JUSTICE FOR IMMIGRANTS
2007 Statement
by GVPJ Member, Mark Harris

Grand Valley Peace and Justice supports comprehensive immigration reform. We do so from a moral, economic, political, and practical perspective. The following commentary expands upon the basic reasons for our support of comprehensive immigration policy reform. This discussion draws heavily upon Tamar Jacoby,s "Immigration Nation", Foreign Affairs, pages 50-65, Nov/Dec 2006.

As "Faithful Citizens," Grand Valley Peace and Justice recognizes the need for immigration reform. At the same time we recognize the obligation of our government to protect the interests and security of its citizens. We also recognize an obligation to the undocumented workers who have helped us prosper. We believe that Colorado and America can do better by these people, their employers, and the American public, than enforcement only, non-comprehensive immigration policy such as House Bill 4437 and the "The Secure Fence Act of 2006," authorizing 700 miles of border fence.

As President Bush has commented, immigration is about people, not just policy. These undocumented immigrants are real people whose lives and livelihoods are at stake. The 400 plus people who die coming north every year in hopes of a better future are a blight on our collective conscience. Grand Valley Peace and Justice believes that we are indeed our brother's keeper, and that America can do better than simply build a wall which funnels immigrants coming North into the most lethal areas of the Southwestern desert to perish. Certainly this is not the comprehensive immigration policy reform America needs so desperately.

Comprehensive immigration policy reform must (1) address the root causes of migration; (2) include a path to citizenship for undocumented workers through an earned legalization program; (3) create a temporary worker program which includes appropriate worker protections for both U.S. and foreign-born workers; (4) reform the family based immigration system to reduce waiting time for family reunification; and (5) guarantee legal due process to all undocumented workers. Such provisions are fundamental to immigration policy reform that maintains the dignity of each human person and recognizes the importance of the immigrant to the US economy and their contribution to richness of American culture. Any policy reform that violates this principal of human dignity is not good enough. Regardless of their other merits, any such proposal must be resisted and improved.

Grand Valley Peace and Justice is a faith-based organization, and as such, believes the gospel message does not separate Jew or gentile, free or slave, friend or enemy, legal or illegal from the love and the grace of God. In fact, we are called upon to defer to the needs of the poor, the powerless, the stranger. Therefore, we are obligated, required, commanded, to view the consequences of our actions regarding immigration policy reform in the light of our faith.

Conflicting Values Create Moral Dilemmas

What has been particularly obvious in the political debate surrounding immigration reform has been the extreme difficulty in reaching a consensus as to how to proceed with repairing a system that is judged by all concerned to be dysfunctional. In contrast to our usual partisan politics, the confusion as to who fits where politically in this argument is unusual, and is perhaps refreshing and encouraging. The immigration debate has pitted several closely held American beliefs, and their proponents, against each other.

The belief that opportunity should be afforded to everyone, even those in other countries, runs into the individualism and the "I got mine the hard way" attitude many of us have. The belief in the rule of law and the consequent belief that undocumented workers are criminals is contrary to our American sense of making amends and fair-play. We admire and respect the courage, family-values, and work ethic of those who risk everything to come here to work. We have rewarded those who make this dangerous undocumented trip North with a job. Many of us are troubled by turning our backs on friends, neighbors, co-workers, and others who have been hard working, otherwise law abiding members of our economy and productive members of society. We see that they, like us, are just trying to make ends meet.

Our justifiable concern for security and a manageable border policy conflicts with our need to come to grips with what has become a global economy. Goods and services, information, and capital flow across international borders with great fluidity and people will do the same to follow the opportunities. US trade policy has had consequences that we did not adequately anticipate. Our inability to fill all the jobs that our robust economy creates with existing American workers and the unwillingness to reform our immigration policy in the light of reality has, by default, increased illegal immigration and made employers and others criminals as well. Something is terribly wrong with this picture. Nothing less than comprehensive immigration reform will fix these problems.

For many Christians, and others, a moral and religious dilemma exists concerning our thinking about immigrants and immigration policy reform. Most Americans want to do the right thing, but as we have seen we struggle with defining what that is. We may not fully admit, or even fully recognize, the friction between loving our neighbor unconditionally as the means to loving God as we should, and the risk that creates for us personally, financially, emotionally, and physically. Most polls continue to confirm that while many Americans are gravely concerned about the increasing flow of undocumented workers into this country, most of those same people want to increase the flow of legal immigrants in a comprehensive, humane, and practical way. (It is fair to say that the remaining 25% of the population who do not favor this approach blocked comprehensive immigration reform in 2006, but those political circumstances have changed.)

