Citizenship, Immigration, the rights of Man and Mexico.

The Crik Hippie is of a conservative bent, and generally does not approve of the enormous number of illegal aliens residing within the borders of the United States of America.  He does, however understand that this issue is complex and that it goes far beyond any hope of simply rounding these illegal aliens up and deporting them.

Some of the past decade the Crik Hippie actually spent living inside the borders of old Mexico.  I was far enough south of the border to enjoy, understand and appreciate the Mexican way of life and the ebb and flow of a real Mexican city, town or village – it is far different than many Americans gilded view of only tourist towns and ports.  There is but an imaginary line in the sand separating Mexico from the United States – but the contrasts and differences in our lifestyles, opportunities, history, economy, laws, families and view of the world is striking.  Nonetheless we are now inexorably linked to Mexico economically, socially and through our own national defense strategies.

There is no question that the burden of illegal immigrants on our economy is staggering.  I say burden to reflect the enormous cost to care for, educate, monitor, police, hospitalize, bury, deport, train, retrain and provide for all of the social services and infrastructure for 14 million people NOT paying into the system that pays for such things.  The cost for these services, on a national scale, is more than our citizens can pay for, without the burden of illegal aliens.  Many states, even with balanced budget requirements, are now unable to make ends meet, and are running into seemingly insurmountable deficits.  The cost is simply overwhelming.

The political time and energy put into this topic over the past decade is staggering.  This is a divisive issue, with racial and nationalist overtones.  It can lead to heated arguments and even violent protest, but seldom has it lead to any progress toward solving the illegal alien problem.  I don’t really care what your political leanings may be – all of our politicians, left, right and down the middle, have failed in leadership.  No clear, reasonable platform has yet been put forth by anyone on a national scale.  None of our leaders have demonstrated the leadership necessary to take us through a national discussion and eventual solution to this problem.

Those living within the borders of the United States illegally, do so in the shadows.  They are not being pursued daily by law enforcement, but nor do they completely integrate into the fabric of America.  Make no mistake, Mexico and the United States are different, radically different, and the inability of illegal aliens to live a fully integrated, American life simply creates pockets of Mexico within our borders.  All cultural sensitivity aside, this is not a good thing.  If it were, Mexico would have an immigration problem and 25% of their economy wouldn’t rely on funds sent to Mexico from the United States from immigrants, legal and illegal.  Mexico faces an intellectual drain and a drain on their most ambitious citizens.  Mexico actually has developed a lifestyle for many where waiting for the Western Union wire transfer is more desirable than work.  12 – 14 million of their citizens have left the country. After all, who do you think the majority of these illegal aliens are?  Do you think they are all criminals, vagrants, miscreants and misfits?  Hardly, most of these folks work extremely hard, for a generally low income and somehow find a way to provide food, shelter and clothing for themselves and still send a significant portion of every paycheck home to relatives in Mexico.  Sound like lazy people to you?  As for the intellectual drain, if you were a college educated, ambitious citizen of Mexico and you had a legal (or illegal) opportunity to thrive in the United States as a professional, or succeed as a small business owner – would dismiss this?  Many don’t and it has left a scar on the labor landscape within the borders of Mexico.  During my time in Mexico, I worked with a young man who owned a similar franchise to the one I was involved with.  He was college educated, some of that in American universities, came from a wealthy Mexican family and very motivated.  He also owned and built from scratch, a factory outside of his hometown.  They made jeans in this factory and were running at capacity.  He explained to me his frustration in trying to expand that capacity with the labor force available.  My friend built this factory specifically in a region with notorious high unemployment and poverty.  He figured he had a win, win.  He would help his fellow Mexicans and would have an eager and plentiful labor pool.  When my friend tells this story, you can see the sadness and disappointment he carries with him.  Turns out, the folks in this little town only show up for work when they need an extraordinary expense covered.  They would work for a pay period or two and then not show up anymore.  Despite, devastating poverty, these folks were content to live off of the money their relatives in the United States sent home each month.  He couldn’t meet the demand for Polo jeans at one point and lost an opportunity to double his capacity and sales.  My last conversation with him was when we bought some of his equipment when he closed his franchise.  He was also, closing his factory and moving to the United States (legally) and pursue opportunities there.  He and his family had simply given up on Mexico and weren’t going to waste anymore time and money trying to fix it.  A great loss for Mexico and a gain for the United States.

While the economic situation here in the United States has sent many illegal aliens home, it is a perfect opportunity to begin to change immigration policy in the United States as it relates to Mexico.  The numbers of illegal aliens now residing here is reportedly down and the number of illegal crossings is also down.  The United States of America needs to begin a process to firmly take back control of our southern border with Mexico.  There isn’t a comparative analysis to be done anywhere in the world, because no other country in the world would tolerate the abuse of sovereignty and disrespect to its citizenry as we have.  With brick and mortar, human personnel and technology we can and should take immediate steps to control our southern border.   National security interests outside of Mexican immigration, dictate this.  With this accomplished, a reasoned, dignified and humane approach to dealing with the millions of illegal Mexican immigrants can begin.  The Federal and State governments in the United States also need to diligently begin enforcing existing employment law as it relates to the hiring of illegal aliens.  These laws are on the books – our beloved politicians don’t need to exercise more failed leadership and quibble over new ones.

