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American Dream: liberty and prosperity, Transforming America

A three step plan for halting the influx of illegal aliens



Two of the iconic phrases that best describe the American experience are “nation of immigrants” and “land of opportunity.” For over 300 years people from around the world have flocked to these shores. They came in search of the American Dream: liberty and prosperity.

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In his classic study, People of Plenty: Economic abundance and the American character, Professor David M. Potter makes a compelling case for the proposition that the United States is a nation whose national character has been shaped by the perception that there is limitless economic abundance. The difference between Americans and other nationalities isn’t that the answer to “Who wants to be a millionaire?” is “Everyone!” The difference is that in the US everyone believes that with hard work and a little luck they can become millionaires. The Modern Language Association, using 2000 Census data, estimates that 149 non-indigenous languages are spoken in the United States. No other nation has so diverse a population of non-native speakers. Another iconic phrase that describes the American experience is “melting pot.” Traditionally, first generation immigrants spoke little or no English when they set foot in the US. They struggled to learn enough English to function in American society. Their children were bilingual, speaking their parents’ language at home and English at school and work. The third generation was predominately monolingual, speaking only English. For example, among third generation Asian-Americans, 92% speak only English. Professor Richard Alba, in a study published by the Migration Policy Institute, used a sample of 2000 Census data to compute the percentage of English only speakers among children of immigrants by the third generation. Alba acknowledges that “bilingualism persists to a greater extent among third-generation Hispanic groups, lending some truth to the claims…that an older pattern of language assimilation…has broken down.” However, he concludes that “the language assimilation patterns of today…do not appear to pose any threat to English as the language that cements the nation and its culture.” His conclusion fails to take into account the impact that the huge influx of illegal Hispanic aliens is having on American society. The Urban Institute estimated that in March 2002 there were 9.3 million illegal aliens living in the US and 7.5 million of them were from Latin America, 5.3 million from Mexico alone. The Pew Hispanic Center estimated that by 2008 the number of illegal aliens had increased to 11.9 million. Other analysts have come up with estimates that are as high as 20 million. The real number of illegal aliens living in the United States is unknown. According to the Pew Hispanic Center since 1970 there has been a 17-fold increase in immigrants from Mexico. Mexicans make up 32% of all immigrants in the United States and six out of every ten Mexicans is living here illegally. The Center reports that “no other country in the world has as many total immigrants from all countries as the United States has immigrants from Mexico alone.” The Center also reports that while the number of Mexicans entering the United States has declined in the past several years due to fewer opportunities for employment in the US because of the economic downturn, there has been no increase in the number of Mexicans returning to Mexico from the United States. A recent attitudinal survey conducted in Mexico by the Pew Hispanic Center found that Mexicans are overwhelmingly dissatisfied with the crime, corruption and economic conditions in their country. Of those surveyed, 57% believed that life is better in the United States than it is in Mexico, 33% responded that they would move to the US if they could, and 18% said they would do so even if they had to enter the United States illegally. Given the disparity between the economic and other opportunities afforded in Mexico and those available in the United States, Mexicans will continue to cross our border. The position of the Mexican Legal Defense and Educational Fund is that “the immigrant community embraces English because it recognizes that learning English is essential for participation and success in American society.” At the same time, the Fund vigorously opposes all attempts to make English the official national language of the United States because “English is already the language of government” as evidenced by the fact “that the overwhelming majority of US Government documents are printed in English only.” A reasonable person might ask why if English is already the de facto national language of the United States, what possible harm would come from officially recognizing it as the de jure language. The Fund’s response is that “making English the sole national language goes against global trends.” Making English a national language would be acceptable only if it was “done in tandem with making other languages…the national language and acknowledging that the country is composed of people speaking several primary languages.” The Mexican Legal Defense and Educational Fund envisions the day when English and Spanish will be the two official national languages of the United States. The current size of America’s Hispanic population even with the high birth rate among Hispanics would not by itself lead to Spanish becoming America’s second language. Neither does legal immigration from Latin America pose a threat to American culture. Unfortunately, illegal immigration from Mexico and Central America does. The continuing influx of illegal Hispanic aliens is a swelling tide that is changing the United States from a melting pot to a polyglot, and if this invasion is not halted, it will change America’s national character. Illegal Hispanic aliens, according to the Pew Hispanic Center, have “fairly low levels of formal education…so the kinds of jobs available to them in the United States are somewhat limited.” They have little need to learn English because they live in Spanish speaking enclaves and are supervised at work by bilingual Hispanics. The question Americans must ask themselves is whether our society can long withstand the impact of this massive and continuing influx of persons whose mores are derived from societies such as those in Mexico and Central America. In the absence of any compulsion to adhere to the values and traditions of the United States, will they in the fullness of time and numbers replicate the societies that gave rise to their unfortunate condition to begin with? When it comes to illegal immigration, Democrats and Republicans pay lip service to the need to secure our southern border. “Secure the Border” has become a mantra for America’s politicians. With the cooperation of the Mexican government, it might be possible to secure the border, but the truth is that the Mexican government has no reason to help the United States secure its border, and every reason not to. The amount of money Mexicans living in the US send back home represents significant income for Mexico. According to a Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas report, remittances by Mexicans living in the United States to Mexico exceed Mexico’s foreign direct investment by 30%, and equal roughly 3% of Mexico’s GDP and nearly 60% of its oil export revenues. As the US economy rebounds, both the number of illegal aliens entering the United States from Mexico and the remittances to Mexico will undoubtedly increase. It would be counter to Mexico’s national interest for the Mexican government to help the US try to stop the flow of illegal Mexican aliens. Without the assistance of the Mexican government, the only way to secure the southern border of the United States would be to build a wall stretching 1,952 miles from the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico. To be effective, security measures like those used to keep the East Germans behind the Berlin Wall and those used by the Israelis to prevent the infiltration of terrorists would have to be employed. A majority of Americans might be in favor of building such a wall, and American politicians might support the concept in theory, but the political reality is that the kind of wall and related security measures required to cut off the flow of illegal Mexican aliens will never be built. The large and politically influential Hispanic community would be opposed, and the American people would be appalled by the watch towers, floodlights, electric fences, landmines and other lethal measures that would be required to prevent illegal border crossings. The vast majority of the illegal aliens entering the US from Mexico and Central America come in search of work, and by and large they end up taking unskilled jobs. According to the Pew Hispanic Center, in March 2005, illegal Hispanic aliens made up 4.9% of the US civilian labor force. They accounted for 24% of all workers in farming, 17% in cleaning, 14% in construction and 12% in food preparation and service. Significant portions of the American economy are dependent on foreign laborers. Another term US politicians like to bandy about is “comprehensive immigration reform.” If our goal is to stop illegal aliens from entering the United States, all of the laws required are already in place.