Faithful Citizenship

Taken together, these conflicts have created a moral, social, economic, and political tension in the lives of native born Americans and immigrants, the communities in which they live, and for the United States. Comprehensive immigration policy reform is fundamental to the relief of that tension. Grand Valley Peace and Justice believes in the genius of America and its mission to be a beacon of hope, compassion, and opportunity to the people of the world, including Americans, putting Judeo-Christian religious moral principle into active service to mankind.

Yes, we absolutely have obligations to the interests of the American citizen and taxpayer. But we also have an absolute obligation to sustain and continue the pursuit of the American dream for ourselves and for the world. It is not only the right thing to do, but it is in our national best interest as well. We abandon that pursuit at great peril. And for many of us in the faith community, the continued search for peace and justice in political, economic, and social life is the only way we can discharge our gospel obligation to seek the face of Jesus in the face of the poor, the weak, the stranger, the immigrant.

Comprehensive Immigration Policy Reform and National Security
The counter-terrorism campaign has confused national security with controlling the flow of immigrants across America's southern border. It has not been suggested by any serious terrorism expert that the US southern border has been providing access for Mid-eastern terrorists. It is reported that in the last five years less than 1% of all detentions have been of people from, what the State Department calls, "countries of interest" in the Mid-east. The overwhelming majority of those coming north are Mexicans. Central Americans account for about 75% of those not Mexican, and South Americans make up nearly all the remainder. It appears that Mid-East terrorists are not coming into the country on foot from Mexico.

In fact, the US government's efforts to stem undocumented immigration by fortifying the US-Mexico border have increased the profitability of the people-smuggling business and fostered greater sophistication in smuggling networks. The share of undocumented immigrants apprehended along the border who were smuggled rose from 5.5% in 1992 to 22.2% in 2004. US national security would be better served if undocumented labor migration was taken out of the border-security equation by reforming the US immigration system to accommodate US labor demand.

Fewer immigrants would try to enter the country without authorization, the market for people-smugglers would be undercut, and prospective foreign terrorists would be deprived of the large undocumented flows and smuggling networks which might aid their entry. Most importantly, US Border Patrol resources could be focused on finding terrorists and less on apprehending job seekers. (Walter A. Ewing, Ph.D)

"Until lawmakers create new avenues for both permanent and temporary immigration that are realistic and flexible, US national security will continue to be undermined by border enforcement efforts that divert labor migration through undocumented channels and into the hands of people smugglers."

The Rule of Law and Comprehensive Immigration Policy Reform

Many pieces of proposed legislation would deprive illegal immigrants of legal due process. Automatic, and in some cases extended detentions are proposed. Both Americans who fear for their civil liberties when they see others deprived of theirs and those who see the total impracticality of seizures and long term detention of those suspected of immigration violations object to these proposals to deny undocumented immigrants of legal due process. The siege mentality which allows for these suspensions of legal due process have, historically, fortunately, been short-lived. Americans just don't tolerate them very well for very long. Americans have been long and justifiably proud that they have been the leading protector of individual rights in the world. It is a role we relinquish at great peril to us and the world.

Now on the other hand, many who are ready to deprive the undocumented immigrant of their legal due process want to use the rule of law to brand the undocumented worker a criminal. To make them and those who employ or give them aid a felon. Moving immigration related violations from civil, or even misdemeanor, status to that of felonies makes it easier to suggest draconian measures for the control and punishment of such persons. But, the argument goes, they broke the law. Nobody is above the law. And this
is undeniable. There is no country in the world where legal values play a more prominent role in the nation's conception of itself than the United States. The rule of law has been a unifying force in American society. Persons of many other cultures may find the role of formal law in the United States rather strange.

