There’s No Viable Alternative

It only takes a little scratching of the surface for any objective analyst to appreciate that the on-going immigration reform debate here in the US encapsulates two crucial issues that knock at the heart of much of what America is all about. The one is about border security while the other is about the accommodation of those who are already here into the mainstream of an immigrant society.

On the first, it will amount to irresponsibility for anyone to even imagine raising opposition to the suggestion that it’s the legitimate responsibility of every state and its citizens to uphold and secure the integrity of its borders. It seems oblivious that the camp in the debate that spews the more strident rhetoric is composed of those who were either responsible for or in support of the House Bill that passed last December, which would have criminalized the act of being in America without proper documentation.

On the second, supporters of the position in the bill do not seem to realize that it will be impossible to dredge out and deport the estimated 12 million people who reside in America currently without documentation. Most of them are Hispanics. The more certain outcome of that piece of legislation would have been that most of the 12 million will go underground. That would have been another way to create another permanent underclass in America.

Back tract to that era in the history of the US sequel to the emancipation of slaves, and pull out all that we know about efforts made by some prominent individuals in society at the time to repatriate those who had just been emancipated from slavery back to Africa. The rationale that underscored the convictions of advocates of repatriation of emancipated slaves was their presumed in-assimilability into the mainstream of American society. When the quest for repatriation failed, advocates of repatriation embraced policies and an unaccommodating mindset that produced a permanent underclass of citizens who still constitute a continuing burden and drag on society and its members. Anyone who is in doubt about the burden and drag of an underclass of Black citizens on America needs only pay a visit to the penitentiaries where most of the confined are Black and male. If the one factors the amount of public dollars (127 billion in 1998 alone) spent yearly on incarceration into the social costs of incarceration, the one will have a better idea of what I’m talking about. When history repeats itself the outcome is often farce or tragedy.

For a nation of immigrants, there’s no viable alternative to a whole-hearted absorption of the estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants who are already present in this country. The fact that most of them are Hispanics has no bearing on the practical logic that calls for their absorption.

Why do I believe so? Those who clamor for criminalizing the presence of 12 million people lack the logistics of getting rid of them. They also lack the higher responsibility of permanently locking them out. Any measure that drives such a stupendous number of people underground and pave the way for creating another underclass of non-citizens and citizens, because it will make it impossible for 12 million people and their children to position and prepare themselves adequately for life in this society. A permanent underclass of 12 million people will establish an extensive legacy that will haunt America today and beyond.

An experience that I had three years ago gives me cause to conclude that the alternative to absorbing these twelve million undocumented people would amount to suicide for America. The experience began when I deposited a check into my account in the ATM at a branch of my bank located in a predominantly Hispanic neighborhood. My check got missing for a long time, and was almost lost due specifically to the limited literacy of the Hispanic employee of the bank who processed checks deposited in the ATM that day. An investigation revealed that she was unable to decipher the digits of my account number as I wrote them, but rather than call the attention of her supervisor she left it unprocessed and simply bundled it along with the rest. The shortage of a well educated Hispanic work force played a role in my ordeal. Like all the other businesses, my bank was driven by the quest to attract and retain Hispanic customers in that neighborhood to hire and deploy an all-Hispanic staff in that branch. No one can condemn such a practice, but at least one of them lacked sufficient English language skills that were needed to process my deposit.

The day will come when the dictates of liberal politics in a liberal democracy will enable Hispanic Americans to elect one of their own into the highest office in the land. To presume that such a day will not dawn will be wishful. America will have itself to blame if it doesn’t ensure that when that day dawns, the individual who will be elected will be qualified enough to discharge his duties credibly. A punitive immigration bill will not be part of that preparation.