Judson Cox, January 12, 2003

President Bush’s immigration reform plan, and the response to it, has shown that political and journalistic elites inhabit a fantasyland. They view Mexican aliens as either dispossessed but noble poor, or faceless masses of workers. The elite seldom have contact with illegals, short of the occasional domestic servant.

I am from North Carolina, a state filled with tobacco and Christmas tree farms, textile mills and processing plants for chickens and hogs. Outside of every city in North Carolina are mobile home parks, filled with Mexican nationals. I went to school with their children. I have been served by illegals in Mexican restaurants, and served illegals in stores where I have worked. I have worked with illegals, and although my Spanish was as bad as their English, we joked, talked about our families and got the job done. I have known illegals as individuals.

I have reached the following conclusions:

1) Most illegal Mexican immigrants have no desire to become citizens. They speak of Mexico as home, talk about the families they left behind, and of their desire to return. They send most of their money to family members in Mexico, so that they can return to better conditions.

2) Most illegals are honest, hard working, family oriented people; many are not. Mexicans are as likely as any ethnic group to commit criminal acts, and illegals have already broken the law in coming here. The willingness to break the law may be why 25% of the 8 to 12 million illegal immigrants in America fill our prisons, charged with non-immigration related crimes.

3) The premise that illegals pay payroll taxes and are owed Social Security and Medicare benefits is ridiculous. It is illegal to hire an illegal alien; most are paid "under the table." Those who obtain fraudulent documents commit another crime by doing so.

4) There is no need for a "living wage." Illegal immigrants usually work for less than minimum wage. They make enough money to live on, and enough to send to their families. Taxes, minimum wage laws and unions artificially increase American wages, resulting in higher than necessary unemployment levels and incentivising illegal immigration. When illegals "steal" American jobs, it is the fault of American policy.

5) The problems of Mexico are a result of corrupt government. So long as the dispossessed of Mexico can work in America, the Mexican government lacks incentive for reform. The export of Mexico’s poor releases political pressure, while the import of their wages props up the Mexican economy.

6) Many Mexicans come here for free medical care, free education and other social programs that are non-existent or lacking in Mexico. The humanitarian impulse is to provide for their needs. However, to enable the government of Mexico to resist reform, and to encourage dangerous journeys across uninhabitable regions, often at the mercies of unscrupulous smugglers, is immoral.

7) Most illegals just seek work; however, if they can sneak in, so can terrorists. If we refuse to track and deport those here illegally, we make ourselves the willing targets of terrorist attacks.

8) Refusing to enforce immigration laws undermines our legal system. The threat of prosecution deters crime. Each of us has daydreamed of committing a crime, whether of robbing a bank, or disposing of a particularly annoying fellow citizen. It is not merely morality that prevents most of us from taking such actions, because even the worst acts can be rationalized; it is the threat of prosecution. Without that threat, our legal system collapses; laws may be obeyed or disobeyed as one sees fit. In "Keep Pot Illegal," Jerry Rubin (a communist revolutionary), argued that when kids smoke pot and experience neither criminal prosecution nor immediate harm, they lose respect for America’s laws and institutions, leading them to further crime. He argued that such actions could undermine our nation to the point of collapse. If an enemy of America makes such a premise, shouldn’t it give us pause?

Rather than willfully failing to enforce our immigration laws, the laws should be changed if need be. If our laws are to be changed, and immigration so reformed, Congress should vote on such legislation. Let us see how many lawmakers are willing to answer to their constituencies for legalizing illegal immigration, and how many are willing to face the voters when another Jose Padilla waltzes across an unguarded section of the border with a dirty bomb. Neither our nation, nor Mexican immigrants, deserves to be subject to rash decisions, social experiments or political jury-rigging.

Judson Cox is a political columnist from the mountains of North Carolina. He is quickly gaining recognition as one of the most popular and influential voices of his generation. As a college student, and a young entrepreneur, he has a unique perspective on matters of politics, economics and culture.

Copyright © 2004 Judson Cox