SB 1070

Is this the solution?

Arizona has passed the toughest and strictest anti-illegal immigration measure in decades in the United States, Arizona Senate Bill 1070, by doing so, controversy has erupted among those that support or condemn it. Even though, many claim that this bill do not promote racial profiling (mainly against Latinos), the core purpose of this law is deport as many illegal immigrant as possible. If the law would have been fully implemented, the police would need to consider three key provisions before calling the INS (they deport illegal immigrants). First, there has to have been a "lawful stop, detention, or arrest" to enforce another law. Second, during the course of that stop, detention, or arrest, a "reasonable suspicion" has to exist that "the person is an alien." And third, law enforcement "may not consider race, color, or national origin…except to the extent permitted by the United States or Arizona Constitution." Now, the question is, are these reasonable standards? The answer depends on who is responding. How many times have you (Any race other than Caucasian) been stopped (while driving) for no reason only to find out that apparently you crossed the double yellow line more than once? Or, how many times have you gotten away with a traffic violation because the person sitting next to you looked like the police officer?

So, instead of fighting over the legality or reasonability of these laws, let's look at the benefits and costs of legal and illegal immigration in the United States.

Anyone that has taken an introductory class in economics knows that in a cost benefit analysis, if the benefit is greater than the cost, it is a good investment/strategy from an economic point of view. Let's look at the argument of deporting all illegal immigrants. Many people seem to think that illegal immigrants (undocumented workers) should be simply deported to wherever they came from. This is not a good idea, both for our government and for our economy. To deport the approximately 14 million illegal immigrants, even if we knew where they all were, would cost billions of dollars in buses, airplanes, gas and food. Where would that money come from? Taxpayers? No one would like to pay more taxes, not even those that support massive deportations.

Besides, what harm are these immigrants doing us? Yes, they broke the law, a law that is currently broken, however, after arriving to this country they certainly contribute to our economy - after all, they buy things, start businesses, rent houses (which is important in today's housing market). YES! THEY ALSO PAY TAXES INCLUDING INCOME TAXES, there is a tax for almost anything that you buy. Yes, some illegal immigrants commit crimes. But so do legal immigrants, as well as the descendents of the Pilgrims. I fully support deporting illegal immigrants who are rapists, murderers and the like. However, most illegal immigrants are just ordinary people who seek to better their lives and those of their children, which is certainly the American Dream.

Consider an America without illegal immigrants. Let's examine our farms first. Who will be picking the crops? Americans used to working in offices, or even as janitors or McDonalds workers, are not going to be willing to work 12 hour days in the Florida heat picking oranges for minimum wage in substandard housing. To get enough workers, farmers must be willing to pay two, three, or many more times the wages they pay now. Farm products, therefore, will cost two, three or many more times what they cost now. Are you willing to pay $10 for a bunch of bananas during banana season? Even if you were, enterprising merchants would simply import foreign bananas and undercut the prices of American farmers. To deport illegal immigrants, therefore, would be to kill the American family farm. That surely isn't your intention, is it?

The same thing applies in cities. Would Mr. Merrill and Mr. Lynch of Merrill Lynch be willing to vacuum their own office? I doubt it. Mow their own lawns? Nope. While they would be able to pay for it, commodity prices would rise for you and I. We'd end up with hundreds of unclean offices, houses and unmowed lawns. Is that worth having a few fewer Spanish-speakers in America? Are you willing to change your standards of living because someone says "yellow Mr Yonson"?

These immigrants will integrate into American society in a few generations anyways and become as tightly woven into our societal fabric as the German and Italian immigrants of the early 1900s were, just as the Irish of 1860s before them were. Just like today, xenophobes claimed that the members of whichever immigrant group was demonized that week would never integrate into America, that they were destroying our American way of life, and that they would never learn English. Each time, however, the second-generation was bilingual, speaking English outside of the home, and Italian, German, Polish, Yiddish, Russian, Gaelic or some other language in the home, while their kids spoke English and only a few words of the language of the "home country."

The benefits of keeping immigrants coming in from whichever country keeps America a prosperous nation with one of the greatest standards of living in the world.

You be the judge, this is just my wee opinion.