Andrew Hagen

George W. Bush wants a new immigration policy for America, a guest worker program and amnesty. President Bush and Congress are about to act on immigration.

This video has been highly rated by viewers from opposing points of view. It lasts about 15 minutes. In my view, this video contains important information that the public and Congress need to know before any change in immigration policy is made.

Video on Google

Numbers USA

Congress may act at any time, even in the next few weeks. What can you do? Contact your Congressional representative and your Senators and tell them how you feel. Every time they hear from one person, they assume 1,000 people believe the same thing. Your voice counts.

Current US population: 300,249,016.

Tonight, in his national address from the Oval Office, President Bush cynically offers a few milquetoast items to create the illusion that his “border security initiative” will protect the border. (*) The sad truth is that a few motion sensors and a couple of thousand National Guard troops with orders to stand around for the benefit of the news cameras will have no effect on the billions of people who would love to walk into America and become one of President Bush’s new guest workers.

The first problem with Bush’s proposed “guest worker” program is that it irrevocably puts “guest workers” onto the path of “earned citizenship,” which is amnesty, which Bush strenously opposes.

The second problem is larger. Guest workers would be the equivalent of second-class citizens, a concept which suggests dubious constitutionality at best and another blow to the heart of America by replacing the middle class with an exploited class at worst.

The biggest winners from Bush’s plan would be financial interests, the rich, drug dealers, terrorists, human smugglers, and to a lesser extent, illegal aliens and the country of Mexico. The biggest losers are the American people, the rule of law, and would-be legal immigrants who have been obediently standing in line for legal citizenship and, 20 years of playing by the rules later, along comes Bush and his sycophants in Washington to spit in their face. What has become of fairness? What has become of right and wrong?

Meanwhile, the Senate is expediting its plan to increase America’s population by 103 million over the next 20 years, on top of all the illegal immigration. (†) Apparently, a higher estimate of the Senate’s compassionate plan places the increased population at 217.1 million, according to Senator Jeff Sessions, or roughly 517 million total Americans by the year 2026. (‡)

The only conclusion to be drawn from this is that the Washington elites do not care what happens to this country anymore. All they care about is supporting big business, international trade, financial interests and their other cronies.

IIllegal aliens have worked very hard and many want to become American citizens. Most would make fine American citizens. The problem is not the people. Some of the world’s best people are illegal aliens in America.

At this point, however, illegal aliens and American citizens are all just differently-situated targets for exploitation by the corporate elites. They would like us all to become their mute, ill-paid servants happy enough with videogames and entertainment, deprived of real wealth and the power of free citizens.

The illegal alien problem is not about the people. Complaining about the quality of the people who have been coming to America illegally is like getting a gold, diamond-encrusted ring and tossing it out like a circus trinket.

The illegal alien problem is the problem of numbers. Sheer, overwhelming numbers. You can get too much of anything. In America, we value open spaces. We value a clean, pristine environment unclouded with smog. We value a sense of uncrowdedness. We do not like traffic jams. We do not like long lines at stores. We like opportunities and flexibility in business, jobs and careers and educational slots. We like what we have, we like our way of life, and we have a right to keep it.

Yes, America has a major educational deficit for a variety of reasons. We need more scientists, engineers, and mathematicians. Desperately. We need to better prepare for the retirement of the baby boom generation, and automated services, such as robotic vaccuum cleaners and lawn mowers will be parts of the solution.

What we do not want, however, is for caviar-snacking billionaires to steer the course of our country. President Bush and the other self-proclaimed leaders of the world would love for average American wages and incomes to be cut in half or more. They will be cutting a lion’s share of the pie for their own miserable, greedy, Napoleanic selves. With their guest worker/amnesty plan, they want to impoverish us, ruin our country and wreck the middle class once and for all.

Additionally, with increased immigration comes increased social chaos and consequent decreased societal security. The only way to keep order is to impose it by brute force. We can accept masses of new people into America only at the cost of cutting out massive amounts of civil rights and privacy, starting with a national ID card, and continuing on until the Bill of Rights is illegal to read out loud in public.

