The Bad and the Good

In the same week that Michael Chertoff, Secretary of Department of Homeland Security swept aside environmental review to speed construction of the last 470 miles of fencing along the Mexico-United States border, some states are actively trying to bring in more immigrants: Colorado and Arizona lawmakers are considering state-run guest workers programs to harvest their crops. ("San Jose Mercury News" 04/02/08).

That same day a New York Times article describes how undocumented immigrants are saving Social Security. They bolster the program by paying taxes and not collecting; their children in the future will swell the taxpaying working age population and with a relatively smaller elder population of retirees.

Navarrette praises California Republican Governor Schwarzenegger (himself an immigrant) for underscoring that "Americans need to channel their anger and frustration at government and not at the immigrants themselves." He acknowledges the xenophobia in the immigration debate and the reality that the law doesn't provide a reasonable way for immigrants to come into the country legally. The Governor admits that without the contributions of immigrants the State would be in worse fiscal shape than it is now.

Let's hear it for more honesty and fewer myths in the immigration debate!

• What do you think? Click the Reply button below and share your thoughts.
• Share with your State legislators the need to be honest about our dependence on the immigrant workforce. (Check your telephone book for the office number of your Assemblyperson and Senator.) Urge them to defeat the two dozen enforcement bills intended to crack down on the undocumented in the State.
• Contact Congressional legislators to protest the pushing of construction on the border fencing without environmental review-an action which threatens hundreds of thousands of acres of fragile habitat and the animal species involved. Call them at 202-224-3121.