What is it that really gets the goat of most American citizens?  Taxes!   Americans are fed up with paying taxes that pay for illegal immigrant social services.  Illegal immigrants who are not paying into the system, but using it nonetheless.  We can’t just round up these people and send them home – can’t be done and won’t be done.  Right or wrong, if that is what you want to be done– you need to get past it and move toward another solution.   I also do not believe that we can ask the majority of illegal aliens to participate in a “touch base” program wherein they must go to their country of origin and return.  The mass migration to our southern border of 12 million people for a few days cannot be managed safely, nor does it accomplish anything.  In the 1980’s, America went through an amnesty program and some 3 million illegal aliens went through a process that brought them out of the shadows and on their way toward citizenship or legal alien status.   I will remind my conservative friends that this was a Reagan program.  I will go into why I believe he supported this later in this blog.  The problem with this program is that since that time, nothing else was done to stop the situation from repeating itself.  Not only did it happen again, it happened at an exponentially higher rate.  Registration of illegal aliens and a process toward citizenship or legal resident alien status has to be implemented.  A reasonable and appropriate fine could be levied against illegal aliens as penalty for the crime they committed.  Military or civil service could be offered to some as a fast track toward citizenship.  Most importantly, they have to be brought out of the shadows, put on the tax rolls and become an economic participant in our social services and eventually our representative government. Make no mistake there are many unemployed illegal aliens with children who are citizens of the United States.  These are sometimes referred to as anchor babies.  Are we going to deport them?  Break up families?  No, we are not.  Do you really want to “save” an America that would do that?   There would and should be some deportations and some illegal aliens would not come forward and would remain under the radar and a burden to society.   It is also a mistake to assume that all illegal aliens desire to be Citizens of the United States of America.  Many would gladly choose legal resident alien status or a more limited work visa, allowing them to return to Mexico and retain their Mexican citizenship.  We have to swallow a bitter pill and get past what we allowed to happen in the first place.  We didn’t demand leadership from our elected officials.  They obliged us by not providing any.  The time has come for us to take our medicine.  The real travesty would be to repeat the mistakes of the last 25 years and start this process all over again.

There has been a limited amount of national discussion to privatize a work visa program within our borders and extending offices south into Mexico.  The Crik Hippie does believe that the private sector is much more suited matching potential seasonal workers with work than is the Federal Government.  There has been a fear that the price of goods associated with this type of labor would skyrocket, however analysis I have seen shows an overall dramatic decrease in the overall cost to Americans.  The decrease in cost not having to carry the burden of social programs and infrastructure, could make up for an increase in retail prices.

When our forefathers, our founding fathers, put forth the Unanimous Declaration of the Thirteen United States of America, better known as the Declaration of Independence, they held some “truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”  I want you to read that again.  Now, read it one more time, and see if you begin to see the some hypocrisy in any opportunity we take to keep others from enjoying the blessings, held as unalienable rights, that we enjoy simply by being born here.  See any relevant thoughts put forth there that President Reagan may have been a fan of?  Do you see the hypocrisy in sending our troops over seas to fight for these rights for people in distant lands, while denying or ignoring our immediate southern neighbors?  We give treasure and blood helping people in distant lands achieve a fraction of the freedom we enjoy here, but deny that to our neighbors to the south?  Certainly, these missions include security functions and anti-terrorist agendas and rightly so – but do you really believe there is no security threat coming out of a chaotic border and a troubled and fragile Mexican government?    Do you think it is lost on the Imams the physical similarity between a Latino man and a Middle Eastern suicide bomber?  Do you really believe contrary points of view won’t find fertile ground in the poor and disaffected of Mexico?  Communism and fascism in our hemisphere were born out of these very conditions and continue to threaten Mexico and all of central and south America.  I don’t want to diminish the actions, or the necessity of those actions we are currently taking in Afghanistan or elsewhere in the world.  I do want to point out a similar opportunity and responsibility on our southern border.

If indeed “all men are created equal” and are “endowed, by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” Then surely you understand that our immigration problem is a colossal failure of leadership on our part.  Immigration from distant and troubled places built this country into the beacon of freedom we have been since our founding.  The first immigrants to America fled persecution and sought only to live in peace as free men.  Our diversity and the ability for any man, woman or child to become an “American” by swearing allegiance is unique.  You cannot become a “Mexican”, “Brit” or even a “Canadian”.  But we built this nation with the creed that any freedom loving person can indeed become an American.  Are you not proud when you see immigrants graduating their citizenship program?  My Crik Hippie chest swells with pride every time I see a news report picturing little Asian ladies, turban wearing men, Latino’s and Latina’s, Indians, Islanders, Eastern Europeans all taking the oath together and becoming Americans, together.  We cannot simply open our doors and ignore national interests in favor of pure altruistic policy.  We can and should, however, design and implement an immigration policy true to our nature and history and still provide us protections and safeguards.

We cannot be all things to the all people around the globe, but we do have a responsibility to share our good fortune to the extent possible, with the rest of humanity.  If not us then who?  Who will do what needs to be done?  Who will do the right thing when the right thing is not the popular thing?  Who will stand up to tyrants and fiends, threatening the innocent?  A good place to center our national and collective self and examine our responsibilities as Americans is our southern border and relationship with our southern neighbors.  A healthy Mexico is good for the United States.  A robust, fair, realistic border and immigration policy is healthy for the United States.    A good part of what we are able to do abroad is possible not just because of our military authority, but also our moral authority.   Immigration solutions, a safer border and a significant gain in moral authority – that is leadership.