Speech #990217736

No tap dancers. no fiddlers. no Sinatra. Like 40 percent of all Americans. Im descended from immigrants who entered America through Ellis Island. and Im proud of their courage and grateful for their dreams. Ill get mistyeyed when the statue lights up and civicsbook pieties are repeated. But the glittering celebration planned in New York illuminates the dazzling hypocrisy of U.S. Immigration policy. As we revel In the achievements of the old new Americans. who came from Europe. we worry about the "problem" of the new new Americans. who come from Mexico and Asia. Our Immigrant ancestors came with nothIng. we brag. but they worked hard for low wages and changed America. The new immigrants. we complain. come with nothing. and are willing to work hard for low wages. Were afraid theyll change America. We employ the illegals. building whole industries around their lowcost labor. We grant them the right to be educated (badly) at public schools and treated at public hospitals. but not the right to exist. Congress has been wrestling with "immigration reform" for three years now (the bill has Just been pushed back on the calendar) on the premise that illegals are taking "our" jobs and driving up social spending. The illegals are "threatening our economic existence." warns Harold W. Ezell. Immigration and Naturalization Service western regional commissioner. Im still reeling from an interview with Mike Antonovich. Los Angeles County supervisor and wouldbe (but wont be) U.S. senator. who charges that illegals are causing unemploymentby taking Jobs as directors and cameramen in Hollywood. This is a big problem. Antonovich says. He claims illegal aliens cost America $35 billion a year. In his xenophobia. Antonovich forgets that illegal aliens pay taxes but are less likely to use taxpaid social services. except for schools. than the rest of us. Aliens also buy goods and services. And their energetic. lowcost labor allows certain Industriessuch as the garment industry In Antonovichs townto remain in the United States instead of moving overseas. In fact. its not at all clear to economists that immigrants take more jobs than they create. The presidents Council of Economic Advisers concluded in its 1986 report that immigrant workers. legal and illegal. helped the economy expand. creating lower prices. new Jobs for everyone and higher percapita incomes for nativeborn Americans. It would cost employers $1.6 billion to $2.6 billion a year to screen out undocumented workers. the study estimated. As long as Mexico is poor and the United States is rich. aliens will come across the long border to work here. We could beef up the Border Patrol. which has the advantage of limiting drug traffic. and impose employer sanctions. which has the disadvantage of eroding all our liberties. but no option. however Draconian. can keep them all out. and it would be an economic disaster if it did. The United States has survived for many years. despite all the "crisis" talk. with a porous border that makes life difficult. but not impossible. for illegal aliens. However. this hypocrisy imposes a cost on our society. as The New Republic pointed out on April 1. 1985: "The real problem with Ililegals is that they may become a permanent servant class. latterday indentured servants whom we depend on for their labor. but who live as fearful. secondclass citizens on the margins of our society. This may not be bad for the economy. but it corrodes the policy." It could be both more sensible and more American to raise legal immigration quotas to levels that approximate the demand. Immigrants are going to come anyway. Lets offer them the same promise that was given to our ancestors. About 7 million legal immigrants will come to America in the 80s. say federal officials. Perhaps 5 million more will come without papers. The newcomers crowd into poorer neighborhoods. compete for less desirable Jobs and burden the schools.