Killer Politics by Ed Schultz

Author:Ed Schultz
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Hyperion
Published: 2010-06-17T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FIVE

CONTROLLING AMERICA’S BORDERS

From Melting Pot to Meltdown

A MILLION SOLDIERS ONCE MANNED THE FOUR-THOUSAND-MILE-LONG Great Wall of China in an effort to keep out Nomadic tribes. It’s an ominous historical reminder of the importance and difficulty of protecting national borders. Difficult? Some say futile. Even then.

Now, “You live in the age of interdependence,” Bill Clinton says. “Borders don’t count for much or stop much, good or bad, anymore.” Yet here we are at a crossroads when it comes to illegal immigration and homeland security. Do we abandon any hope of controlling our borders, or do we cling to our sovereignty? From a utopian point of view, borders should be unnecessary, kingdoms should be dispensed with, and the goodness of man should triumph. Yet mankind has not evolved to that point. We would be fools to keep the front door unlocked.

There are two major problems with porous U.S. borders: First, we want to defend our borders against attack. Second, because the resources of any country are finite, we need to defend our economic infrastructure.

Allowing millions of illegal immigrants to live here—in the shadows—undermines the structure of our society. This shadow workforce both exploits and is exploited by our system. Its presence drives down or stagnates the wages of American workers while giving some businesses an unfair advantage over those who choose not to hire undocumented workers. It is not unusual for members of this shadow workforce to be mistreated and cheated—after all, what illegal worker is going to go to the authorities?

Any organization, whether it’s the Boy Scouts or the U.S. government, needs to be able to identify its membership. The primary reason for existence of the government is to pool resources so we can collectively do what we cannot achieve individually. You have to know where the people are so you can properly allocate resources. But when it comes to illegal aliens, we don’t know as much as we should.

Estimates of the number of illegal immigrants living in America range from 7 million to a 2005 Bear Stearns estimate of 20 million. The U.S. Border Patrol estimates this population to be somewhere between 12 and 15 million. The common estimate is 12 million, but we really won’t know until the day we either deport all of these people (impossible) or grant them the right of citizenship, which would be a tall order.

According to Pew Hispanic Center research, “Mexico is by far the leading country of origin for U.S. immigrants, accounting for a third (32%) of all foreign-born residents and two-thirds (66%) of Hispanic immigrants.”

Immigration has been put on the back burner by the Obama administration while it wrestles with other issues, like the collapsing economy and health care. Immigration reform is not an issue that will produce any kind of political capital and could well prove to be divisive enough to undermine the presidency. It would be unwise, however, for the administration to ignore the issue of illegal immigration for too long. There’s an old adage that says when you find yourself in a hole, the first thing you have to do is stop digging.

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