 |
|
|
 Editorials | Opinions | April 2007 
A Marshall Plan for South of the Border?
 Alexander Simon - palmbeachpost.com
Today, Americans are struggling with the issue of immigration, especially from Latin America, which has enormous impact on our way of life.
It is long past time for dealing with this difficult issue. Yet stopgap solutions, such as walls and armies at the Mexican border, are demanded.
It is estimated that there are now more than 12 million illegal immigrants in the United States, and we continue to receive more than 3 million immigrants each year, nearly 1 million illegal. An estimated 25 percent of all immigrants enter from Mexico each year. Most are poor, jobless people looking for freedom and opportunity to earn a living and feed their families, the same two reasons millions of immigrants have come to America since the 1600s. While the numbers of today's immigrants are very large, as a percentage of the existing population, they are not unprecedented. These numbers will increase unless long-term solutions are formed.
How did we get here?
In 1986, Congress passed an amnesty law that encouraged a flood of illegal and legal immigrants from Latin America. Six more amnesty laws were passed by Congress, encouraging millions of Latin Americans to join family members who previously entered illegally. They came in droves.
Compared with Latin America, the United States offers freedom, jobs, a mature infrastructure, universal education, and health care. America's free enterprise system is a unique economic engine producing millions of well-paying jobs year in and year out. Sadly, this is not true of Latin America.
In contrast, Latin America, from the beginning, was owned by the Spanish Crown, who transferred its feudal system to the Americas.
More than 95 percent of the people had no voice, no ownership, no freedom, no opportunity and no human dignity. It has been that way for most of the 500 years since Columbus arrived. Even today, the disparity between the rich and powerful and the poor and weak grows wider, creating more problems. Latin America, controlled by a few, does not create adequate, well-paying jobs, and infrastructure remains underdeveloped.
Has the United States' government encouraged land reform and private enterprise? On the contrary, it has been exploitive, controlling and supportive of the powerful. As a result, today, the majority of Latin America's population are poor, powerless and frustrated. They are responding to promises of reform by voting for those leaders we label socialists, those who verbally attack America, yet promote the ideas that made America great, including ownership and homestead rights, universal education and health care.
And what are we doing? The last U.S. president who even noticed there was a Latin America was John F. Kennedy with his Alliance for Progress. President Bush, after six years of ignoring our neighbors to the south, finally made a trip to Latin America recently.
Our government must quickly change its policies toward Latin America. I submit we are in a very serious situation similar to post-World War II, when millions of Europeans raced to our shores looking for freedom and opportunity. Did we build walls to stop them? On the contrary. Secretary of State George Marshall, a true statesman, announced for the Truman administration what became the Marshall Plan. Billions of U.S. dollars were sent to rebuild the infrastructure of Western Europe. It created jobs and built long-lasting friendships with these new allies. We should do the same thing in Latin America.
We should not build walls to keep them out. This breeds only hatred and resentment. Instead, we should help our neighbors build adequate infrastructures, schools, hospitals, invest in their factories and create jobs all over Latin America. The cost would certainly be less than our failed Middle East policies which have cost America so dearly. America was built on human rights and opportunity. Why do we reject them with our neighbors?
We will have to choose either to import Latin American goods or Latin Americans themselves, because as long as we Americans enjoy liberties that they do not have, they will continue to immigrate here in great numbers. We should work to lessen the enormous differences of opportunity available in Latin America, convincing those people they would be better off staying with their families in their native lands.
America must retrain its energies away from seeking confrontation, prevention with walls and military efforts. We must turn to the south and reassess our global strategies. We must invest with our closest neighbors before it is too late. |
| |
|
Vallarta Weddings
Tell a Friend
Site Map
Print this Page
Email Us