IN THE MIX:Reform boils down to money

Whew. Can we finally move on from that politically motivated, morally bereft, spineless immigration bill now?

While there were a few elements that sounded pretty good, the Dream Act and a path to citizenship, passage of that watered-down bill wouldn’t have actually changed anything. We will have illegal immigrants here for a while. It’s too costly and immoral to just pick up 12 million people and shove them back over the border.

It’s become pretty clear when looking at all the analysis that our government, and more importantly corporate America, has no intention of ridding this country of the low-wage work force. Illegal immigrants are the best kind of workforce: they can’t vote and they don’t complain much.

That mentality is one of the reasons I didn’t care for this dead bill and one of the reasons my head just might explode if I hear another person say, “They do the work no one else would do.”

Not only is that not true, it’s not a good reason to allow people to come to this country. They are more palatable because they are more exploitable. Nice.

That is why your government seems not to be listening to you. This country is making a lot of money on the backs of immigrants, illegal and otherwise, as well as unskilled laborers. Economically we need a decent unemployment rate and a large pool of workers in order to maintain low wages so companies can ignore working conditions — who’s going to complain when they’re half a paycheck away from losing everything?

Recently the public has become louder about this issue and suddenly politicians started to listen. Good, that’s how government is supposed to work. But I don’t believe hardly a word of it. They defiantly stand up to President Bush like we don’t know it’s practically political suicide to side with the president right now.

Politicians also know this: The sky is not falling. They are parroting the sentiment they hear on talk radio, knowing it’s a hot-button issue that will make or break them.

But bill or no bill, we will all be OK. We will not just be OK, we will continue to thrive and if the economy goes bust it won’t be caused by the 12 million illegal immigrants who for the most part work hard, send their kids to school and pay taxes.

So, now the bill is dead. There likely won’t be another introduced until the next administration is in office. So when we get our next chance, what do we want?

We want the stream of undocumented workers stemmed. That’s a must. Now, I inherited a strong concern for the plight of others from my mother so sometimes I feel like all should be welcome, the more the merrier, but I’m still a pragmatist and the fact is we can’t actually just let everyone in, especially when they don’t have the proper paperwork to be able to account for them like everyone else in the country.

I feel a strong need to support people who have come to this country to work hard and earn money for their families, but the way businesses use the illegal immigrant work force is not only literally but also morally criminal.

I don’t approve of large-scale immigration roundups after which hundreds are deported. It’s too terrifying for those involved and we’ve heard from police it prevents people from giving information about crimes. But I think putting an end to businesses getting away with hiring illegal workers, paying them whatever they feel like and treating them inhumanely would be a great use of resources.

How do we keep them out in the first place? The wall is just a bad idea — like we don’t have enough of a bad reputation in the rest of the world right now. We don’t need a nasty, hateful wall. They’re trying cameras along the Texas and Arizona borders. I kind of like that idea. Let’s look more into that. It might even save a few lives in that desert.

Let’s go back a step before that. We need a new immigration system that is more fair to Latinos and more navigable to all immigrants. The system right now is ridiculously complicated and takes so much time it is almost understandable when people jump the line.

And a step before that: Mexico. That government is a bit of a mess. I realize many will say it’s not our job to clean up another country’s problems, but it wouldn’t be the first time we interfered in another country’s affairs, and it might actually make a difference.

That country’s economy is a mess and it seems too many officials are too corrupt to do anything about it.

Instead they hold meetings around the country to try to figure out how they can get their workforce to stay instead of running to America.

That sounds like a smart place to start, but not a profitable one for the U.S. government. That’s why it isn’t likely to happen. As usual, it boils down to money.

We’ve got a while to wait before Congress faces this question again. Likely they’ll end up with another bill that in its effort to appease everyone, does no one any good.

In the meantime, let’s recognize that not all poor Latinos are here illegally and that the fact that some are here illegally does not excuse statements that spread negative stereotypes about Mexican culture or morals.

Let’s also try to remember that these illegal immigrants — and yes, I do know what illegal means — are for the most part desperately trying to care for their families and build a better life.

This country was built on that ideal, not vaguely, but explicitly built on that idea and you can’t just throw the word illegal in front of someone’s name and discount what they stand for.