Los Angeles Daily News

No incentive to immigrate the legal way
Workers, employers won't bother with Bush's temporary visa plan

By Hal Netkin

Monday, January 12, 2004 - When my Mexican immigrant wife, Ines, and I visited her family in Mexico three years ago, one of my brothers-in-law, Alejandro, and his family thought that because my wife is a naturalized U.S. citizen, that she could petition for their swift legal immigration to the U.S.

U.S. citizens may petition for siblings of any age, but not for the siblings' spouses or children. We agreed to fill out the necessary paperwork to start the petition process for Alejandro (and three of Ines' other siblings) once we returned to California, and Alejandro could later legally petition for his family.

Two months after our return to Van Nuys, Ines was shocked to receive a telephone call from Alejandro in Oxnard, California, working as an ice cream vendor. Alejandro had illegally entered the U.S. for a job, which would allow him to send money home in support of his family. Alejandro's decision not to wait several years for a visa was based on most every Mexican's knowledge that once in the U.S., it is virtually legal to be illegal.

Within a year, two more of my brothers-in-law followed Alejandro's path of illegal entry.

Over years of non-enforcement of our immigration laws, the distinction between legal or illegal immigrants has become so blurred that my brothers-in-law had no incentive to do it the legal way. Simply crossing illegally got them all the advantages of those who did it legally -- but sooner.

In his recent immigration reform proposal, President George W. Bush has said that illegals do the work (for low pay) that Americans won't do. But with virtually no enforcement of employer sanctions, those illegals who at first were willing to do the work that Americans won't do are quickly able to upgrade to better jobs, establish themselves in urban communities, grow families, buy homes, and have American-citizen children.

Guess what? Then they don't want to do the work that new arrivals do, either. This cycle creates an endless need by certain industries to import cheap labor [and erodes the middle class]..

Here's how Bush's plan is supposed to work.

The [twelve] or so million illegals already in the U.S. would have to pay a fee to register with the government to receive a temporary visa that would allow them to work in the U.S. for three years, with possible extensions. The employer would also have to register. After the temporary period, the worker would have to return to his/her home country to apply for legal immigration just like many of our ancestors did, and wait for some years for an immigration visa. The same would apply to workers in Mexico and other countries who would receive a three-year temporary visa if they had a job waiting for them in the U.S.

Who really benefits from illegal labor?

While most of us are convinced that many of our food products and services are cheaper because of illegal labor, we forget that taxpayers virtually subsidize most employers who use illegal labor by paying for the workers' benefits, such as health insurance. While one of the objectives of Bush's plan is for illegal workers to "come out of the shadows," it still remains an advantage for employers to remain in the shadows -- i.e., why register and decrease profits by having to pay above the table?

During the temporary work period, who will provide health care for the workers (and their families)?

Who will pay for the delivery of their newborn citizen children?

Who will pay for their car insurance?

Who will foot the housing costs for the workers in bankrupt California, where the median price for a home is upward of [$450,000]? [and the rent for a decent one bedroom apartment is upward of $700/mo].

It certainly won't be employers of nannies or the contractors who use day laborers they hire off the streets.

If you believe that most illegal workers already comfortably present in the U.S. will run to law enforcement to sign up for a temporary visa; if you believe that most temporary workers will leave the U.S. after three years; if you believe that most employers will register with the government, I want to sell you the Brooklyn Bridge.

As long as our southern border is uncontrolled and sanctions against employers who hire illegals are not enforced, any path to a green card or guest worker program will fail just as all such past programs have.

And without teeth in the enforcement of existing immigration laws, Bush's guest-worker program would be nothing more than a cheaper and safer way for those seeking a "better life" to get to the U.S. -- then stay permanently.

Hal Netkin is a community activist. Write to him by e-mail at HalNetkin@WatchdogAmerica.com.