Half Measures for "Almost Americans"

The immigrants who live in the United States illegally, by and large, work hard, pay taxes, obey the law and have families just like yours and mine. At least in the same percentage as the general population.

They want nothing more than to be here legally. So their children can go to college and join in the benefits of the American Dream.

They do the jobs that no one else want, at wages lower than the going rate, because they are unprotected by the law. They live outside the safety net.

And that does no one any good. Frightened illegals drive without licenses, making an accident more likely. They avoid hospitals, making the spread of illness more likely.

But they take no jobs away from their American counterparts. No one wants to do the work they do; cleaning and carrying and washing. And certainly, not at the wages they are willing to take.

Obama's election was their hope for a better deal. And today he came up with his plan.
Send them back to their own countries to get in line behind the more patient.

This is a great disappointment. And wildly impractical. Good for the airlines. Twelve million people picking up and going south of the border to stand in line? I don't think so. Where would they get the money? How would it disrupt families? Children?

Give them a chance to apply while they are still here. So many of them already have and been faced with the Kafkaesque process that requires money and a knowledge of forms and law beyond the reach of even college graduate. And even when completed, there has been consistent policy that claims the forms are lost or incorrectly filled out, that greets their efforts.

These people have suffered enough. Let's share the American Dream we have been so privileged to experience. After all, how far back to most of us have to look to find the immigrant in our own histories?

Obama, step up. Your father made the crossing. You wouldn't have wanted to travel back home with him to Kenya and get in line. Or to have waited (since you were born here) for years, for him to reach the front of it.

The children, especially, will be hurt by this policy. Whether born in the US or out of it, they will have to live with ruptured families, and the ensuing financial hardships and emotional effects this misguided idea will make inevitable. This policy is just pandering to the worst instincts of a fringe of racist xenophobics. Say no to them and yes to the millions of "almost Americans" in our midst.

We can do better than this.

Comments

[oafishcad]

They can still get married.

[Guberman]

Naomi Foner,

You just go on and on....what safety net...have you ever tried...or that you even know about...?
what the F are you talking about?

Cheers
Curt

[Guberman]

What "safety net" is this cat talking about?

[randyjet]

The FACT that the illegals are just that means that 100% of them are NOT abiding by the laws of the US. I know of NO group of Americans who are 100% violating our laws. Not only that, but they continue to violate US laws by ID theft, fraud, forgery, failing to register for Selective Service, perjury, SS fraud, etc.. The last amnesty bill had a provision to grant AMNESTY for ALL other CRIMES committed by them in the course of their criminal entry and illegal working here. So I would be interested to know what laws Foner thinks they should follow.

I am very tired of so called progressives being on the side of the rich and employers in driving down the wages for the most vulnerable Americans, the black, brown, and poor whites. The limo "liberals" are the bane of the progressive movement, and they only think of themselves and their home help. It is time to let them know that they are on the WRONG side of the progressive movement and need to get out,or stand with the American workers, NOT their bosses.

[masher]

I don't think she is on the side of the rich or the employers. Rather I think she is like the effete white intellectuals (Mary and Jan) in the novel "Native Son".

[QM2SS]

Ms Foner,

Your pleading screed on behalf of these 20 million law breakers would, at best, be pitifully sophomoric even if your timing were better. However, given the current events now unfolding to the world in Iran, it is more than evident that the Mexicans plight is pathetic in comparative senses. We are viewing hundreds of thousands of Irani citizens confronting their government in a quest for recognition of their basic needs and human rights, demonstrating courage in the face of adversity. What do hundreds of thousands of Mexican do? They break and run across the border to demand their rights in a country they entered illegally.

I respectfully submit that as proud Mexican citizens it is incumbent on them to work collectively and diligently in their own country to build a nation which represents and addresses the needs of its citizens.

If the Mexicans spent the same amount of time organizing in mass, waving their flag demonstrating their national pride and demanding their "rights" in their own country, as they do in the one they illegally entered, perhaps more could be accomplished. Building a nation is no easy task. People in this country have fought and died doing just that. Unlike other regimes, Mexicans will not be assassinated if they return to their home country. If the 'proud' Mexican citizens don't take this problem into their own hands and work towards resolution, who is suppose to?

[hrholmes]

They should be encouraged in the strongest possible terms that they must take their families and flags back to Mexico with them. All of them. They can work to fix Mexico's problems and economy and infrastructure not wreck ours any further. They should also be made to pay for their own bus tickets or be given a gubmint vouchers for them if they don't have their own transportation home. gawdspeed

[LCM1220]

As someone who has firsthand experience with this country's immigration "policy", I can tell you the system is deliberately set up to fail. Why? To benefit those who NEED CHEAP LABOR. I live in a state that is heavily dependant on cheap illegal labor. And I'm not talking about CA, I'm talking about KY. Who do you think picks the tobacco here and cleans all the horse stalls? Well I can assure it's not WHITE Americans. The underlying problem isn't the illegals crossing the border, it's the need for American's to maintain an "affordable" lifestyle. This country is DEPENDANT on cheap labor, whether it's HERE or in some "developing" country, such as China, Vietnam, India...et­c, etc. I'm sick of the comments that imply the average American "wants" the jobs that these illegals are doing. Yeah right! That'll be the day. Do I agree with people crossing the border illegaly..­..NO, but the immigrants aren't the PROBLEM, the insatiable need for cheap food and products is. Just ask the CEO of Walmart and everyone of it's customers.

