Letter to the Editor

Your view: Plan opposed

Friday, February 13, 2004

President George Bush is proposing a plan to make it "easier" for immigrants to work legally in the United States. We already have a plan for immigration and its provided right there in our Constitution in Article I, Section 8, "The Congress shall have the Power to...establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization (US Citizenship)." It traditionally hasn't been an easy plan; it takes effort, patience and sacrifice on the part of the applicant.

However, if the President wants to propose a change in the method of naturalization that will make it "easier" for new immigrants to come into the country for permanent residence (immigration is permanent both as defined and as is expected under the Presidents' plan) then let him propose his desired quantity of new citizens together with his proposed changes in the conditions of citizenship to Congress and let the debate begin.

The debate over immigration should be framed solely on the desired quantity of new citizens that the US wants to allow into the country, not over some purported need for temporary "fruit pickers". Temporary work visas are just another form of Government intervention in the free-market price system, which has more than temporary effects. Lax federal laws and the failures by the US Government to protect our borders has already created an "unintended" intervention in the price system by favoring the cost of production for those employers using "illegal" and therefore presumably cheaper labor over the cost of production and the ability to price compete by employers who do not employ such cheaper albeit illegal labor, whether such employers are located on the other side of the county or the other side of the country.

This unintended intervention in the free market system needs to be solved but will not be corrected under a plan that further disguises the Government's failures and converts the process to obtain US citizenship from an earned award to a system of "temporary" citizens that creates wards of the state.

President Bush cannot justify the failure of the US Government to protect us from the economic side effects of "illegal" immigration as well as the potential threat of terrorist entry into the US, via our unprotected borders, by politically responding to some "outcry" to serve a portion of our economy through the implementation of temporary work visas. To do so is just as much of an intervention in the market place as is "price-fixing" gasoline or the sales price of beans and the Presidents proposal should fail. Let's revert to Capitalism and avert "Capitol-ism" on economic issues and let's give real meaning to Homeland Security with secure borders.

Bruce Hillis