USA Today focuses on the problem of an aging population in North Dakota, citing immigration as a solution to the lack of workers there. The article also notes the considerable antagonistic sentiment toward immigrants amongst the locals. This sentiment has prevented factories from locating there for fear that they might attract illegals.
In America, immigration has long served as a way of providing an influx of new workers and creativity. There has been a persistent fear of immigrants over-running the culture and a history of waves of anti-immigration blowback. Today is just another example. The key is finding the best solution. Sound enforcement is part of it (eariler post here), but so is improving the legal immigration system.
In this case, North Dakota is a microsm of Philip Longman's depopulation problem. The best solution we have now to this problem is immigration. But why does it have to be a choice between illegal immigrants or a lack of workers? We should be bringing these factories in and filling these jobs, with legal immigrants. We should be making it easier for legal immigrants to get jobs here, bring their families here, and to become citizens here. In some places, our economy may depend on it.
Showing posts with label immigration. Show all posts
Showing posts with label immigration. Show all posts
Immigration: Just Because You're Paranoid...
Back in August, Mickey Kaus proclaimed that he was paranoid because he feared that the Bush Administration would crackdown on illegal immigrants in a manner that would generate animosity toward an enforcement-first policy:
Day In/Day Out wonders too. ... If it's option 2, of course, then Homeland Security might intentionally choose to enforce the law in as clumsy, heartless, and lawsuit-inspiring a fashion as possible, in order to create the maximum number of negative headlines. ... Certainly the case for the paranoid option (2) was enhanced by the LAT 's report on the crackdown, featuring bitter you-asked-for-it-now-you're-going-to-get-it quotes from Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff:
Chertoff acknowledged. "There will be some unhappy consequences for the economy out of doing this," he said in an interview with The Times.Chertoff said he had little sympathy for businesses that hire illegal workers, saying they should have seen the crackdown coming after the Senate failed to pass immigration reform. "We have been crystal clear about what the consequences would be," he said. ...[snip]
Chertoff suggested that once the provisions had been in force for a while, Congress would see immigration reform in a different light."Everybody who criticized comprehensive immigration reform for being too complex, maybe now they're going to realize it's complex because there are a lot of interconnected pieces to this and when you try to deal with only one corner of it, you wind up with a huge impact on something else," he said. [E.A.] Link
This All Things Considered report from last night provides evidence that the Bush Administration is conducting itself in just the "clumsy, heartless, and lawsuit-inspiring" manner which had concerned Kaus.
I support the "Enforcement First" policy and would also like to barriers knocked down to legal immigration, but I think the type of enforcement being described by NPR is not what opponents of "comprehensive immigration" had in mind. I think this policy will posion our reputation in Latino countries and further disillusion those who already are unhappy with our government. But, I don't think it will be enough to push support for comprehensive reform over the top. I guess its Mutally Assured Destruction, except that nobody will come to their senses at the last second and take their finger off the button.
Day In/Day Out wonders too. ... If it's option 2, of course, then Homeland Security might intentionally choose to enforce the law in as clumsy, heartless, and lawsuit-inspiring a fashion as possible, in order to create the maximum number of negative headlines. ... Certainly the case for the paranoid option (2) was enhanced by the LAT 's report on the crackdown, featuring bitter you-asked-for-it-now-you're-going-to-get-it quotes from Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff:
Chertoff acknowledged. "There will be some unhappy consequences for the economy out of doing this," he said in an interview with The Times.Chertoff said he had little sympathy for businesses that hire illegal workers, saying they should have seen the crackdown coming after the Senate failed to pass immigration reform. "We have been crystal clear about what the consequences would be," he said. ...[snip]
Chertoff suggested that once the provisions had been in force for a while, Congress would see immigration reform in a different light."Everybody who criticized comprehensive immigration reform for being too complex, maybe now they're going to realize it's complex because there are a lot of interconnected pieces to this and when you try to deal with only one corner of it, you wind up with a huge impact on something else," he said. [E.A.] Link
This All Things Considered report from last night provides evidence that the Bush Administration is conducting itself in just the "clumsy, heartless, and lawsuit-inspiring" manner which had concerned Kaus.
I support the "Enforcement First" policy and would also like to barriers knocked down to legal immigration, but I think the type of enforcement being described by NPR is not what opponents of "comprehensive immigration" had in mind. I think this policy will posion our reputation in Latino countries and further disillusion those who already are unhappy with our government. But, I don't think it will be enough to push support for comprehensive reform over the top. I guess its Mutally Assured Destruction, except that nobody will come to their senses at the last second and take their finger off the button.
Kaus's Rotting Fields
Morning Edition started a series on the economy this week, highlighting the impact of the slowdown on regular people. Yesterday, the story focused on a developer. This morning, the story focused on a tree grower in California. Sales of fruit trees are slowing, which in the story is attributed to the crackdown on illegal immigration, which is resulting in shortage of workers to harvest the fruit. Apparently, NRP is on-board with the crops-rotting meme Mickey Kaus had predicted would catch on. The meme is referenced in a couple of posts on this link.
The Morning Edition series quickly took a turn from the subprime mortgage fiasco to story stealthily bashing the immigration crackdown. The subprime problem is trouble for the macro-economy, but is a fall in sales of fruit trees a sign of an impending marco-economic funk? I'm not so sure.
The Morning Edition series quickly took a turn from the subprime mortgage fiasco to story stealthily bashing the immigration crackdown. The subprime problem is trouble for the macro-economy, but is a fall in sales of fruit trees a sign of an impending marco-economic funk? I'm not so sure.
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