Immigration Common Sense

Archbishop Charles Chaput of Denver has some common sense observations on immigration:

The U.S. immigration problem is systemic. Attacking the symptoms -- in this case, undocumented workers in a meatpacking plant -- does nothing to address the root cause, which is economic.

Some 40 million abortions and billions of contraceptives later, Americans have a work-force shortfall. Why is anyone surprised?
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San Antonio's Archbishop José Gómez and others have pointed out that today's Latino immigrants are different in some important ways from the Irish, Italian and Polish immigrants of a century ago.

Many Latino immigrants neither want nor plan to settle here. They want to work for a while and then return home, and unlike previous generations of immigrants, they could actually do that if our system let them, because they don't need to cross an ocean.

The U.S. immigration machinery has no effective way of welcoming, licensing and tracking guest workers, and yet we need enormous numbers of them. I'd call that a failure.
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[U]ntil Latin American nations seriously reform their own legal and economic systems, they are co-responsible for the current crisis. Just pointing fingers at the United States isn't going to work. One of the implications of a hemispheric economy is that both sides of the border need to cooperate. Both sides of the border have duties.

One quibble I'd make with the Archbishop is his claim that we need immigrants to do the jobs Americans won't. I don't believe that fits the reality of all areas. Some parts of this country don't have a large amount of illegal immigration. Who does those jobs there? They aren't left undone, so there must be Americans doing them.

Employing those here illegally is often cheaper since employers don't have to pay minimum or provide benefits that they would to those with legal permission to be here. That's why we need systemic reform: those who come here in our violation of our laws have no leverage and so can easily be exploited by those with a mind to do so. (I'm not talking about your typical businesses either. Sexual exploitation is a large problem with those here illegally.) I do favor greater enforcement, though, just to keep the problem from growing larger while we come up with a grander solution.