels of government and in the streets, where tens of thousands of mostly pro-immigrant protesters have gathered in the past week.

As for this storm of controversy, I say, “Bring it on.” America needs to talk more openly about its immigration laws. Some people say they’re too strict, some say they’re too lenient, but just about everyone is unhappy with the way they are now. A change in either direction would be an improvement.

True to form, conservatives have defended tightening America’s borders in terms of national security. Liberals, for their part, have employed the tiresome logic that since over half of the illegal immigrants entering the country are Latinos (with Mexico by far the biggest contributor), any suggestion that illegal immigration should be stopped is inherently racist. People who are racist have been pitching in as well, with our local gaggle of hate groups advocating actual violence. Entangled with those approaches are questions of identity, law, and labor, questions that reach into the heart of America, and the world.

At this point, I think anyone who has an easy answer to the immigration solution hasn’t thought things through enough. But since it’s expected of me, I thought of a few ways to start the debate off on the right foot:

1. Call President Bush and tell him to put all of those civil-liberty reduction acts (I’m sorry, I meant “Patriot”) to good use and hunt down Nazi clowns like Hal Turner, who actually wrote on his website recently, “We’re going to have to start killing these people” (Southern Poverty Law Fund Intelligence Report). By “we,” Turner apparently meant his dim-witted white fans, wherever they are, and by “these people,” he meant illegal immigrants, who he assumes are all non-whites. That looks like inciting violence to me, and the First Amendment doesn’t cover that. Other hate sites have suggested assassination of activists and government officials who support legalizing resident illegal aliens. If that isn’t terrorism, I don’t know what is.

2. Call Republicans out on their double-speak. I find it interesting that the same conservatives who support a crackdown on illegal immigration, and those who aid them, usually support big business legislation that protects the very companies that hire illegal immigrants to perform criminally underpaid jobs. Make up your minds, guys!

3. Call Democrats out on their double-speak. If this country is going to keep unions viable and working class jobs here, then it can’t afford to remain silent and let the government not enforce existing laws. A regulated flow of immigrants is necessary to enable union and activist pressure to make companies pay living wages to their workers.

Hand in hand with the issue of illegal immigration and worker exploitation is “fair trade,” or the supporting of businesses that treat workers fairly and are socially responsible. Letting capitalism work its magic by making it pay not to exploit people is a great way to improve the lives of immigrants already here. As for instituting new immigration laws, I have a better idea. Why doesn’t America start enforcing the ones it already has? Right now we’re sending a terribly mixed signal to illegal immigrants: wait your turn, but if you sneak over the border, we’ll find you a low-paying job and maybe offer amnesty if you stick around long enough. Mixed signals aren’t any cooler in immigrations than they are in dating, and should be stopped. In the meantime, I don’t see how a country enforcing its own immigration laws and insisting that people immigrate legally is inherently racist or unfair. I don’t deny that issues of race, language, and nationality play a part in the immigration issue, but there is more to it than that, and people need to start talking about all of them.