Thursday, April 06, 2006
Immigration issues affect Midtown East Siders
LOOKING AHEAD by Wally Dobelis
While opinions vary about whether the current level if immigrants is good or bad for the US, one thing is certain here, in the Midtown East Side of Manhattan – our lives would be difficult without them.
Whether you are buying a meal or taking out food on First or Third Avenue or further west, seeing to your building being repaired and sidewalks mended, having your apartment cleaned or children looked after while you are busy making a living, you are dependent on recent immigrants for the services. Many of them are illegal. These are people who live doubled up, in bad conditions, work long hours and save money. Look at the faces and you will mostly see intelligent eyes, people eager to learn English and practice the language, people who may have arrived here illegally but who are and whose children will be assets to this country. Whenever I have mentioned this to neighbors, the answers have varied, from affirmation to some variation of: “Yeah, and whose tax money do you think pays for their health and education? Whose children do you think will have fewer opportunities at school and work when competing against these eager learners? What about the Americans who currently keep losing jobs to the illegals? Look, you are subsidizing the social services for big business, for giant agribus corporations!”
Yes, it is a fact that right next door, in New Jersey, taxpayers are contributing $200 million a year to the costs of medical services because illegal and uninsured immigrants working on farms seek care at hospital emergency rooms, the only service available to them. Californians are crying even harder because their schools are getting overcrowded and the non-English speaking children of the illegal farm workers are slowing down classroom progress. On the other hand , the legal and illegal guest workers working at low rates at labor-intensive farms make the fresh fruit and frozen vegetables delivered to our supermarkets more affordable. Note that, after the flawed Bracero Program (1942-64) was stopped by Cesar Chavez, California could not generate enough union laborers to grow beans, a national disaster, until illegals flowed in.
The presence of immigrants has grown, from nearly 10 million in 1970 to 33 million in 2005. Anywhere from 12 to an improbable 19 million are illegally here, driven to undertake a potentially deadly journey by home conditions of overcrowding and near starvation. A coyote industry in Mexico smuggles about 4,500 illegals across the border daily, and allegedly some 2,000 daily are caught by Immigration agents and trucked back, without creating a criminal record.
The magnitude of the economic and particularly the security aspects of illegal immigration have turned the Bush administration and the Congress at odds with each other. While the administration’s intent, supported by the Senate, including a large Democrat segment, favors the admission of up to 400,000 guest workers a year and the eventual legalization of the present illegals, provided they meet the proper criteria, the House of Representatives version excludes guest workers and specifies a more restrictive legitimization procedure, deportations and 700 miles of security fencing along the porous Mexican border. A mugwump bill sponsored by Majority Leader Frist demands just the security measures. The red states are particularly hurting, and some 95 conservative congressmen have formed an alliance to defeat the Bush bill.
Meanwhile, in the last days of March a million immigrants, prompted by a concerted Hispanic media action from Los Angeles, have demonstrated on Capitol Hill and rallied in other cities (New York on April 1), protesting the restrictive House bill. The fighting words “amnesty” and “criminalization” have served to stimulate both sides.
Not all immigrants favor the President’s bill. My friend Gide, a former New Yorker, protests against the amnesty of the illegals. He has seen the illegals taking away agricultural jobs in the orange –growing counties of Florida, jobs that at a minimum wage kept long-established Black families together, functional and economically productive. Now many of their children, jobless, on drugs and living aimlessly, have come to be part of the correctional system. Easy legitimization of illegal immigration just encourages more of the same, and takes out of the low-pay agricultural, construction and service work force many workers who become motivated to seek upward mobility in the cities, some resorting to crime
He would legitimize certain illegal immigrants, those who prove their intent to be Americans, have paid taxes, pass English language tests and renounce their foreign allegiances, specifically emphasizing allegiance to the Constitution and laws of USA as superseding any religious allegiances. This is particularly encouraging, coming from a practicing Muslim, who emphasizes that the people of the Bible, Old and New Testament, and the Qur’an are brethren and take their religious faith from the same sources. Parenthetically, he sees hope for the future, as the passive people of the Muslim world realize that the radical Islamist terrorists, while killing their own brethren, are acting against the basic tenets of Qur’an, which prohibit murder and suicide, and react accordingly.
This is a survey of the economics, omitting the tricky voter politics. It leaves Americans, even the placid East Midtowners, with many issues to consider.
