An Immigation Manifesto

Last updated on: January 29, 2014 at 8:51 am by Jane the Actuary

An Immigation Manifesto 2014-01-29T08:51:00-06:00 Jane the Actuary

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I know I should be writing on the SOTU, or on the Coburn healthcare proposal, but this is what I’ve been thinking about lately:

Dear Republican Leadership,

We are Americans, whether descended from Mayflower arrivals or having arrived ourselves, or somewhere in-between, and we recognize America’s long history as a place of immigrants. But we recognize that high levels of immigration, especially unskilled immigration, have never been an unmitigated good, and all the more so in a time of globalization and economic change, as it drives down wages for less-skilled workers already in our country, and imposes heavy burdens on our schools, health system, and social welfare system.

We are a nation of laws, and we oppose the practice of using “discretion” to ignore those laws on a wide scale. Our laws ban the employment of individuals not authorized to work in the United States, but wide-scale identity theft, production of fraudulent documents, and acceptance of under-the-table work (as nannies, landscape workers, and day laborers) as normal by politicians, the media, and law enforcement itself, make a mockery of these laws. Measures to require true verification of work eligibility and to genuinely prohibit under-the-table work must be enacted and fully implemented, not as a bargaining chip but because it’s the right thing to do.

We are a nation of compassion, and recognize that some migrants to our country have had the welcome mat placed before them by politicians, state and federal administrations, and businesses who are all to happy to hire when they’ve been told the government will turn a blind eye. We recognize that there are those who have built lives in the United States, and for whom a return to their home country will place them at far greater hardship than if they had never left, chief among them children, but also adults who are firmly rooted in their communities here. We are willing to accept an amnesty for limited groups of migrants, using English fluency (not intention to study English in the future) as a marker for integration into the United States, so long as these individuals have committed no crimes and will not and have not been dependent on any welfare program for themselves or their families (including food stamps, medical benefits, etc.).

We are a nation of fair play, and oppose attempts by business interests to promote a guest worker program for low-skilled workers. To the extent that, despite ongoing high unemployment, Americans do not fill job openings, employers bear the primary responsibility for raising pay an improving working conditions, but our social welfare system also needs reform, in cases where accepting a job makes a recipient worse off then before. We know that wages for low-wage workers have stagnated, and even declined precipitously where immigrants have been willing to work for less, and the importation of even more low-wage workers will worsen the troubles for existing ones. Even among more skilled workers, we find credible the claims that employers clamoring for more visas to higher immigrant tech workers are not truly suffering from labor shortages, but hoping to hold down wages. If in the future, the long-predicted labor shortage does come to pass, and new workers cannot be found among the unemployed, or by recruiting new workers into a specific field, we will recognize the pragmatic need for a new solution at that time.

Most importantly, we are Your Base. We are growing discouraged and/or angry at reports that Republican leadership, in order to be praised by pundits and reporters as “moderate” and to respond to advisors pursuing the so-called Hispanic vote — or maybe just influenced by the money flowing from the Chamber of Commerce and Silicon Valley — are willing to provide an amnesty and guest worker with few or no strings attached, only a farcical proclamation of future enforcement. And they’re doing this because they are convinced that their core voter base will stick with them, because no matter what, they’ll be better than their Democratic Party alternatives.

Republican leadership, listen up! I know I ramble and consistently violate the “bottom line on top” dictum but understand this:

You cannot take your base for granted, enact legislation which they oppose from start to finish, and expect their support. They will stay home. They will abandon you as campaign workers, get-out-the-vote callers and drivers. They will give up on political action. You will lose.

Let me repeat, bottom-line-on-bottom, if nothing else: YOU WILL LOSE.

Yours truly,

Jane the Actuary

(now, if I could just get Boehner, Cantor, Ryan, et. al. to listen to me. . . )

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