But the law in the United States has a particular purpose. A purpose that makes nearly all of us willingly follow the law most of the time. And that purpose is the creation and maintenance of justice. At its best the law gives us parameters in which to conduct a civil and functioning society. Our sense of fair play and common sense lead us to know unequivocally that many of us will break the law, sometimes purposely and sometimes out of ignorance. Ignorance of the law has certainly never been a defense nor has purposeful law breaking been taken lightly. But we have evolved a component in American justice that we believe serves us well, both when we may be the recipient of legal action, and as a means to guide the legal system and the individual on the road to making restitution, rehabilitation, and assimilation into legal society. Compassion for the person having made a mistake and his right and obligation to make it right with society guide a good deal of our personal thinking about the law. We don't consider this amnesty in other legal circumstances and it is not proposed in the case of undocumented workers already in this country.

Those who support comprehensive immigration reform want to give the undocumented a chance to normalize their legal status, pay their dues to society and go back to work That is the practical, savvy, American way.

Rather than view all undocumented immigrants in the same light we should the focus in individual cases to how the immigrants have comported themselves while in residence here. Proposals that draw on the time honored concept of rehabilitation after paying one's debt to society seem to point to a path between what is generally known as amnesty, the complete dismissal of a transgression and the flat out punitive nature of enforcement- only legislation. If nothing else the practicalities of dealing with the perhaps 10 million or more undocumented immigrants in American today, the vast majority that we want and need here, require some legal middle ground.

The American legal system is an organic creation, it evolves. Where the law stands before right, right will carry the day. The law will eventually change to accommodate the needs of the country and the people whom it serves.

Economics Are Basic to Comprehensive Immigration Policy Reform

To quote Benjamin Johnson of the Immigration Policy Center at the American Immigration Law Foundation in his testimony before the United States Senate Judiciary committee this summer, "The root of the current crisis of undocumented immigration is a fundamental disconnect between today's economic and labor market realities and an outdated system of legal immigration. Undocumented immigration is driven in large part by a US labor market that is creating a high demand for less-skilled workers than is being met by the native-born labor force or by the current legal limits on immigration. Migration from Mexico in particular has increased over the past two decades as the US and Mexican governments have actively promoted the economic integration of the two countries. As the past decade and a half of failed federal border-enforcement efforts make
clear, immigration policies that ignore these larger economic forces merely drive immigration underground rather than effectively regulate it. In short, there is an unsustainable contradiction between US economic policy and US immigration policy, and economics is winning. The problem is not undocumented immigrants, but a broken immigration system that sends the dual messages "Keep Out" and "Help Wanted" to Mexican, Central American, and other foreign workers the US economy depends on."

And the problem is growing. As the native workforce becomes older and better educated
they become less likely to fill the number of less skilled jobs available. And the number of these less-skilled jobs is increasing. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) projects that
between 2002 and 2012 a significant share of new jobs and job openings will be in industries that employ large numbers of workers with lower levels of formal education or training. BLS projects that 75 percent of new job openings during this period will be filled by workers who do not have a bachelor's degree and who are entering the profession for the first time. 48 percent of all job openings in this period are expected to be held by workers who have a high school diploma or less. According to BLS, between 2002 and 2012 75 million baby boomers will leave the economy and the economy is expected to generate 56 million new jobs. Declining native-born fertility rates will be approaching only replacement level. Consider this fact: in 1960, half of all American men dropped out of high school to look for unskilled work, whereas less than 10 per cent do so today.

This is not just a matter of increasing wages to fill the jobs. The construction industry, for example, creates some 185,000 jobs annually, and although construction workers now earn between $30,000 and $50,000 a year, employers in trades such as masonry and dry-walling report that they cannot find enough young Americans to do the work. The restaurant and hotel trades are in worse shape. Farming, fisheries, and forestry industries are heavily dependent upon immigrant labor as well. The American Farm Bureau, a conservative voice in American agriculture, predicts that if HR 4437 becomes the law of the land one-third or more of our fruit and vegetable market will move out of the United States. It is hard to believe we have made energy independence a national priority and won't do the same for our food.

The immigrant does more than simply fill the need for lower-skilled labor. Their presence in this country creates economic activity and makes the economy bigger than it would otherwise be. Freeing up native workers for higher skilled work is the key to much of our national productivity resulting in the robustness of our economy.

94 percent of all illegal immigrants are at work. Not even legal immigrants, who account
for two-thirds of the total influx, are eligible during their first five to ten years in the United states, for the kind of welfare transfers that could sustain them without work.