While opinions vary about whether the current level if immigrants is good or bad for the US, one thing is certain here, in the Midtown East Side of Manhattan – our lives would be difficult without them.
Whether you are buying a meal or taking out food on First or Third Avenue or further west, seeing to your building being repaired and sidewalks mended, having your apartment cleaned or children looked after while you are busy making a living, you are dependent on recent immigrants for the services. Many of them are illegal. These are people who live doubled up, in bad conditions, work long hours and save money. Look at the faces and you will mostly see intelligent eyes, people eager to learn English and practice the language, people who may have arrived here illegally but who are and whose children will be assets to this country. Whenever I have mentioned this to neighbors, the answers have varied, from affirmation to some variation of: “Yeah, and whose tax money do you think pays for their health and education? Whose children do you think will have fewer opportunities at school and work when competing against these eager learners? What about the Americans who currently keep losing jobs to the illegals? Look, you are subsidizing the social services for big business, for giant agribus corporations!”
Yes, it is a fact that right next door, in New Jersey, taxpayers are contributing $200 million a year to the costs of medical services because illegal and uninsured immigrants working on farms seek care at hospital emergency rooms, the only service available to them. Californians are crying even harder because their schools are getting overcrowded and the non-English speaking children of the illegal farm workers are slowing down classroom progress. On the other hand , the legal and illegal guest workers working at low rates at labor-intensive farms make the fresh fruit and frozen vegetables delivered to our supermarkets more affordable. Note that, after the flawed Bracero Program (1942-64) was stopped by Cesar Chavez, California could not generate enough union laborers to grow beans, a national disaster, until illegals flowed in.
The presence of immigrants has grown, from nearly 10 million in 1970 to 33 million in 2005. Anywhere from 12 to an improbable 19 million are illegally here, driven to undertake a potentially deadly journey by home conditions of overcrowding and near starvation. A coyote industry in Mexico smuggles about 4,500 illegals across the border daily, and allegedly some 2,000 daily are caught by Immigration agents and trucked back, without creating a criminal record.
The magnitude of the economic and particularly the security aspects of illegal immigration have turned the Bush administration and the Congress at odds with each other. While the administration’s intent, supported by the Senate, including a large Democrat segment, favors the admission of up to 400,000 guest workers a year and the eventual legalization of the present illegals, provided they meet the proper criteria, the House of Representatives version excludes guest workers and specifies a more restrictive legitimization procedure, deportations and 700 miles of security fencing along the porous Mexican border. A mugwump bill sponsored by Majority Leader Frist demands just the security measures. The red states are particularly hurting, and some 95 conservative congressmen have formed an alliance to defeat the Bush bill.
Meanwhile, in the last days of March a million immigrants, prompted by a concerted Hispanic media action from Los Angeles, have demonstrated on Capitol Hill and rallied in other cities (New York on April 1), protesting the restrictive House bill. The fighting words “amnesty” and “criminalization” have served to stimulate both sides.
Not all immigrants favor the President’s bill. My friend Gide, a former New Yorker, protests against the amnesty of the illegals. He has seen the illegals taking away agricultural jobs in the orange –growing counties of Florida, jobs that at a minimum wage kept long-established Black families together, functional and economically productive. Now many of their children, jobless, on drugs and living aimlessly, have come to be part of the correctional system. Easy legitimization of illegal immigration just encourages more of the same, and takes out of the low-pay agricultural, construction and service work force many workers who become motivated to seek upward mobility in the cities, some resorting to crime
He would legitimize certain illegal immigrants, those who prove their intent to be Americans, have paid taxes, pass English language tests and renounce their foreign allegiances, specifically emphasizing allegiance to the Constitution and laws of USA as superseding any religious allegiances. This is particularly encouraging, coming from a practicing Muslim, who emphasizes that the people of the Bible, Old and New Testament, and the Qur’an are brethren and take their religious faith from the same sources. Parenthetically, he sees hope for the future, as the passive people of the Muslim world realize that the radical Islamist terrorists, while killing their own brethren, are acting against the basic tenets of Qur’an, which prohibit murder and suicide, and react accordingly.
This is a survey of the economics, omitting the tricky voter politics. It leaves Americans, even the placid East Midtowners, with many issues to consider.
# posted by Wally Dobelis @ 5:40 PM 
