Pawns in Their Game

President Bush’s speech this week outlining his plan to reform the U.S. immigration system amounted to little more than a continuation of an already ineffective policy. It is intended to reinforce Americans’ anxieties about undocumented workers by framing the issue in terms of national security. But increasing personnel at the border hasn’t worked over the last 20 years. Despite the radical increase in the Border Patrol budget—from $151 million in 1986 to $1.6 billion last year-- the rate of apprehension has plummeted to 5 per cent, down from 30 per cent in the 1980s.
Deploying 6,000 National Guard troops is a questionable policy decision considering how that force was clearly overextended when called upon during the Hurricane Katrina crisis. Militarizing the border will only force border-crossers to find even more dangerous routes to the north. In the last two decades, deaths on the border tripled and last year, more than 500 people died while crossing into the U.S., according to Princeton sociology professor Douglas Massey.
Bush stridently announced the end of the “catch and release” policy, in which immigrants who were detained crossing the border illegally were set free due to lack of detention space. But this administration already has a shoddy record when it comes to detaining immigrants, and his assurance that more facilities will be built is a bonanza for massive jail-building .corporations, now one of the fastest growing industries in the country.
Despite occasional acknowledgment that most immigrants are honest and hardworking, many references in the speech are unfair characterizations. Bush lumps in illegal immigrants with criminals, drug dealers and terrorists. While drug trafficking is a serious problem, the threat from potential terrorism is minimal. Ironically, the effect of stronger border enforcement is to create more illegal immigrant smuggling organizations.
In the speech’s introduction he makes an uncritical comparison between immigrants and their supporters who marched legally against the Sensenbrenner bill and the Minutemen, who are vigilantes. He implies that many immigrants use forged documents to get jobs, when in many cases it is the employer who provides forged documents, as well as false social security numbers. He also claims that undocumented immigrants put a strain on local governments, when it can be argued that income and sales taxes paid by these workers often pay for the social services they receive, when they are not afraid to take advantage of them.
When President Bush argues that there must be a mechanism by which undocumented workers can eventually attain citizenship, he is making sense. But he did not clarify how closely he advocated following the provisions advanced by the compromise version of the McCain-Kennedy immigration reform bill. He also failed to address the potential separation of family members by the proposed new laws, a real issue because according to a study published by the Urban Institute, 2/3 of undocumented immigrants have children born in this country.
Finally, the guest worker program Bush has proposed is designed to perpetuate a system of exploitation and second-class citizenship for a new breed of seriously underpaid worker. Up to now, the government has looked the other way as employers actively recruited an illegal immigrant workforce. Under Bush’s plan, they will be assured of an endless supply of electronically tagged virtual indentured servants to promote the illusion that our economy is growing and strong.