The Immigration Debate

Illegal immigration has become a renewed focus of this Administration, presumably because they wish to pick more fights with the hardcore base of their party. Yesterday Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff announced in a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing that he would end the "catch and release" policy regarding non-Mexican illegals, and vowed to ship them back to their country of origin.

I'm generally for enforcing the laws on the books, although the expense of sending every illegal alien back to their country of origin concerns me. I think the government should particularly focus on fining and arresting employers who hire illegals; that's the best way to stop the demand, by drying up the supply of low-income jobs. Enforcing the minimum wage and legitimate hiring practices would be a boon for American unemployment and the economy as a whole. In addition, we would save our country a lot of trouble by simply offering real aid to impoverished nations in our hemisphere, from which the bulk of illegals come, so that they can attain a better life in their homeland. The savings in border patrols and infrastructure costs would be well worth it.

Most anti-immigrant activists prefer to focus on the more populist theme of border security, with a lot of the rhetoric coming dangerously close to bigotry. It's all predicated on the notion that illegal aliens are getting a free ride while us 'Murcans are busting our humps for nothing. I don't know how working 12-14 hours picking grapes constitutes a "free ride," but it seems like a straw man argument to me. The LA Times ran a very interesting article over the weekend citing a study that shows that the whole "These Mexicans come over and burden our emergency rooms" talking point is unfounded:

Recent immigrants from Mexico are half as likely to use emergency rooms as U.S.-born whites and Mexican Americans, according to a study released Thursday by the University of California and the Mexican government.

Fewer than 10% of recent Mexican immigrants -- whether they came in legally or not -- reported using an emergency room in 2000, according to the study, based on an analysis of the U.S. National Health Interview Survey conducted in 2000 by a unit of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

In contrast, 20% of U.S.-born whites and Mexican Americans used an emergency room during the same time period.

"The study breaks a lot of the myths.... There are assumptions that immigrants are breaking the economy by using emergency rooms," said Xochitl Castaneda, director of the California-Mexico Health Initiative, an arm of the California Policy Research Center based at the UC Office of the President.

"Even though they are in the most risky occupations, they are not using the emergency rooms as other populations are."

The findings are supported by a previous study in the American Journal of Public Health.  Illegal immigrants are a convenient boogeyman, but they are not the drain on resources that many Americans believe they are. When we start treating them as fellow human beings, and take the public policy steps that act in their best interests (not making the arduous journey to the US, not living in fear) and ours (keeping our economy vibrant, enforcing fair labor laws), everyone will be better off.