[masher]

Did you ever think that without illiegal workers to exploit that farmers would instead have to turn to technology? Geez! We have sent robots to Mars that run on solar power, and those two robots have been driving around Mars for years now without any humans to fix them. They even drive themselves most of the time.

After the end of slavery the American farmer turned to technology! We built tractors and combines, etc. What cheap exploitable labor is doing is stunting the growth of farm technology.

If we didn't subsidize these farmers with illegal labor (yes, illegal labor or even H-1B visas are welfare) then companies would do what they should be doing, innovating.

What I see in America is a unwillingness to compete.

[randyjet]

I have news for you. WHITE Americans used to do those jobs, until the illegals came and lowered wages so that no American could or would work for those wages. When I was young in CT, the tobacco farms used to send buses into the suburbs to pick up high school and younger kids to work in the fields. I was looking forward to my 14th birthday so that I too could work there. It was a summer tradition to do that kind of work. That was how we got money for school clothes and incidentals.

Then the growers discovered Puerto Ricans, and with the advent of the jet age and cheaper airfares, they came in droves, and that was the end of that job for us. The Puerto Ricans were legal American workers and did not have to go to school either.

By the way, Lou Dobbs spent MANY summers doing THAT kind of field work too alongside the migrant laborers.

[nee]

All ILLEGAL ALIENS no matter where they come from or who they are related to need to be deported. ILLEGALS take jobs that US citizens and LEGAL immigrants used to do and would still do if they could get the jobs. We need to heavily fine and/or jail those who hire ILLEGALS.
You should take a look in the jails and in gangs before you make the statement that ILLEGALS work hard and pay taxes. We spend BILLIONS of tax payer dollars on ILLEGALS. We should be using this money on our own citizens.

[VeggieVeal]

They are still criminals trying to buck the system, while decent immigrants do things legally.

Obama is right.

[jcwtts1]

The only way to really have a secure border in this kid of situation is to build a DMZ like in N Korea and S Korea and to landmine it so that people can't walk across. :-) Short of that insanity we need to come up with a socio-economic system that allows for people to want to stay in their own countries. Sans that, we have to do a better job integrating them into this country. his isn't the first time in history we have had huge influxes of people from other countries. We basically emptied Ireland into the US at a time when our population was much smaller so the impact was much more dramatic. There are problems with large immigrant groups that do not assimilate or integrate if assimilation is offensive. The point is, a fence doesn't stop immigration economic development and jobs stops immigration.

J

[masher]

But we have never ever tried the basic things like requiring employers to check a person's status and with real punishments for any employer caught violating the rules. We need to punish with jail time any employer who hires an illegal. It is really that simple. The only reason we don't do it is will.

What those in power are quite happy to do is have the lower classes fight it out while they get cheap exploitable labor.

If you allow another amnesty, after we have already had them in the past, then there will just be another one. The rich want more exploitable labor. They want to crush the middle class in the US. So they will just keep doing amnesty after amnesty after amnesty until we are like India or Mexico.

[jcwtts1]

They follow laws.... except the one on how to get into the country. In other words, they follow the laws they want, when they want, and ignore the rest. They drive with out licenses and insurance, those are laws. Right? If we grant an amnesty, what do you think happens tomorrow. Do employers start paying decent wages for this level of work? No, they wait for the new influx of undocumented workers to cross the border and continue to pay sub standard wages. We need a solution, and part of it has to be people wanting to stay in their own country.

[nee]

So true jewtts1. The last time I looked entering a country ILLEGALLY was against the LAW!

[masher]

When I hear someone say "they are doing the jobs Americans won't do" I am first reminded of Bush...the­n I think this person doesn't understand economics at all or they do and are trying to lie.

It is basic capitalism 101 that wages are determined by labor availability. The more folks there are who can cut your grass the lower you are willing to pay. Its basic stuff. What you are arguing for is for the federal government to flood the market with low skilled labor. This will crush the value of low skilled labor and crush working class Americans. This is part of the rich's war on working folks. You want to pit the poor against the poor so that you can benefit from the competition.

The only thing that would be far would be completely open borders in both directions. But we don't have that. Mexico would never let US citizens own land in Mexico on near the ocean for instance. I want to move to Japan but that isn't going to be allowed either is it? Its nearly impossible to get Japanese citizenship. So until all nations open their borders nothing will be fair. So don't expect this to be fair. Its not about fair. We have to decide what is best for working Americans!

[superstition]

I thought this might be about gays.

"For too long, our nation has tolerated the insidious form of discrimination against this group of Americans, who have worked as hard as any other group, paid their taxes like everyone else, and yet have been denied equal protection under the law."

- Mrs. King

[Romulus]

How many times in the last 50 years have we rewarded this illegal behavior with amnesty only to have an even greater influx of illegal aliens?

[Romulus]

"They do the jobs that no one else want, at wages lower than the going rate,"

If they wouldn't come here illegally, employers would have to pay higher wages and legal residents would take those jobs.

[masher]

Dude, they know this. The only reason someone would say something as stupid as "they are doing the jobs Americans won't" is that they are hoping enough of us are dumb enough not to understand the basics of economics. The rich have to make the poor education system in the US pay for them.

One way is to use fatuous arguments like Bush did, and the other way is to import cheap labor (Mexicans) and the higher skilled labor imported by H-1B, H-1B, V-1, etc. Its really a sweet set up for the rich. They get all the regulation they want.