Who is really to blame
for illegal immigration?

I was listening to “Idaho Talks Live” the other day

when I was struck by a comment I hear all too often. “They

come up here and take these jobs for five dollars an hour that

should be going to (Americans).” Well, we all know who

“they” are—illegal immigrants from Mexico or

“the unarmed enemy invading our country” as Canyon

County Commissioner Robert Vasquez so kindly refers to our

neighbors to the south. I find this comment bothersome, not because

I think the current immigration situation is just “hunky

dory”, but because the blame for its ills are so grossly

misplaced.

The average minimum wage in this country is laughable, currently

$5.15 an hour in Idaho, and illegal immigration drives unskilled

labor wages below even that. Americans are told that their country

is working hard to combat this problem, but no matter how much they

increase border patrol, revoke driver’s licenses, or refuse

basic healthcare to them, immigrants are so determined to steal

your kid’s job they just can’t be stopped. Wrong.

The population of illegal U.S. immigrants (from all over the world)

is currently estimated at 10 million. Arguably the plight of the

Mexican immigrant and family improves greatly in America, but

let’s not fool ourselves. Waiting until nightfall to sneak

across the border in the hopes that you will make it across the

desert alive just to go to work in a meatpacking plant in Idaho

certainly cannot be likened to hitting the jackpot. It is morally

reprehensible to place the greatest responsibility for this problem

on the actor with the least amount of choice. So who really is to

blame?

Illegal immigration could be stopped at any time. Rep. Silvestre

Reyes of Texas, a twenty-six year veteran of the border patrol,

commented on the issue of curbing illegal immigration during a

debate on PBS’s News Hour with Jim Lehrer.

“We can show statistically that the employer sanctions was an

effective tool,” remarked Reyes. “The problem was that

Congress never followed through in giving INS the resources to

enforce employer sanctions in the interior of the United

States.”

Reyes has had enough experience to know what should be obvious to

even the simplest mind. Wave a handful of money at a desperate

person, and it doesn’t matter how many fences you build.

The illegal immigration problem as we know it could end today if

employers were properly deterred from hiring illegal workers. But

this seems to be the only measure of prevention we have not taken

seriously. Even the high-profile cases have been a sick joke. A

jury recently acquitted Tyson Foods and other multi-million dollar

corporations with mere six figure fines. If we were serious about

stopping the importation of cheap labor, someone would be doing

some jail time, and his collar would be white, not blue.

If we found an effective tool, what on earth would prevent us from

utilizing it? Who is benefiting from illegal immigration?

Employers, that’s who. Every great civilization was built on

the backs of an oppressed minority, and ours is no different. The

days of slavery may be over, but it didn’t take long for

businesses to find the next best thing. These are people who hire

the cheapest labor without consideration for their humanity, only

their own bottom line.

Let us at least lay blame where it is deserved.

Esther Tolson
Columnist

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