Translate
The writer, of Oakland, Calif., is a Chinese immigrant and executive director of Diversity Alliance for a Sustainable America. She will visit Lincoln and Omaha Sept. 23-26 to promote her organization's views.
If enacted, the amnesty bill passed by the U.S. Senate and promoted by President Bush and Sen. Chuck Hagel will be economically and politically devastating to legal residents of diverse backgrounds.
If the Senate's amnesty bill is enacted, it would add 60 million to 100 million more legal immigrants to the United States just over the next 20 years. These increases would be huge, considering that the current population for the entire state of Nebraska is around 1.7 million.
Newcomers consume energy and need jobs, education, health care and many other costly services that would not be covered by the taxes that most of the newcomers would pay due to their low incomes. For the same reason, most amnestied aliens and their relatives would not have to pay income taxes and could, in fact, receive an earned-income tax credit of up to $4,400 a year. Not surprisingly, the Congressional Budget Office estimates the cost of the amnesty bill to be $127 billion over the next 10 years.
Immigration advocates claim that illegal immigrants are taking jobs that Americans don't want. But who used to work in meatpacking plants and hold other low-skilled positions before illegal foreign nationals arrived? Also, there are millions of unemployed and underemployed lowskilled legal residents, including Hurricane Katrina victims, in this country. Why not put them to work? Extending employment and welfare benefits are not long-term responsible solutions.
Furthermore, if the United States continues to massively export high-tech and manufacturing jobs and import professional and low-skilled workers by the millions annually, how can unemployed Mexicans and other Americans, as well as legal immigrants already here, find work?
Because more than half of the estimated 12 million illegal aliens now in the United States came from Mexico, the political impact of another amnesty should not be ignored. Mexico, while it does not tolerate illegal migration on its own soil, has actively encouraged illegal immigration to the United States and has vigorously opposed all U.S. efforts to secure our borders.
In 1997, Ernest Zedillo, then president of Mexico, stated in Chicago: "I have proudly affirmed that the Mexican nation extends beyond the territory enclosed by its borders and that Mexican migrants are an important - a very important - part of it." In 2001, U.S.-born Juan Hernandez, while serving on Mexican President Vicente Fox's cabinet, told ABC's "Nightline": "We are betting that the Mexican-American population in the United States . . . will think Mexico first."
Indeed, during recent massive demonstrations across the United States, many protesters waved Mexican flags and pressured the United States with demands identical to Mexico's. On April 24, Hispanic leaders in the United States reportedly met with Mexican lawmakers in Mexico City to discuss the "Great American Boycott" of U.S. businesses.
Furthermore, Armando Navarro, a professor at the University of California-Riverside who has organized many proillegal alien rallies, told the Los Angeles Times on July 7, "A new majority is forming. Everything will change. The White House will be within our reach. We might have to change the name to the Brown House. . . . We are only doing what any good Jew would do for Israel."
Although many MexicanAmericans are very patriotic, if millions of Mexicans are amnestied and become American citizens, many of them will be mobilized by Mexico to vote according to Mexico's interests. Is Mexico using migration to influence American policies and future elections and eventually to extend the Mexican nation?
For the sake of all Americans, instead of pushing for amnesty, Sen. Hagel should learn from the disastrous 1986 "comprehensive immigration reform." That legislation, which amnestied 3 million illegal aliens, has resulted in an explosion of illegal immigration, as most of the provisions in that bill meant to secure our borders have been ignored.
In addition, this country has given all sorts of incentives for people to come here or live here illegally. President Bush and Congress should seriously enforce sanctions for employers who hire illegals, build a border wall similar to Israel's (which has proven to be very effective) and adopt a new law making it illegal to grant benefits to illegal aliens.
|