Bashing the System, Not the People

SACRAMENTO —  “Bash” is one of those splendid, handy American words. Short. Descriptive. Easy to spell. Like “buzz” or “bunk.”

Or “scapegoat.”

It condenses and provokes.

As in: Gov. Pete Wilson “bashes” immigrants and uses them as “scapegoats” for California’s economic woes.

That’s a handy use of buzzwords, but it’s bunk.

It’s true that Wilson plays politics with illegal immigration, as have Treasurer Kathleen Brown, Sen. Dianne Feinstein and others.

And it’s easy to understand why. The Times Poll last fall found that 92% of California’s voters considered illegal immigration to be a problem--77% a major problem. Also, 81% believed that illegal immigrants take more from the U.S. economy in government services than they contribute. Latinos agreed, 75% saying it’s a problem and 61% asserting illegal immigrants take more than they give.

So Wilson is addressing the voters’ concerns, which is democracy at work.

He also has been playing budget games. He is asking $2.5 billion from Washington to reimburse the state for servicing illegal immigrants--educating them, providing emergency care (mostly baby delivery) and imprisoning criminals. Virtually everyone in California agrees the feds should foot the bill since it’s their duty to control immigration.

The governor, however, realizes the state will see little of this money. He and the Legislature merely are assuming it will for purposes of enacting a budget by the July 1 deadline. Washington won’t give a final answer until October. That means Sacramento can postpone its tough decision--higher taxes or program cuts--until after the November election.

But none of this is “immigrant bashing.”

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In my dictionary, to bash means “to strike violently. Knock (him on the head). . . .”

It didn’t look like immigrant bashing when Wilson flew to El Paso recently, stood on the border and told reporters he admired the courage of poor Mexicans living in a nearby shantytown. If he were in their fix, the governor admitted, he’d “take the same risks, exercise the same tenacity” to migrate illegally.

He just thought the federal government should prevent them from doing it. Those hurt most by the illegal immigrants’ drain on government services, he noted, are the poor Latinos living legally in the United States.

Neither did it sound like immigrant bashing last week when Wilson told Los Angeles Town Hall:

“It’s hard to blame people who day after day pour across our borders. They’re coming to find a better life. . . . It’s easy to sympathize with them and even admire their gumption. It is those in Washington that we should condemn--those who encourage the illegals to break the law by rewarding them.

“We are a state and nation of immigrants, proud of our immigrant traditions. . . . But we, as a sovereign nation, have a right and an obligation to determine how and when people come into our country. We are a nation of laws. . . . The United States already accepts more legal immigrants into our country than the rest of the world combined. . . . There is a limit to what we can absorb and illegal immigration is now taxing us past that limit.”

That sounds like bashing the system, not immigrants.

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It doesn’t seem like bashing immigrants to point out that roughly half the nation’s illegals--1.3 million--live in California and another 100,000 are arriving each year. The governor estimates their total cost to state taxpayers--including educating the citizen children of illegal immigrants--at $3.6 billion, nearly 10% of the general fund.

Critics dispute the figures, noting it’s impossible to know the exact number of illegal immigrants or their costs. Wilson says he’s using Census Bureau data. Regardless, quibbling over the numbers seems akin to tobacco company executives saying they don’t know how many people die from smoking, therefore cigarettes must not be a problem.

Wilson wants to “turn off the magnetic lure” by denying automatic citizenship to newborn children of illegal immigrants, by barring illegal immigrants from public schools and by cutting off state funds for their emergency care. You can quarrel with his solutions, but it’s a stretch to accuse the governor of bashing immigrants or--as some even have--”racism.”

“Those who oppose reform invariably cry racism,” Wilson says. “They want to stifle any discussion of the issue.”

Immigrant bashing is a handy charge for cheap-shotters and fear-mongers. The problem with it, besides often being bunk, is many politicians become intimidated and cower from seeing that our immigration laws either are changed or enforced.