We do not want a huge number of people coming into America simply because we have enough Americans as it is. Most regions of America are full enough with people. America is not crowded as compared to the standards of Calcutta, Cairo, Sao Paulo, and Paris, and that is exactly the point.

There are workable solutions. First, you implement real border security. Second, you do not have any “round-up” but you do deport illegal aliens who are caught breaking the law. Third, you promote democracy and the rule of law in Mexico, other parts of Latin America, and developing countries around the world. Fourth, employers of 50 or more employees who hire illegal aliens are made felons and sent to the slammer, smaller employers face fines. Fifth, the U.S. enters into negotiations with Mexico to upgrade the US-Mexico relationship from mere “friends” to “strategic partners.” Mexico is a wonderful country blessed with an incredible culture and inspiring people. Mexico just needs to root out the corruption to unlock its destiny. Washington’s immigration policy encourages Mexican corruption, the exact opposite of the desired result. By making a few minor changes, we can achieve much and have positive effects.

Are we seeing the continued weakening of the nation-state system, as the so-called “superpower” pathetically cannot even control one of its borders? That may be part of the story. The real story, however, is that President Bush and the Washington establishment are selling out American citizens for the benefit of their rich cronies and people in other countries.

Third party options currently are uninteresting. The far-right Constitution Party, for example, would like to enact a theocracy. There are precious few politicians who have the guts to stand up to big business and put the American people first. There is a possibility that an interesting politically moderate third party could grow out of the Minuteman Project, but that is far from a sure bet.

Let your Senators and Congressman know where you stand, and that your vote depends on them acting appropriately. Then, in November, vote. Free people who yet have courage do not give up on their country.

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.

President of Mexico Vidente Fox has stated his regret for making his disparaging, racist comments about African-Americans. (*) Fox had initially defended himself.

The US Embassy in Mexico City did raise the issue, reports CBS News.

Perhaps some dialogue will result, and some good will come out of it, anyway.

President of Mexico Vicente Fox has recently stated that Mexican immigrants to the United States take jobs that black Americans won’t. (*) That is simply outrageous hateful garbage. Unfortunately, President Fox made the statement to defend open borders immigration into the US.

Fox is now defending his comments about African-Americans.

Fox’s hateful statement is a stark and telling example of how the arguments of anti-immigration campaigners are not based on racism or appeals to prejudice. Indeed, contrariwise, Fox’s patently racist smear illustrates that the argument for open borders is based on a racial prejudice that would privilege those of Mexican nationality over American citizens.

To address the substance of Fox’s remarks, we begin with noting that illegal aliens do not have legal protections such as the minimum wage in the labor market. Since many illegal aliens are poor, they will take whatever job they can get, even working for $1 an hour if necessary. That is not a comment on the relative industriousness of illegal aliens, including many Mexican nationals. Instead, it is a comment on the market clearing price for low-end labor in the US.

In layman’s terms, if we didn’t have the minimum wage, American citizens would have $1 an hour jobs, too.

Vicente Fox should be ashamed and apologize.

I would like to see President Bush send an open letter to President Fox indicating great displeasure with the remarks.

Americans for Better Immigration has a convenient report card for US Congressional representatives and Senators. (*)

Most of Congress scores poorly.

Ten people were arrested in Manchester, England today in a raid on a group suspected of involvement with terrorism. (*)

Special branch officers confirmed they had arrested nine men and one woman. Seven addresses were targeted and seven people arrested in Greater Manchester.

Three further people were arrested in the West Midlands, Staffordshire, and South Yorkshire.

Those being questioned today are Iraqis, Kurds and north Africans.

Police said they would neither confirm not deny rumours about possible targets.

(†)

They got ten, but there are thousands of Al Qaeda operatives remaining in the UK alone.

“In the early 1990s MI5 was very slow to get to grips with al Qaida,” [ex–MI5 spy David] Shayler said in a TV interview.

“Despite repeated warnings they let in thousands of al Qaida members into this country who are all still here.

