Issue is bigger than many think

The illegal immigration tussle is no longer a Costa Mesa issue. Thanks to the foot-dragging of countless politicians, the caldron is now bubbling over and will eventually affect all Americans.

Newport Beach and other communities that felt insulated from the issue will be dragged kicking and screaming to the ballot box sooner rather than later.

The deterioration of the discussion has been escalated by the inflammatory messages issued by state Senate candidates Diane Harkey and Tom Harman. Each week, it seems, they are turning up the volume on their own illegal immigration record or the holes in the record of their opponent.

Even scarier is the subtext that the border fence crowd would like nothing more than to round up everyone of Latino descent who is here illegally and send them home.

On a talk radio program yesterday, Minuteman Project founder Jim Gilchrist said, “I’d rather pay nine cents more for a head of lettuce than 40 cents more in taxes” to pay for illegal immigrants.

That kind of talk is not helpful. It is not the type of chatter that will help the president lead us to a reasonable decision. Plus, it’s an inaccurate measure of the situation.

But the border fence crowd must have it only one way in order to be satisfied. Those of us who agree that the illegal immigrants have committed a serious crime cannot possibly have any other position but theirs, namely that everyone here illegally must go.

It’s not that simple anymore.

But let’s pretend for a few moments that it is. Let’s pretend that everyone who is here illegally were rounded up and sent home tomorrow.

When that happens, 29% of the workforce in the construc- tion industry will disappear.

When that happens, you will not only be paying nine cents more for a head of lettuce, you will also be paying more for the American-made dishes on which you eat it, the American- made fork with which you stab it and the American- made beer, wine or soda with which you wash it down.

If you eat that lettuce in a restaurant, the chances are good that you will pay much more for it, for the disappearance of this cheap labor will increase prices throughout the industry.

The same is true for landscape companies, house cleaning companies, car washes, countless factories and more.

Can we absorb those increases? Perhaps, but you can forget about exporting anything but knowledge from the U.S. once the cheap labor is gone.

There lies the real issue, for it is not the import of cheap, illegal immigrants that is causing the problem, it is that we need them at all. Our need for cheap labor is only a symptom. The problem is that America has failed to stay competitive in a shrinking world, and as we watch third world countries crank out the clothes, toys and tools we once produced across the land, all we can do to keep our heads above water is to pay illegal immigrants meager wages for the remaining products they produce and the services they perform.

And that is still not enough. One look at our disastrous trade deficit will prove that.

So, the border fence crowd can rant all they want about legal and illegal and right and wrong. It’s just not that simple.

But there is another trend, related in a way, that may portend the future.

Aliso Viejo-based QLogic Corp. is sending more jobs to India. That total is now 850, according to a recent report.

Not only are they exporting jobs, they are exporting jobs that Americans will do, unlike the claims of people like me who believe that most of the illegal immigrant jobs are jobs we don’t want.

“But the people in India don’t burden our healthcare system and our schools!” the border fence crowd may cry.

True, but in the larger scheme, companies like QLogic are contributing even more to hurt our economic future via the suppression of wages than the illegal immigrant workforce will ever do. That’s because these exported jobs are middle class jobs, not menial labor jobs. They are entry-level jobs that high school graduates and even some college graduates, could use as the first step in a career.

As a result, the U.S. jobless rate among software engineers has more than doubled in the past three years. Here is a graphic snapshot of the situation from a report by the National Assn. of Software and Service Companies: “? at least one-third of new IT develop- ment work for big U.S. comp- anies is done overseas, with India the biggest site. And India could start grabbing jobs from other sectors. A.T. Kearney Inc. predicts that 500,000 financial- services jobs will go offshore by 2008?. Even the U.S. Postal Service is taking work there. Auto engineering and drug research could be next.”

In short, job exportation has the potential to have a much greater long-term effect on our economy and our society.

Where is the uproar? Why aren’t we all marching in protest? Why aren’t we all boycotting the corporations that ship our children’s futures overseas?

The border fence crowd does not have a lock on the anger over having people here illegally. It bothers the rest of us too.

But the rest of us, including the president, know that rhetoric and photo ops are not going to meet the challenge of America’s increasing failure to stay competitive.

So, go ahead, send them all packing and put up a mile-high fence. Then you can sit back while your sons and daughters stand in line to wash cars, repair roofs, pick lettuce, hang drywall, iron shirts and clean toilets.

After all, border fence crowd, didn’t you say that these are jobs Americans want?