5/17/2006

.Legal Immigrants are the backbone of America

By Tom Range, Sr.
 
In arguments against passage of House of Representatives Bill 4437, formally entitled “Border Protection, Anti-terrorism and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005,” opponents of the House bill equate the illegal immigrants to the millions of legal immigrants that passed through Ellis Island and its predecessor immigrant-processing center Castle Garden.  This comparison is at best disingenuous.
 
The tens of millions of legal immigrants who entered the United States did so under the laws prevailing at the time of their arrival.  Through the period of tremendous growth in the United States, from the end of the Civil War to the Depression, immigrants were needed and welcomed.  There were cities to be built, bridges to be constructed, tunnels to be dug, factories to be staffed and the West to be settled. 
 
There were, in a few words, not enough native-born Americans to fill these jobs.  While there certainly were illegals who walked across the border from Mexico in this period, there were few basic social services on the frontier West of which they could take advantage.  Their lot would be no different than had they stayed in Mexico.
 
There were some illegals walking across the unprotected border from Canada.  Many were from Ireland, which at the time was subjugated by England.  By being British citizens, voluntarily or involuntarily, these Irish could travel to another British possession, Canada, with few restrictions.  They then crossed the border into Vermont or New Hampshire often settling in French speaking communities and perhaps decades later moving to East Coast cities like Boston and New York to be absorbed into the existing population.
 
From 1860 to 1930, over 32 million legal immigrants passed through the immigration processing centers on the East Coast.  Since their names were recorded at Castle Garden and Ellis Island, they were ipso facto legal.  It was up to the newly arrived whether they chose to become American citizens, not an easy undertaking then or now. 
 
The all-time peak in immigration came in 1907; when 1,280,000 arrived.  Though most of them came from the Western European countries; the British Isles, Germany, the Scandinavian countries, Switzerland and the Netherlands.  Southern and Eastern Europe was the home region of a substantial percentage.  There were 260,000 from Russia and Poland, many of Jewish heritage, 285,000 came from Italy and 340,000 from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the “dual monarchy” that included much of the future Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia.
 
Relatively few of those immigrants who played by the rules and arrived legally were turned away.  The steamship companies transporting them to America were bound by law to return “rejects” to their native countries free of charge if the immigrants were found deficient in matters of finances, health or sponsors who could vouch for their short-term shelter and/or employment. 
 
Living conditions in the urban areas were deplorable.  The immigrants were shamelessly exploited in mills, factories and sweatshops.  But there were enticements for the immigrants, or their native-born offspring to go West.
 
The immigration bureaus of Western states distributed literature in several languages touting opportunities within their borders.  Railroad companies with land grants wooed Russian and German farmers to come out and buy tracts on the Great Plains. 
 
The Great Northern railroad line offered fares as low as $33 to any point on their right-of-way that ran from Minnesota to Oregon, plus sweet deals on acquiring and moving machinery, livestock, lumber and fencing. 
 
Steamship companies were in on the hunt too.  Modern technology had reduced the dreaded transatlantic passage to 10 or 12 days instead of months.  Steerage accommodations were far from clean or comfortable, but they cost as little as $25 and passengers were no longer likely to die on the way.
 
As the West developed and cities were founded on what once was cattle grazing land, immigrants, both legals and illegals, from Mexico and other countries in Latin America were drawn to the Southwest.  There were jobs available in agriculture and in manufacturing, and Latino communities within the cities could and did offer shelter and anonymity for the illegals.
 
 In 1942, the Bracero Program brought farm workers from Mexico to alleviate the labor shortage in America caused by World War II.  By 1970, an estimated 9.6 million Latinos, legals and illegals, were in the country, mostly clustered in the Southwest states and in California.
 
In 1985 during the Reagan administration, the Immigration Reform and Control Act imposed fines on employers who deliberately hired illegals.  The Act also granted amnesty to 2.7 million illegal immigrants.  The granting of amnesty, that is removing the threat of deportation, triggered even more illegals to cross the border.  By 2004, the total population of Latinos, now spread through much of the country, was 40.5 million, possible one quarter of them illegals.
 
Opponents of H.R. 4437 object to the criminalization aspects of the bill.  It imposes criminal sanctions not only on the illegals, but also on their employers and religious and charitable organizations that assist them in humanitarian efforts.  Some also object to any sort of amnesty or guest worker program that would encourage further infiltration of the country’s borders by illegals. 
 
And others object to the inference that the threat of terrorists entering the country has been included in a blanket condemnation of illegals, pointing out that the 9/11 plane hijackers had initially entered the country legally under various visas and were allowed to slip into the population as a result of insufficient monitoring of their whereabouts.
 
After decades of experiencing the growth of illegal immigration, the question arises as to why, with its vast military resources, the federal government under the administrations of both political parties has refused to control our borders. 
 
Bill O’Reilly, a host of a Fox News talk show, gave this observation in a recent syndicated column, “Illegal workers deliver more profit to business than American workers do...the availability of 'off-the-books' workers saves employers from paying social security, health benefits and other overhead.  Illegal labor has been muy bueno for many bottom lines.”
 
The Senate is currently working on its own bill in response to HR 4437.  When it is approved, a Senate/House conference will be held to reconcile the two proposals and to produce a final version to be presented to the president for his signature.  Considering the substantial opposition to many of the provisions of HR 4437, subsequent joint Congressional debates will no doubt prove to be lively and contentious.


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