$5.5 Million a day
“I believe in the idea of amnesty for those who have put down roots and lived here, even though some time back they may have entered illegally.” Those words were resurrected in a recent “Los Angeles Times” editorial. Sounds like your garden variety liberal whiner, doesn’t it? Well, those are the words of Ronald Reagan. Today, he’d be jettisoned as a viable GOP candidate. All of the recent candidates are in a contest to see who can take the hardest line on immigration.
No wisdom is behind their rhetoric, and the issue is really a smoke screen to divert American voters from the really important issues – the economy, foreign policy, unemployment and the list goes on. The whole issue becomes even more embarrassing when you see how other nations view us. An editorial in the U.K.’s “Guardian” newspaper pointed out that we spend $5.5 million dollars a day – a day – to round up and detain immigrants. The editorial goes on to say how detainees are put in horrible detention facilities and often get railroaded through the immigration courts and deported, and not just a few of those are actually here legally.
Why is this nation of 350 million so focused on a population of 12 million? That’s less than 4% of the people drawing breath in this country. Many of those are women and children. Deporting them all would have very little, if any, impact on this nation’s jobless rate, which hovers around 9%. However, it would have profound and devastating effects on our economy in many negative ways. Spending millions of dollars a day to detain and deport working folks and breaking up families is silly. Republican candidates squawking about how tough they are is silly. And so many other manifestations of poor immigration law, both silly and sad, crop up when you start to look across the broad American landscape.
“Oh, Lord, won’t you buy me a Mercedez-Benz?”
Missouri touts itself as the “Show Me State.” Recently, an editorial in The St. Louis Post-Dispatch invited a specific business to Missouri. “We are the Show-Me State,” it said, “not the ‘Show me your papers’ state.” What prompted this somewhat humorous editorial declaration?
Seems a visiting Mercedes executive was out for a drive to check the territory where his company as an automobile manufacturing plant. He was caught driving around Tuscaloosa, Alabama without a license. No papers and a foreign accent landed him jail as a potential illegal immigrant. Is that a nice way to treat a visitor who brings much needed jobs to your state? A few weeks later the same thing happened to a Japanese executive of Honda Motor Co.
Thus Missouri, on the search for jobs and investment just like many other states, appealed to businesses to come to their more visitor-friendly state and more tolerant business environment. Alabama is attempting to woo other foreign investors, among them are Hyundai, Honda, and Golden Dragon Precise Copper Tube Group (which wants to build a $100 million plant with more than 300 jobs).
States with immigration laws waiting in the wings
Other states with pending immigration laws, some more or less draconian than Alabama’s, are watching carefully to see the impact of such laws on that state. One Alabama mayor who actively seeks investment was quoted as saying that future prospects and business inquiries are drying up since the law passed. The mayor is convinced the immigration issue is thwarting his and similar efforts across the state.
States are also keeping track of other aspects of Alabama’s economy that may be affected by the state’s harsh immigration legislation. Tough immigration laws exist in Utah, South Carolina, Indiana and Georgia, though not as harsh as Alabama’s. Other states have immigration laws waiting in the wings. They all are keeping an eye on how Alabama has been affected. And it’s not looking good. Lawmakers there are already talking about reform or downright repeal.
One thing they better take a close look at is the state of their farm harvests. Crops are now rotting in the fields of Alabama and other places across the nation. If the jobs left by these immigrants are so important to mitigate the unemployment problem, why are states looking into the feasibility of using prison labor for the harvest? And why is it that a farmer set up a program to get legal tomato pickers to his farms at a decent wage and then have all of the workers drop out within five days? A few million laborers working at hard jobs isn’t going to take jobs from Americans.
Americans need to calm down and do what’s right
So much sturm und drang is happening over 12 million people. Politicians thumping their chests and legislatures passing laws that are anathema to the American principles of liberty and justice, is a whole lot of silly activity over a few folks who are here just to build a better life and contribute to the well-being of the economies around them.
Immigration is an important issue, but it is not the blood-sucker of our economy nor our way of life that our politicians, mostly Republicans, would have us believe. And they know it. They are using the issue as a diversion. We spend more money rounding up and deporting immigrants than we’ll ever spend on social services or education for that measly 4% of the population. Speaking of politicians, Arizona Republicans are going to have to deal with 19% of the registered voters in the state who are of Hispanic extraction.
Anecdotes aside, Americans need to demand better of their politicians and leaders. Americans need to realize a little more of the compassion for which they are known. How can a “family values” nation want to rip apart families? How can a compassionate people want to ship off to a strange land, young folks who speak only English, know the words to the Star Spangled Banner and just want to enter the military or go to college? That’s not America, that’s some strange demon politicians have conjured to incite fear and draw votes. The problem is overblown. Americans need to calm down and demand that the situation be set straight in a compassionate and enlightened way.
And quit worrying that a population of 4% is going to ruin the nation and bring American civilization to its knees.
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Lazaro Law Group, Professional Corporation represents immigrants all over the United States and the US Embassy in Manila. The firm’s offices are located in San Francisco, Fremont/Newark/Union City, and Sacramento, California. Attorney Johnson Lazaro can be reached at (415) 800-5775 or toll free at (855) 4-LAZARO. His email is This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
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This article should not be taken as legal advice for any individual case or situation. The information is intended to be general and should not be relied upon for any specific situation. This is not meant to create a lawyer-client relationship.
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