Last week the Democratic majority within the House of Representatives announced the successful culmination of what had become known as the “First 100 Hours” agenda. This list of six high-profile policy changes doubled as campaign promises for many Democrats during the midterm elections.
Included were such items as new taxes on the oil industry and an increase of the minimum wage, issues largely unaddressed by Republican predecessors. But not present on the roster of what Speaker Nancy Pelosi called “the most pressing issues our nation faces today” was the escalating problem of illegal immigration.
The litany of problems stemming from the disorder at the Mexican border is usually usurped by simplistic economic arguments. Problems such as the catastrophic effects large numbers of non-taxpaying illegal aliens are having on an already harrowed public healthcare and education sector continually take a back seat to whether or not unchecked migrant labor is good for business.
Recent headlines serve as a reminder that the issue of illegal immigration is not merely of capitalistic concern but a humanitarian concern as well. This month Tyrone Williams, a Texas truck driver, was sentenced to life imprisonment after 19 illegal immigrants died as a result of being trapped inside his sweltering tractor-trailer during a failed smuggling run. According to the U.S. Border Patrol, the surge in illegal immigration during the past eight years has led to the deaths of more than 3,000 foreign aliens.
Such fatalities are not confined to desert trails and remote stretches of highway. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration reports that each year nearly 500 foreign-born Hispanic workers die as a result of workplace-related injuries, and countless other cases go undeclared due to the workers’ illegal status.
Despite such disturbing statistics, the responsibility of addressing the topics of comprehensive immigration reform and the restructuring of border security is shuffled between the two political parties, as “big business” lobbyists use inapplicable wedge issues, such as race relations, to distort the true nature of the matter.
The American public is led to believe that middle class business owners benefit the most from the readily available and inexpensive labor provided by migrant workers, and those proposing stringent guest worker regulations are only concerned with preserving this country’s declining Anglo-American majority. In reality, the average illegal immigrant is employed by a large corporation, usually a food processing plant or clothing manufacturer, which increases its profit margins by not offering benefits, avoiding lawsuits and overworking undocumented employees rather than hiring American workers.
The newly elected Congress could appropriate funding to better secure the border, pass legislation to further enforce employment regulations and propose incentives for companies who relocate factories from overseas to Mexico or Central America. Existing legislation could be better enforced, truly holding corporations accountable for engaging in illegal employment practices that undermine the American worker and force impoverished immigrants to risk their lives in order to feed their families. Instead, we are continually misled by political talking points on progress and change, while our elected officials ignore what should be seen as, in the words of Pelosi, one of the most pressing issues our nation faces today.