For some the question will yet remain, does the United States spend more on these workers than what they pay in taxes. Set aside the contribution of an expanding economy,
gains in productivity for the American worker which increased earning power for most workers, and providing workers for jobs we are no longer able to fill. In most states the net effect is wash. True, much of the immigrant population is poor and unskilled, which inevitably deduces their net contribution to tax revenue. But most nonetheless pay as much to the government as comparable poor and unskilled native workers and require the same level of services. And even undocumented immigrants pay sales and property taxes, thus contributing to their children's schooling.

While it may true that sometimes the welfare burden is not fairly distributed between the states and the federal government immigration is a net gain for the entire economy and a requirement in many industries. Not facing up the reality of the problem will not make it go away.

There are Solutions

As Josh McDaniel wrote in the Daily Sentinel in the summer of 2007, creating a system that works is possible, but we have to move the debate away from hysteria on all sides and start recognizing the realities of our economy. Understanding the root causes of labor migration will allow a better solution to the problem. The definition of a realistic immigration policy is one in which the annual legal intake is more or less equal to the flow generated by supply and demand: not the 5000 year round visas currently issued to unskilled workers, but something more like 400,000 needed to fill the take the jobs that our ever expanding economy creates.

A well constructed guest worker program for the inflow of a more realistic number of legal workers must be adopted. It must have appropriate worker protections for US and foreign born workers. We must recognize that both high-skilled and low-skilled workers are needed in our economy and we do not have to decide between the two. To get the full economic value out labor migration America needs both.

Border enforcement has been shown to be unproductive and increasingly inhumane. A partial wall will compound the problems. It will likely drive more immigration under ground and into the hands of people smugglers and those involved in violent crime, drugs, and extortion. Equally as reprehensible is our apparent policy of denying the undocumented workers not just legal due process, but with denying them social services and political securities in an attempt to intimidate and finally force the immigrant to leave on his own. Comprehensive immigration reform including employee verification and employer sanctions for knowingly hiring the illegal, while at the same time providing a realistic number of legal workers, is the only way to provide for effective, practical, and humane immigration policy.

For workers already here and for those wishing to stay in the future there must be a path to earned citizenship. We can both recognize their legal status and start them on the road to legality and normalized residency. A path to earned citizenship is a non-negotiable element for real reform that is good for the immigrant and for existing citizens. Without a path to earned citizenship we find ourselves in a moral and social predicament. As Americans are we really comfortable with saying that these people are good enough to do our work but not good enough to become citizens. Is it any doubt why a group in such limbo has difficulty assimilating into society? It is not they who impede assimilation, it is us.

We are all culpable. All of us share in the benefit and blame for our failed immigration policy, not just employers in some industries, in some parts of the country. All of us, not just the government have accepted this situation with a wink and a nod.
We have not stopped eating in restaurants, or staying in motels, or using construction and landscape services, or consuming cheap, abundant, high quality food or the many other goods and services made possible and brought to us by the immigrant, documented and undocumented. Admitting the realities of immigration and our role in them will carry us a long way towards practical, sane, humane comprehensive immigration reform.

You Can Make a Difference

To return to where we began, Grand Valley Peace and Justice firmly believes that for reasons of national security, economics and employment, the rule of law, American history and tradition, for sound social reasons, and not least, on moral grounds that comprehensive immigration reform is the best policy approach, and will ultimately be passed by Congress. The discussion will be difficult and contentious, but comprehensive immigration reform makes sense, is more practical, and makes far more economic sense for Americans than punitive, enforcement only legislation. Bad laws don't work and they don't last.

There will be a multitude of specific ideas and individual immigration reform policies
advanced in the upcoming weeks. There will not be perfect distribution of effects on workers, employers, and all those living within our borders, whether they are native- or foreign-born, and the towns, cities, and states in which they live. Now is the time for us to actively support legislative activities which will lead to comprehensive immigration policy reform. Add your voice to the Western Colorado Justice for Immigrants Coalition as we encourage President Bush and the US Congress to recommit themselves to passage of this important legislation.

The immigration policy debate concerns not only immigration, it concerns the immigrant.These are real people whose lives and livelihoods are at stake. GVPJ agrees with the President Bush's belief that every immigrant is not just a resource to be managed, but a person that must be treated with dignity and respect. Any immigration policy which does not do that, is not good enough.

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last updated May 7, 2007

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