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 Editorials | Opinions | December 2007 
Open Door to Mexico, See Prosperity Walk Through It
 Roy R. Reynolds - Houston Chronicle
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Texas, by luck of geographic position, serves naturally as one of the front lines for the debate on immigration.
The state's location and wealth of opportunity make it an attractive destination for foreign workers, which has led to some anti-immigrant feelings in the Houston area, according to a Rice University study released in early November. That study, highlighted by the Chronicle a few weeks ago, says a large percentage of folks in the area fear the influx of immigrants to the state endangers our culture.
Well, we need to protect our culture, even if that means completely halting migration across the river that separates Texas from those who would come here and pollute it. Indeed, we need to stop Oklahomans from crossing the Red River, lest we all start calling Cokes "pop" and building highways without shoulders.
Of course, it's really the river to our south that runs through the subject of illegal immigration. As we run up to the next national elections, the issue however obtuse dominates organized debates and stump speeches alike.
Politicians have grown hysterical over the issue in the past couple of years, even though there's no evidence that anything is happening along our borders that hasn't been going on for decades.
Tom Tancredo stopped off in the Galleria area recently to compare illegal immigration with terrorism, insisting both are a threat to the "survival of the United States of America." Even Democrats, who normally welcome anybody who'll vote Democratic (whether registered or not), have beat each other up in a nonsensical debate about issuing driver's licenses to immigrants.
But despite all the bluster, there's a quick solution to illegal immigration that doesn't involve building a wall along the border or detaining aliens as they have begun to do in Laredo: Make all immigration legal.
It's time to build a door, not a wall.
Giving Mexican citizens a pass to come here to work would damage neither Texas nor the United States. In fact, it would likely make both this country and Mexico stronger.
And giving someone an easy, legal means to enter the state would provide a much better measure of control than our current grasping of sand. If Mexicans were free to come work, then border agents would know that anyone sneaking across the Rio Grande is probably up to no good.
Immigrants legal and illegal who work on farms around the state are often very clear (though not always in English) about their intentions to return to Mexico some day. The agriculture industry is rife with stories, perhaps apocryphal, of illegal aliens who come to work for a season in the cotton fields of Texas to generate a nice bankroll, then surrender to Border Patrol agents for a free ride home.
If we allowed those workers to enter the state and work legally, a large number would still likely take their wages home to Mexico eventually, giving residents there a stake with which to create opportunities without leaving home.
It would also give small-business owners and farmers in Texas a supply of cheaper labor for the front-line jobs that are still essential to their success. A legal immigrant would also be on the hook for income taxes, unlike the "nationals" who work for cash in some instances these days.
The American work force, meanwhile, would be no more affected by the acceptance of foreign labor than it was hurt by the commercialization of the Internet. America would not lose jobs with cheap foreign labor. Instead, it would provide the opportunity for the creation of higher-level jobs that leverage our First-World educations.
Alas, this is likely a pipe dream, as Mexican immigrants face overwhelming, yet subtle, obstacles.
Before he drowned in the deep end of the propaganda pool, the loathsome Michael Moore produced a piece for his mid-90s TV Nation show that illustrated a great truth.
Moore focused his cameras on the hurdles that any Mexican citizen would face to come to America. Meanwhile, he draped a Canadian citizen with a sandwich board that read "I need a job" and had him march into the United States without being stopped.
The point was this: Our immigration system is just a little racist. We're focused so heavily on keeping Mexicans out that we're ignoring the benefits workers from that country could provide to us. We also ignore the fact that the piρata of Texan culture is filled with Christmas tamales and cowboy hats fashioned from the style of the old vaqueros.
Opening our Southern border (and before the conspiracy theorists grab hold of this article, it has nothing to do with their much-feared North American Union) would simply legalize the labor pool that already exists within Texas and other states. It would also provide our citizens with the legal means to grow our already rich supply of opportunity while bettering the poor areas of Mexico.
Then, free of that concern, we can turn our attention to Oklahoma.
Reynolds works in public relations at a Houston law firm. He can be emailed at roy.richard.reynolds(at)gmail.com. |
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