“Some of whom have gained British citizenship, which makes it very difficult to expel them.” Middlesbrough-born Shayler revealed his fears on the ITV1 Tyne Tees programme The Sunday Interview.

(‡) How can terrorist attacks be stopped if we don’t stop or at least reduce immigration?

Newsmax reports on a former US Customs agent, Diane Kleiman, who says illegal aliens and other persons without background checks work at US airlines where they have positions of unsupervised access to airplanes. (*) Authorities recently uncovered a massive drug ring operating through such a network. Kleiman’s question is apt: if they can smuggle drugs, what or who else?

Hiring illegal aliens is against the law. We should enforce the law. This law is especially pertinent to the airline industry. All airline employees who will have access to aircraft should undergo background checks prior to employment.

In the State of the Union address, President Bush again called for massive new influxes of immigration into the United States, notwithstanding our high unemployment rate and growing social problems.

Victor Davis Hanson runs his pen through the proposal like a lance through a straw dummy. (*)

My bottom line stays the same. The best way to help the country of Mexico and citizens of Mexico both is to stop the high rate of immigration and our present policies of exploitation and disparate treatment. Mexicans should stay in Mexico and build their country up to greatness. This is well within reach, but it cannot be had so long as the United States steals the labor and innovation of Mexico’s best workers. Nor can America address our multiplying social challenges if our underclass swells out of control.

Quick trivia quiz. How many people live in the United States? Settle on a number, then visit the Census Department for the answer. († right side of page)

Higher, wasn’t it?

Mark Krikorian compares Bush’s immigration proposal to the guest worker system used by Saudi Arabia. (‡)

Conservatives are doing a great job in making the progressive case against Bush’s anti-worker immigration plan.

Paul Cella rips the plan as harmful to our welfare system. (*)

Mark Krikorian blasts the plan for its tendency to hold down labor productivity, and therefore wages as well. (†)

Pat Buchanan lays out the plausible scenario whereby business will use Bush’s millions of immigrants as indirect scab armies to bust down wages and kick workers out of their jobs. (‡)

Edward S Rubinstein reports on peer-reviewed research by Harvard economist George Borjas. Economically speaking, immigrants cost each working class family a substantial amount of money, and benefit the rich to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars per year. (§) CAIR (not the Islamist group) has more. (**) The Center for Immigration Studies has yet more. (††)

The best reasons for opposing Bush’s policy are the progressive ones. Progressives like the next two have the right idea.

Max Sawicky nails it. Bush’s policy is “anti-immigrant.” (‡‡)

Nathan Newman resists the “corporate assault.” (§§)

Furthermore, stopping immigration will force corrupt governments—particularly Mexico’s—to address their massive social problems at home rather than fobbing them off on their rich neighbor through policies that encourage illegal immigration to the US. Rather than stopping immigration, Bush’s policy would increase it, thereby giving corrupt regimes like Mexico’s more time.

Jonah Goldberg makes some good but disorganized points on the immigration question. (*)

It is unrealistic to deport those illegal aliens who are in the US now and contributing. Goldberg does not seem to understand that the main objection to the Bush immigration plan is that it would pass out millions of free passes to the USA to poor Third Worlders who sign up on the Internet to take over jobs currently held by Americans, likely for half the wage or less. Bush’s plan is even less sane than that, however. Bush would provide no effective enforcement mechanism for the new laws. The underfunded bureaucracy will make it easy for anyone—including terrorists—to obtain guest worker visas. If for some reason a person can’t get a visa, he can just cross at the Mexican or Canadian border. Businesses can employ such people with little or nothing to fear from a defanged and declawed immigration enforcement agency.

Effectively, Bush proposes to open America’s borders to anyone willing to cross. As the Global War on Terrorism proceeds, as American culture faces the prospect of moral decadence and ethnic ghettoization, and as the middle class fights just to hold its economic ground, open borders would exacerbate existing problems while solving nothing.

What we need is a stoppage or a slowdown of legal immigration, and a beefed up enforcement program to prevent new illegal aliens from entering American territory. That policy would make acceptable the granting of amnesty and citizenship to current illegal aliens.

