[Sosfbay-discuss] Immigration Facts

[Wes Rolley]

I have just submitted the following to the Morgan Hill times.  I think 
that it brings up two issues on immigration that are not well covered.  
I was touted on to the second one re: growth, after a brief conversation 
with Camejo who uses the same facts to indicate that the entire issue is 
bogus.

__

For the last month, immigration has rivaled the Iraq War as topic number 
one in the news. Hardly a day goes by without reading or watching 
something about immigration in the news. We see the size of the protest. 
We hear about the number of “illegal” immigrants. We watch the 
immigration marches. We are asked to consider whether high school 
students should be suspended for skipping class to engage in protest.

There are some very basic issues, keys to understanding what is going 
on, that rarely make it into the news. Most basic is the fact that there 
will be no stopping the influx of immigrants, especially from Latin 
America, as long as they can earn 15 to 20 times as much here as they 
could at home. Ask yourself. Whether you would cross the border is you 
could earn as much in 2 days as you could in an entire month staying at 
home.

I think that the answer is that you would, preferably by legal means, 
but by illegal methods if necessary. You would not even consider 
yourself to be a criminal. You are doing this so that your family might 
live a better life. Most would not want to be away from their families 
for such a long time under such conditions of uncertainty. But still you 
would come. I think that we have to accept this as a fact. We could 
spend billions constructing a fence on the Mexican border, and still 
people will come.

Until something is done that will raise the standard of living in Latin 
America to a level closer to that of the United States, we will not have 
an end to the stream of immigrants coming here for a better life. NAFTA 
was touted as being the mechanism to accomplish this. When she was 
Attorney General, Janet Reno recognized that she could “protect our 
borders with the most personnel and the best technology, but let us also 
face facts: A richer, more stable, more competent Mexico is the only 
solution to real immigration reform. With NAFTA in place, I can work far 
more effectively with my Mexican counterparts to insure tough 
enforcement of our anti drug laws.”

Unfortunately, NAFTA has been a failure at accomplishing this. True, 
some manufacturing has moved to Mexico, but it is all assembly work 
where the components have to be imported and the product exported. As a 
result, Mexico sees very little financial benefit. I ask whether it is 
better to spend billions of dollars for a wall or to spend similar 
amounts helping Mexico develop the economic base such that workers will 
not have to leave to seek employment elsewhere.

At least we have the Day Worker Center in Morgan Hill. It provides 
services to as many as 25 or 30 workers per day depending on the 
particular program that they are running. This community has recognized 
the facts of immigration and has committed to providing support to those 
who need it most.

Then, I ask what would we be doing without immigrants? I am not talking 
about having day laborers work on our yards, farm laborers in the 110 
degree heat of the Imperial Valley summer or cleaning staff for our 
motels. It is much more fundamental. This is about growth.

Even the City of Morgan Hill bases all of it's planning on the idea that 
growth is good. Our Chamber of Commerce says that growth is good. We 
build projects that we can not afford now, secure in the knowledge that 
with growth will come the necessary funding to run those facilities. In 
a way, growth is a part of the American Dream, along with a place of 
one's own with a back yard for children to play and a good school within 
walking distance.

If you examine the birth rate in the United States, you will see that it 
has been dropping steadily for the last 20 years. We are now approaching 
the rate of 2.07 births per woman. That is the rate which is needed to 
sustain a population. Once the rate drops below that, the population 
will decline. So, if growth is good, if we need growth to keep the 
construction industry moving, if we need growth for real estate 
developers, if we need the revenue from new construction fees to finance 
local government, then we need immigration.

Without the annual influx of immigration the demand for new housing 
would drop precipitously. Removing 11 million residents from the United 
States, as some would have us do, could send this nation spiraling into 
a long recession cycle based solely on the fact that new housing 
construction would absolutely stop, laying off many construction workers.


Maybe we should be careful about what we ask for. We may get it. If the 
House of Representatives gets it's way we may see an end to the 
increasing home prices, an end to new construction jobs. Even 
Congressmen like our own Richard Pombo voted for these changes in spite 
of having strong financial support from developer interests. Sometimes, 
I just don't understand politicians or their supporters.



-- 
"Anytime you have an opportunity to make things better and you don't, then you are wasting your time on this Earth" Roberto Clemente

Wes Rolley
17211 Quail Court, Morgan Hill, CA 95037
http://www.refpub.com/ -- Tel: 408.778.3024