Immigration has moved to the front burner in this country. Thoughtful people are writing thoughtfully – Jane Galt has a trio (is that a theme today?) of such posts:
Some rambling thoughts on immigration,
Unwanted guests?
More on immigration.
What I haven’t seen is what is driving the issue today – it’s really about Mexican immigrants and the large influx of illegal immigrants over our border with Mexico. Absent that large flow over a large border, we wouldn’t be having this discussion. I guess nobody wants to sound like a racist, but what grabs people’s attention isn’t how many technically savvy people come in on HB-1 visas from Asia and India, but how many poor Mexicans are willing to risk death to live in the United States.
The stakes are high all around on this issue – for both Mexico and the United States. We really want to get the answer right — and that does include all aspects of immigration, including how many HB-1 visas are issued.
And let’s face it, its better to be poor in the United States than it is in Mexico. I can’t say as I blame people who are trying to make a better life for themselves. But we need to balance everybodies interests, and not focus too exclusively on one particular group.
We need to take a dispassionate look at what we want the end state to be, and then figure out how to get there. I’d start with a Mexico that poor people aren’t willing to risk death to leave. So our ultimate goal is a Mexico that has the political and economic institutions that are able to take care of all its citizens. Of course, we have to (1) survive in the meantime, while (2) we help Mexico get there. So that means that while we look at the range of options on how the US deals with immigration, we need to always be looking at the effect that these measures have on Mexico (and really all the countries that have people who want to get out). For instance, building a wall along the entire border – what are the effects on immigration, the effects on the US, the effects on Mexico – all these things need to be considered, not just one.
