Guests Who Pose No Threat
By John Cornyn
Monday, November 17, 2003; Page A25
Last month, headlines across the country announced that an orchestrated raid on Wal-Mart stores had turned up 250 undocumented immigrants employed as janitors, floor cleaners and general laborers. This type of controversy makes for good press, but the truth is these headlines only obscure the truth about the depth of our immigration problems.
The Wal-Mart workers were here illegally, to be sure. But it appears that they were not here to sell drugs, nor were they here as terrorists. They were merely doing their best to grasp a small part of the American dream -- working hard to earn low wages, money that many of them saved to send home to their families, a practice that is all too common for immigrants. For example, nearly one Mexican in five regularly receives money from relatives employed in the United States.
While law enforcement resources were expended hunting down the Wal-Mart workers, other risks were receiving much less attention, even though they clearly pose a much greater threat. Further examination of our immigration system reveals a litany of such overlooked outrages.
An estimated 8 million to 10 million individuals are in this country illegally. The number of deportable criminals among the undocumented immigrants living in America is unknown. Social Security numbers are key pieces of information used in creating false identities. Under Social Security Administration policy, individuals are allowed to obtain 52 replacement Social Security cards every year. In fact, 69 percent of the 18 million Social Security cards issued in 2002 were replacement cards. This policy increases the potential for fraudulent use of Social Security numbers by undocumented immigrants and others. Finally, 300,000 to 400,000 individuals are on final orders of deportation from the United States -- but our government doesn't know where they are and thus cannot enforce the deportation rulings.
The outrageous facts about our border security merit our attention and, more important, our action. We need to start paying attention to these 300,000-plus people running from final orders of deportation, not just 250 people mopping floors in Wal-Marts. Our immigration system must distinguish between the benign and the dangerous, and our law enforcement resources must be dedicated to hunting the real bad guys.
The sheer number of potential security risks, the horrible costs of human smuggling and the enormous gap between the resources offered to border agencies and the resources needed to enforce the law have gone unaddressed by the federal government.
Immigration concerns have gained even more urgency in the security-focused post-9/11 world. Yet special-interest groups still dominate the discourse, promoting their ideology over America's security and employing the potent but morally repugnant rhetoric of fear.
We allow these groups to decide these issues by default at our own peril. We must acknowledge that we have done far too little to reform a system that cries out for change. The fruit of our current border policy is nothing but death, danger and denial.
I am convinced that we must finally recognize the truth about our border with Mexico. Every day families, businesses and workers cross the border. They own property on both sides of the border. They marry and raise families across the border. They fill jobs that in many cases go unfilled in the United States, and they create jobs. They work and they live across national boundaries. We can no longer deny both the sheer number of undocumented immigrants in our country and the extent to which their labor makes a positive contribution to our economy.
The guest worker program I have proposed in the Border Security and Immigration Reform Act of 2003 acknowledges the vital role hard-working immigrants play in our economy and creates a comprehensive program that will serve as an important step toward reestablishing respect for our laws. It will strengthen America's homeland security, facilitate enforcement of our immigration and labor laws and protect the millions who labor today outside the protection of the law.
My proposal gives undocumented immigrants an incentive to come out of the shadows, to work within the law and then to return to their homes and families with the pay and skills they acquire as guest workers in the United States. It would protect immigrants from exploitation and from violence, and guest workers would no longer have reason to fear the authorities. They would come to see the law as an ally, not an enemy.
We need to spend our time chasing down the real threats to our nation -- the smugglers, drug dealers and terrorists -- not simply those merely looking for a better life for themselves and their loved ones. In the end, making scapegoats of Wal-Mart workers won't solve any of our border security or immigration problems, and it won't make our nation any more secure. Identifying, detaining and deporting real threats to our nation and our families will.
The writer is a Republican senator from Texas.
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