Andrew Hagen

Jerry Seper in the Washington Times writes an article based on the opinion of Michael Cuter, a retired high-ranking INS agent. (*)

Any guest-worker program approved by Congress for the nation’s 11 million illegal aliens would spawn a new wave of cheap-labor illegals that already-overwhelmed federal authorities are unprepared to handle, law-enforcement authorities and immigration officials say.

Currently in America, there are two groups of people. First, legal residents. This includes citizens and legal aliens.

Second, there are illegal aliens, many of whom want to immigrate and become naturalized US citizens.

The labor market is divided between those two groups. Citizens and legal aliens have a bundle of rights. Illegal aliens have few rights and no guarantees.

A guest worker program would give special visas to the illegal aliens. The result would be a three-tiered labor market. Citizens and legal aliens would continue to enjoy their rights. Guest workers would have most of the rights of citizenship, but could not vote and would be subject to deportation for a variety of reasons, such as unforeseen economic downturns. Third, a new group of illegal aliens would arrive to push wages down further. This new group of illegals would have few rights and would be exploited.

Let’s suppose a broad grant of amnesty is made to illegal aliens, and most become naturalized US citizens. Again, as the Washington Times article points out, we will have a new group of illegal aliens who rush in to fill jobs that now pay even less. They will form a new group of second-class citizens who have few rights and no guarantees.

Whenever you allow the labor market to become segmented by people of different status, you will have market distortions, social chaos, a slow unraveling of the middle class, and a blow to the heart of the American Dream. Of course, that is what we have today with the millions of illegal aliens that our government has invited in to effectively become indentured servants.

Furthermore, it is doubtful that creating a permanent underclass of foreign nationals in America could even be constitutional. You cannot take someone who would normally be a citizen and make him a “guest worker” solely for the purpose of depriving him of the rights of citizens. It violates the equal protection of laws.

If we want to do the best for people in Mexico and other countries, and stop tolerating the US government’s creation of huge numbers of second-class citizens, we need to do something new.

First, enforce the law and protect the borders. This will prompt illegal aliens to leave peacefully. It will also stop human smugglers, drug smugglers, terrorists, and sex slave traffickers. Strong border enforcement is money well spent.

Second, develop a thoughtful Latin America policy. Third, the US should take responsibility for the disruptive effects of NAFTA on Mexico. NAFTA forced peasants off the lands, and now many are looking for work as illegals in America, because they have been forced into that desperate route by the heartless, greedy NAFTA.

Fourth, the US should spend more time, money, and attention on eliminating corruption in Mexico, increasing Mexican transparency, and promoting business activity in Mexico.

Mexico is full of talented, hard-working people. Mexico is blessed with abundant natural resources. There is no reason why Mexico should not be one of the top-20 richest countries in the world, except the Mexican government is corrupt. That is the root cause. For example, if the Mexican government weren’t corrupt, it could renegotiate NAFTA or pay direct compensation to Mexicans who have suffered due to the trade deal.

It’s unfortunate when liberals try to create a permanent underclass in America, accuse those in favor of law enforcement of racism, and apologize for corruption in our neighbor to the south. It used to be that liberals were the leaders of society. Those days have passed.

It’s unfortunate when conservatives tolerate a permanent underclass in America, seek to enlarge it, and apologize for corruption in our neigohbor to the south. It is currently the case that conservatives are the leaders of society. This too will pass.

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 13th, 2006 at 22:05 and is filed under Immigration. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.