Do fences make good neighbors?

Immigration has seemingly become the focus of intense debate and political activism overnight.
Long gone are the happy days of military quandaries and national spending. More than 11.5 million illegal aliens reside in the United States, with more than 500,000 more streaming across our borders every year. Eighty percent of immigrants entering the U.S. each year do so illegally.

With the November elections looming, Congress has quickly proposed two bills designed to overhaul the immigration process. Instead, these two bills have divided Congress and awakened the sleeping giant of American politics – Latinos.

House Bill 4437, dubbed the Sensenbrenner Bill after its sponsor James Sensenbrenner (R-WI), is by far the more extreme of the two bills. It proposes that illegal immigration and residency should be made felonies, and anyone who aids an illegal immigrant also commits a felony. The most controversial part of this bill is a pair of extensive border walls. These walls would be:

• 700 miles long and 15 feet tall,
• Bordered by parallel roads,
• Lit with stadium-style lighting,
• Monitored by surveillance cameras and manned observation posts and
• Have sonar to detect underground tunneling. 

Such a fortification would be impressive, but it smacks of fanaticism and impracticality. Furthermore, there is no mention of a cost estimate or a way of funding the project.

Charging 11 million people with felonies would clog the judicial system, and it threatens to put five times the current number of prisoners behind bars. Congress often lacks the political will to pass tax reforms, much less deport 11 million people.

The bill proposed by the Senate Judiciary Committee is more moderate and has the support of the White House. Illegal aliens would pay a fine, pay back taxes, learn English and would be eligible for citizenship in 11 years. Paying the back taxes would help fund public services like health care and education that illegal aliens use for free. This bill stalled before Congress’ two-week break because of questions about amending it. Any hope of a consensus before the November elections seems doubtful.

New reforms and laws will do no good unless they are enforced. Both parties agree that secure borders are necessary for our national security, but Congress continually fails to allocate the proper resources necessary for the job to be done properly. The U.S. has 11,000 border patrol agents to guard more than 5,000 miles of border. New York City’s police department has almost four times that number of officers. Providing the border guard with more personnel and equipment would better enable the enforcement of current laws.

Opponents of illegal immigration argue that undocumented workers take American jobs by working longer hours for less pay. But immigrants aren’t taking jobs away from Americans – companies are hiring and giving them the jobs illegally. If the government forced American companies to pay all employees the same wages regardless of residency status, corporations would have no incentive to hire immigrants over native workers.

One way to stem illegal immigration is to stimulate the growth of the Mexican economy. The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) attempted this in the 1990s but was ineffective due to a lack of infrastructure in Mexico. Mexico trades almost $300 billion (3 with 11 zeros after it) in goods annually and the U.S. is its bigger trading partner. Building an enormous wall along the border would send a mixed message about our relationship with Mexico – “we want your goods but not your people.” Instead of sinking tens of billions of dollars into a fortified wall, that money could be used to stimulate the Mexican economy. If one has to choose between a wall and a partnership, the answer seems obvious.