Vol. 3, No. 11
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April 1, 2006
Nevada's Online State News Journal
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Top News Story:
Immigration Issues Facing Nevada And The Country Today
Humanity, Dignity, Civility Will Help Create Answers
by Johnny Gunn
At the same time thousands were marching in Washington, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Reno, and Carson City members of the U.S. Senate were debating a piece of legislation that might very well come to a floor vote as you are reading this. The Senate Judiciary Committee voted 12-6 to send the legislation to the floor, and there could be many changes between what they voted on Monday, March 27 and what might be in a final version. Is there such a need for immigration reform that thousands take to the street, that all eyes are on the senate, that the president urges civility in the debate? The answer is an emphatic yes.
Regardless of what comes out of Washington over the next few weeks and months it can't be worse than what we have today. People living in Mexico, Central, and South America want more than they can get at home, and it's available here. Wages are higher, schools for the most part are better, health care is better, and again for the most part, life is safer than what they have at home. Knowledge of a porous border is widespread, and there are hundreds of coyotes to help people get into this country.
According to the latest information from the U.S. Census Bureau there are about 37 million immigrants in this country 11.1 million of whom are here illegally. Of those, 8.7 million are from Mexico, Central, and South America. It's estimated that about 150,000 undocumented aliens live in Nevada. The border between the U.S. and Mexico is not really a closed border and as long as good jobs, good education, and good health is available on this side of the border, many more thousands will be making their way north.
Some that are opposed to any immigration, legal or otherwise believe that immigrants take away from those already here, that they clog the welfare rolls, weaken school systems, and are a threat to the general health and welfare of society. The arguments rarely hold up to close inspection. As one immigrant now a citizen of this country said recently, "Those risking their freedom to come to this country knowing they can get a job, going on welfare is not in the plans."
Since the 16th Century people have been coming to these shores for a better life, for freedoms that didn't exist where they originated, for myriad other reasons. For just as long newcomers have been treated shoddily at best. Anti-Irish riots, anti-Italian riots, French-Indian wars all were caused by immigration while the U.S. has at the same time prided itself on welcoming all that want a better life. It's this dichotomy that faces individual citizens today.
A part of the legislation that will be debated in Congress over the next weeks and possibly months deals with understanding that those coming know that jobs are available. It's probably well understood by most that if there weren't the opportunity, there wouldn't be the immigration. Wal-Mart has been fined, threatened, had employees deported regularly, and still has an open-door policy according to the latest information coming from Scranton Pennsylvania where more that 100 illegal Wal-Mart employees were arrested and deported.
Chicken producers hire hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants. Tourism businesses in Nevada have had Immigration raids that have netted thousands of illegal immigrants. A flourishing business is printing and distributing bogus identification papers such as Green Cards, Social Security Cards, Driver Licenses, and on and on. The jobs are here, those that want the jobs know that, and the borders are virtually open.
So, what to do, what to do?
Numerous suggestions have come forward; some severe in their treatment of those determined to be in this country illegally. The provisions accepted by the Senate Judiciary Committee on a strangely bi-partisan vote are restrictive in some ways and very open in others. Politicians on both sides of the aisle look at immigration from the effects it has on their districts more than from a strictly partisan point of view. In the legislation that will be debated, there are parts the current administration supports and parts they don't. There are parts the Democratic leadership supports and parts they don't. When the smoke clears there is a chance for a unified look at immigration law in this country.
Nevada Senator Harry Reid, the Democratic party leader in the Senate, had this to say about the current debate. "There is widespread acknowledgement that our immigration system is broken. There is a crisis at our borders, and we need a comprehensive strategy to address it." Reid issued a press release shortly after the Judiciary Committee vote in which he said, "The Senate Judiciary Committee reported out a bill with strong bipartisan support that would do exactly what I believe is necessary to restore order to our immigration system."
Republican Nevada Senator John Ensign, while supporting parts of the bill up for floor debate said he opposes the part that offers an illegal immigrant the opportunity to earn citizenship. He supports the idea to temporary visas that would allow for worker immigration. He said he was supporting that based on his knowledge of Nevada's businesses.
