Monday, September 19, 2011

Immigration and the U.S. Republican presidential candidates

Yesterday (Sunday, September 18) the New York Times took three Republican candidates to task for their positions on illegal immigration. More accurately, their lack of positions. All three of them have refused to say much of anything on the subject, for fear of alienating the most conservative of voters. The only thing they publicly agree on is the urgent need to "seal the border." But as the Times pointed out in a lead editorial, that "solution" hardly addresses the issue of what to do with the 11 million undocumented Mexicans already living and working in the United States. More to the point, it ignores the fact that illegal border crossings are at an historic low. In fact, most of the traffic is going the other way these days, due to the poor state of the U.S. economy and improved opportunities in Mexico. That, coupled with new laws (such as Arizona´s) specifically targeting Latinos for arrest and/or deportation, has caused record numbers of undocumented persons to give up and return home voluntarily.
The candidates´ proposals, such as we have them, are:

The Mitt Romney "Hold that Line" Plan: No amnesty and no special treatment for undocumenteds. Build a multi-million dollar high tech wall across the desert frontier ASAP.

The Rick Perry "Boots on the Ground" Plan: Forget the wall, it´s too expensive. Load the board with troops, and patrol it with both manned aircraft and unmanned drones.

The John Hunstman "Where There´s a Will There´s a Way Plan may be the most reasonable of the three. He too would build the wall, but with respect to the undocumenteds already in the U.S., he would support something which "leads to eventual legalization." Just what that plan might look like, Hunstman offers not a clue.

Any suggestion of reasonable, comprehensive immigration reform appears to be almost heretical with these three Republican front runners. But sooner or later they will have to confront the issue of what to do with 11 million people living just below the radar. No one can be elected president in the United States today without winning a substantial portion of the Hispanic vote -- about 43% of it according to one expert. Talk about high tech walls and unmanned drones is unlikely to seduce that voting block into any candidate´s corner.

[Photo: Mexican laborers in Texas, circa 1938. In those days their work was desperately sought, with no questions asked]
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3 comments:

  1. Raul CurminaSeptember 19, 2011 at 11:46 AM

    Este es un tema que siempre se queda atras una vez que las eleciones han pasado. Durante las campanas este problema se convierte en un topico para ganar o perder votantes, se califica a los ilegales como criminales, terroristas, como una plaga que chupa el dinero de la nacion, como un problema de seguridad nacional y muchas otras cosas mas, cuando esta demostrado que el 92% de las personas que cruzan la frentera ilegalmente consiguen trabajo,se ganan la vida con trabajo duro y pagan impuestos. Esto es algo que nunca se terminara mientras exista una gran diferencia de economia entre los dos paises y mientras USA siga necesitando de mano de obra muy pero muy barata.
    Algo que tambien quisiera comentar es que al hablar de ilegales, inmediatamante se piensa en mexicanos (piel oscura) cuando tambien hay un numero consederable de ilegales porvenientes de Canada, Asia, Europa, Nueva Zelanda, Autralia,en fin de casi todo el mundo, pero estos nunca se toman en cuenta. Los ilegales "son mexicanos"
    Alguien por alli dijo, si construyen un muro de 5 metros de altura, construiremos una escalera de 5 metros de altura. ?cual es el problema?

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  2. Edward V. ByrneSeptember 19, 2011 at 12:05 PM

    Gracias, Raul. Estoy de acuerdo contigo cien por ciento. Es la temporada política en los EE.UU., vienen los comicios de 2012, y hoy en día es muy de modo entre los republicanos hablar mal de los llamados “mojados.”

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  3. Edward V. ByrneSeptember 19, 2011 at 12:21 PM

    One of my Facebook readers posted this Comment a short time ago. I happen to agree with his observations completely, so I pass them along:

    "Talk about high tech walls and unmanned drones is unlikely to seduce that voting block into any candidate´s corner."...GOOD!!! Those three guys are all radical right wings crazies anyway! The Republicans all want their cake and to eat it too. THey want the cheap labor from illegal immigrants, they just don't want to have to supply them with any kind of benefits."

    Thanks, my friend. You've analyzed Republican "immigration policy" quite accurately, in my opinion.

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