Update: 11 January 2004. Linked by the Storm. (††)

President George W Bush will propose a new guest worker program to allow millions of illegal aliens to obtain green cards. (*) This is a Machiavellian maneuver with two goals: first, to get more Hispanics to vote Republican in 2004; and second, to benefit huge corporations by mounting intense downward pressure on the wages and job security of Americans who work for a living. At a time when the middle class is already stretched to the breaking point, progressives should oppose Bush’s so-called “immigration reform” for being the giveaway to the rich that it really is. There are several grounds for opposition.

First, the issue is jobs. The issue has nothing to do with race.

Second, there is no shortage of American workers today. No further immigration is needed. Unemployment is high. A full-fledged giveaway of millions of American jobs is already in full effect. For example, on Tuesday Earthlink announced the cutting of 1,300 American call center jobs, to be replaced with jobs in foreign countries. (†) The Americans who lost their jobs can start collecting unemployment. We are not only losing our manufacturing base, we are now losing large masses of white collar professional jobs to foreign countries. Computer jobs are draining to countries where workers can live on a dollar a day. The only professions that cannot be automated or outsourced are doctors, lawyers, CEOs, janitors, and politicians. Choose your future job. Surely, we do not need even more downward pressure on wages coming from an influx of impoverished newcomers from abroad.

But of course, thanks to George W that is what will happen. Every time a guest worker program has been created, such as in recent American history, the “guests” are inevitably given citizenship. Take an example of a person who lives in America under a guest worker program for 15 years, working and paying taxes. At the end of the 15 years, if the person refuses to leave, are we really going to call out federal agents and have the person deported? Of course not. That would be unjust and unamerican. That person deserves citizenship and will get citizenship eventually. There is no way around it. A guest worker program is the same thing as a significant increase in immigration. (‡) The only reason to call it a “guest worker program” is to sell the idea to the supposedly gullible public.

As Lou Dobbs observes, the biggest beneficiaries of the immigration giveaway will be large corporations and corporate agricultural concerns. (§) The jobs that supposedly Americans don’t want are good jobs that are being filled by Americans today. It is elitist to say that Americans don’t want them.

Progressives should oppose Bush’s brain-dead immigration “reform” for another reason: to help poor people around the globe, and particularly from Mexico. A significant portion of immigrants have come and will come from Mexico. This has had terrible effects on Mexico. Not only does Mexico lose millions of its next generation’s brightest minds to the USA, but the brain-drain protects the corrupt and undemocratic political structure of Mexico from reform. Instead of the corruption and tyranny of Mexican politics reaching a boiling point where reform becomes inevitable, the discontented and disgruntled can easily leave Mexico to seek out a life in the United States. The tyrants of Mexico and other countries party on. Their swanky cabarets have a standing invitation to American politicians like George W Bush.

Immigration has been historically important to the United States. We cannot sustain ourselves as a country of many cultures and beliefs and peoples for long, however, unless we occasionally stop newcomers from entering the country so that those already here can be assimilated. During assimilation, the newcomers and their descendants will lose some of the traditions of the home country, and transmit some of their cultural richness to America. Immigration to the US has now run at a high rate since 1965. After 39 years of intense, unmitigated immigration we are seeing ethnic ghettoes springing up and numerous immigrants loudly refusing to give up any of their customs. Recently I saw an African immigrant walking around with his two hooded wives at Wal-Mart. The situation was different in the details, but similar in the substance in the 1920s, when immigration was reduced to low levels until the doors were opened again in 1965. During those 40 years, the work of assimilation was done. Left unchecked, the current high level of immigration will lead to social breakdown and chaos. Bush’s policy will only make matters worse.

The proper immigration policy would be to significantly reduce the number of newcomers, both legal and illegal. A low level of immigration should then be sustained indefinitely, and at least for several decades. The many illegal aliens who are in the US and have been working and contributing deserve citizenship, I feel. We should grant them citizenship and then start to enforce the borders. This should not be done as a “guest worker program.” Nor should it be part of a massive increase in immigration. It should be done responsibly. Bush’s highrolling paymasters have no right to control America’s destiny.