The Senate bill will be debated on the full floor and is very different from one originally offered by the House of Representatives. The House bill has been watered down considerably and will probably be superceded by the Senate version. Although President Bush favors most of what is in the Senate bill, many in the Republican party want a far stronger bill, one that has penalties for being an illegal alien, one that calls for stringent rules on becoming a citizen if one comes to this country originally as an illegal alien, and for some those penalties must come from felony charges.
The legislation coming to the Senate floor calls for strengthening the border patrol, even doubling it in size, but creating a situation for so-called guest workers to come to the country legally, to work primarily in agriculture and health care. More visas for nurses are part of the bill. One part that will bring considerable debate on the floor and on the streets is a provision that will permit illegal immigrants to apply for citizenship. There have been calls for severe, even felonious penalties for illegals, but that part of the bill was taken out. There were also calls that would force the illegal immigrants to return to their country of origin before applying for citizenship, but that provision has been dropped as well.
Among those that oppose the concept of guest workers is the AFL-CIO. Union spokesmen have said the provision will take away from American workers. Nevada's tourism industries on the other hand are generally in favor of the idea. Low pay jobs abound in the gaming/tourism/hotel industries in the Silver State. Concerning shoring up the borders, Nevada Republican Senator John Ensign said he is in favor.
Currently, according to the state employment agency and the hotel industry, there are far more jobs available in Nevada than there are workers. Plans for new hotel/casinos around the state indicate there will be close to 100,000 new job openings within the next three to five years. Most are in the lowest pay scale category.
How long the debate in Congress will last is impossible to determine but it appears that both sides of the issue are looking at issues from a humanitarian point of view rather than as a purely political issue. The second part of that equation is to remember this is an election year. Of those immigrants with the proper papers, voting this year might hinge on how incumbents debate this bill. Hispanic immigrants in Nevada have come to polls in significant numbers and can make a difference in many of the districts. Immigrants in this country are numbered in the hundreds of millions when history is taken into account, and there have been times when they were treated badly. Today's immigrants whether from Asia, Hispanic countries, or Europe are not always accepted in the various communities to which they travel.
In Nevada Hispanic immigrants for the most part have been welcomed, both by the tourist-related industries that hire them and from the local residents. There are hundreds if not thousands of Hispanic workers in the construction industry, and just as many more working in the landscape industry. Hispanic chambers of commerce have been created in several communities, Hispanic businesses thrive with both immigrant and local customers, and there have been few social problems from their presence. The one problem that is often presented by those who do not favor immigration is the gang issue.
In all of Nevada most gangs and gang members are Hispanic in origin, and the continual warfare between different factions has taken gang member lives and unfortunately, the lives of non-gang members over the years. Drug distribution is generally gang related, drug importation from Mexico is gang related, and most criminal behavior can be traced back to either drugs or gangs. According to Clark County Sheriff Young there are at least 6,000 gangs operating in southern Nevada. There aren't that many in northern Nevada but it is a serious policing problem. Gang units within police departments are also attached to drug enforcement units and contribute to large police budgets.
As reported in these pages many times over the last few years methamphetamine super labs are coming into existence in Mexico and the debilitating chemical is exported to the U.S. by way of Mexican gangs. The federal government has cracked down on the sale of chemicals used to make the drug and local laboratories are being closed down regularly. Methamphetamine production and distribution is now centered in Mexico with Mexican drug gangs.
Not too long after WW II workers from Mexico were transported to the agricultural centers in California, Arizona, and New Mexico for field work. Called Braceros they supposedly did the stoop labor that American workers wouldn't do. Most feel that the reason American workers wouldn't do the labor had more to do with the pay that was offered rather than the work. Today's undocumented workers work in industrial jobs for less pay than the norm. Many companies that hire the undocumented workers know they have the upper hand. Complain about your pay, you're sent home. Complain about the job and safety standards, you're sent home.
Even with those standards, so low that most American workers wouldn't take the jobs millions of people risk being humiliated and scorned in order to better themselves. If an American laborer making $14 per hour with good bennies, good medical, good vacation time knew he could get a job in Canada that paid $50 an hour, but he had to sneak across the border to get it, you can bet that hundreds of thousands would do it. It's human nature to want the best, to suffer some if it means more for the family, if one must take great risks to achieve more.
Immigration issues should be humanitarian issues, not political ones.
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