Employment Eligibility Verification

The Department of Homeland Security maintains an Internet-based system, E-Verify, that enables employers using the information provided by a job applicant on his or her I-9 (Employment Eligibility Verification) to determine the eligibility of that person to work in the United States. Employers who knowingly hire illegal aliens are subject to criminal penalties of up to $3,000 for each illegal hired and/or 6 months imprisonment. Currently the use of E-Verify is mandatory only for Federal contract employers. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) maintains 21 illegal alien detention centers in the US. On average, illegal aliens who are apprehended spend 32 days in detention before being deported. Persons who enter the United States illegally are subject to criminal penalties of up to 6 months imprisonment for a first offense and up to 2 years for repeat offenses. Persons using fraudulent documents for the purposes of employee eligibility can be sentenced to 5 years in prison. The Currency and Foreign Transactions Reporting Act imposes severe penalties on financial institutions and their employees who engage in money laundering. It is a crime to be in the United States illegally. An employee of a financial institution that knows or suspects an illegal alien is seeking to transfer funds to a foreign account is guilty of money laundering. Individuals, including bank employees, can be sentenced to up to 20 years in prison for a money laundering transaction. Businesses can be fined $500,000.

H-2A program for temporary agricultural workers and an H-2B program for temporary non-agricultural workers

The United States has an H-2A program for temporary agricultural workers and an H-2B program for temporary non-agricultural workers. These programs allow US employers to bring foreign nationals to the US to fill temporary or seasonal jobs for which US workers are not available. There is no cap on the number of temporary agricultural worker visas (H-2A) that may be issued annually, but the number of non-agricultural temporary worker visas (H-2B) that can be issued annually is capped at 66,000. Under both programs the employer must demonstrate that there are not a sufficient number of US workers who are able, willing and available to do the job. The employer also must show that the wages and working conditions of the foreign national temporary workers will be comparable to those of similarly employed US workers. The employer pays the cost of transporting the foreign national from his or her country to the United States and the return transportation cost at the completion of the employment contract. Workers compensation insurance must be provided by the employer. The employer must also meet a number of other provisions intended to insure that the temporary workers are not mistreated. Spouses of temporary workers holding H-2A or H-2B visas and their unmarried children under the age of 21 may apply for an H-4 nonimmigrant visa in order to accompany the temporary worker to the US. The first sentence of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution states that “all persons born…in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States.” Written in 1866 to extend US citizenship to recently emancipated African-Americans, the amendment was never intended to grant United States citizenship to the children of foreign nationals born on US soil. To prevent an expansion of the temporary worker programs from becoming a shortcut to citizenship, it is imperative that a constitutional amendment granting citizenship only to children of United States citizens be adopted. To regain control of the immigration process, the United States Government needs to take the following three steps. First, eliminate the cap on H-2B visas. Second, give employers 180 days to use the E-Verify system to confirm the eligibility of their current employees and to request H-2A and H-2B visas for any illegal aliens that they employ. Third, at the conclusion of the 180 day period give any aliens who were not granted H-2A or H-2B visas and any other unemployed illegal aliens 90 days to leave the US without prejudicing their opportunity to return either as temporary workers or as legal immigrants. Those who fail to do so, when apprehended, would be subject to criminal penalties and permanently barred from reentering the United States. (Currently, persons who stay in the US for 6-12 months beyond the expiration of their visa are barred from reentering the United States for a period of 3 years. Those who overstay their visas by more than a year are barred from reentering the US for 10 years.) At the end of the initial grace period, begin to enforce our laws requiring employers to verify the eligibility of job applicants to work in the United States and requiring banks and other financial institutions to report any attempts by illegal aliens to remit funds to a foreign country. There is little incentive to enter the US illegally if you can’t work or send money home. Stopping the influx of illegal aliens will allow ICE to devote its limited resources to preventing terrorists, drug smugglers, people traffickers and other criminals from crossing our borders.


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Al Kaltman -- Bio and Archives

Al Kaltman is a political science professor who teaches a leadership studies course at George Washington University.  He is the author of Cigars, Whiskey and Winning: Leadership Lessons from General Ulysses S. Grant.


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