The recently announced US Visit program (**) is a good idea. It will help keep terrorists and criminals from crossing the border. It now appears, however, to be just part of Bush’s political tactics. He is using it like raw meat to distract conservatives and those concerned with homeland security from Bush’s deplorable immigration giveaway.

The chief opponent of Bush’s immigration giveaway, however, should be progressives. We progressives can best protect American job security and encourage freedom and prosperity in poor and tyrannized countries like Mexico by stopping immigration to the United States. Bush’s immigration policy unsurprisingly runs counter to progressive goals.

In the immediate future, unfortunately, you will not see many progressives call for true immigration reform. Word has got to get out. Eventually, they will see the harm caused by too much immigration.

Polls show that most Hispanic-Americans want immigration curtailed. Most African-Americans wants immigration curtailed. Up to 80% of Americans as a whole want immigration curtailed. Only about 15% of politicians see a problem with unchecked, out-of-control immigration.

What we need are informed and concerned citizens to speak their minds.

Don’t let the media elites, the business elites, and the political elites force the immigration giveaway.

Raise your voice. Let your opinion be heard.

Additional note: The Center for Immigration Studies is a good resource on this topic. (††)

Update: Bush’s disingenuous proposal is now online. (‡‡)

Update: 9 January 2004.. Citizen Smash links. (§§)

Update: 11 January 2004. Linked by the Storm. (***)

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed legislation passed overwhelming by the California legislature to repeal driver’s licenses for illegal immigrants. (*) (†) This is necessary to prevent terrorists from using the legislation as a loophole.

Mexico has recently been issuing its citizens “matricula consular” cards at its consulates in the United States. Many of the recipients are illegal aliens. The benefit is that with matricula consular cards, even illegal aliens can take advantage of basic services, such as accounts at some banks. Illegal aliens then need not carry much cash on their persons, and thus become less vulnerable to crime while visiting the United States.

Unfortunately, this program has its downsides. In Mexico’s system, a person can easily get multiple cards. There are reports that some non-Mexicans have obtained Mexican cards. Already many other Latin American countries have begun issuing such cards to their citizens in the United States, including those who are illegal aliens. (*) It should be clear that if the United States allows this program for the citizens of one foreign nation, the United States must allow the program for all foreign nations. Terrorists and drug smugglers will see this as a nice fat loophole to exploit.

Comprehensive immigration reform legislation is the long-term solution. Either the Mexican ID cards should be made worthless as legal ID in the US, or they should be strictly regulated by Congress. If legislation is not at hand, the downsides of the matricula consular cards will multiply. That would harm both the United States and foreign national visitors, both legal and illegal.

Stanley Crouch says this is war and we should stop immigration from Muslim countries until it’s over. (*) Is that right?

He also says that American Muslims have been of little or no help in fighting the War on Terrorism. Is that true?

California Lieutenant Governor Cruz Bustamante, Democrat, is running in the gubernatorial recall race, but has had to face serious questions about his past involvement in a Chicano student group called Mecha. (*) This is a college group, present on many campuses, that calls for the primacy of racial identity, particularly Mexican ethnicity, in politics, and for the southwestern United States to be “liberated” by returning it to Mexico. Bustamante has shrugged off calls to repudiate Mecha. Instead, he has defended Mecha as some kind of a job network.

No one deserves a pass on the issue of racial politics. It does not matter what group is supposedly oppressing what other group today. If any racial group baldly asserts that it is superior in its virtue or in its claim of land, and the assertion is unchecked, dire consequences will follow. Either that group will one day become powerful and do harm as it suggested it would, or an opposite group of a different race will form to counteract it. Thus the cycle of intolerance and hatred is renewed. That any elected public official might be involved is abominable.

Bustamante ought to make it crystal clear where he stands on the issues of racialism and separatism. Does he agree with Mecha or not? If he continues to stonewall, the voters of California should choose someone else.

This is partially in response to the challenge of Glenn Reynolds. (†)