Houston Democrats

This posting offers a way to talk about the immigration issue. It also provides a link to a much more complete "They Say - We Say" analysis which provides tools for us to fight back effectively on this issue. I don't claim that these are the "killer framing" of this issue, but it represents the fruit of an open forum, and the long reflection on my part with the editorial aid of  some key colleagues.
The Short story is this:

Immigration: Let's be Fair, its About Jobs and Families

1. We need their labor, they need our jobs
2. Immigration reform begins with fair trade, not free trade!. 3. Free trade destroyed their livelihood, justice demands fair trade.
4. Everyone has a right to provide a decent living for themselves and their families.
5. Papers or no papers, hungry, desperate people will seek work and opportunities
6. Immigrants want what we want : a decent job at decent wages, a fair chance for their kids to live, grow up, and achieve.
7. If a wall could not keep East Berliners inside at the risk of their lives, no wall will keep our desperate neighbors out.

Quotations: "Many immigrants come because they want to live out the values we celebrate Labor Day - hard work, providing a decent living for one's family, contributing to the community, a life of dignity, and opportunity through hard work." Most Rev. Nicholas DiMarzio, Ph.D., D.D., Bishop of Brooklyn

"The minimum wage in Chiapas is 500 pesos a day. A worker can earn that much in an hour in California." Ernesto Cortes, Jr.

"No person is illegal" Toni Medellin, J.D. Kingwood College, Department of Government,

The issue of immigration is an emotional issue that draws its power largely from an appeal to racist values and not so hidden attitudes of elitist white superiority. Associated with immigration is the issue of national security and the threat of terrorist intrusion; however, this is mostly secondary since immigrants from most 3rd world countries are focused primarily on their own welfare, not on terrorism.

Immigration is being used as another wedge issue by the Republicans, one that distracts from more pressing and higher priority issues of this cycle. If we let them use their framing unchallenged, the truth will be obscured and our perspective on the issues will again be over shadowed by these secondary points. Their frame: fear the illegal criminal immigrants. They are a danger to your personal security and to your jobs. That these are lies is easy to prove.

First, most undocumented immigrants have committed NO crime. Being here without proper paperwork is a civil offense, not a criminal offense. Second the overwhelming number of undocumented immigrants is here for one of two reasons: escaping political persecution or trying to provide for their families. Fact: the single most effective "foreign aid" program we have is the remittance these workers send home directly to their families. So, when the first words out of Repugs mouth on this issue is M-15 gang members or drug cartels, they are lying by omission, trying to score points against people that can't fight back , playing the cowards trump card : beat on the weak.

What drives people to such desperation that they would leave their homes and families, uncertain of ever seeing them again , place themselves in the hands of people called "coyotes", cross desert waste that has claimed 1,954 lives since 1998 just to get a sub-minimal wage job? The answer of course , is the dismal lack of opportunities in their own homelands. So the first insight on the problem is that undocumented immigration is it a humanitarian crisis, a crisis of jobs and families, both theirs and ours.

The second insight on the problem is that mindless free trade rather than fair trade policies, combined with our support for repressive regimes throughout the Cold War years has been the engine generating this crisis.

Now we can begin to see how deep is the hole we have dug for ourselves. Solutions to the immigration problem require that we admit our culpability and stop digging the hole deeper with more free trade which is not fair trade. It requires that we really do respect democracy , even when the results do not please us. That is long term.

What about now, short term? I have an idea, let's start enforcing work place rules that say you must pay every worker minimum wage. Better, lets raise the minimum wage and mandate healthcare to all workers! This would mean that employers would have to ask themselves a simple question: who is worth 5.25 or 7.15 or whatever an hour to do this work? If the undocumented worker had the skills , pay him and hire him. If the American worker had the skills , pay him and hire him. What the business man would lose is his cheap exploitable labor, what we would gain is a reduction of the incentive for poor workers to come here. We would also gain the benefits of facing reality, of acknowledging our real problem and the real source of that problem and it isn't criminal gangs or drug cartels.

But of course the Repugs want to have it both ways. Bush is the good cop. He wants amnesty ( which means keep the cheap labor we have and keep it coming) and he wants the reputation of being tough on the border (send in the National Guard). The House Repugs get to play bad cop. Build the wall, militarize the border, send them all back. At the end of the day, the Repugs business supporters keep their cheap labor and the Repug politicians get re-elected. The American people get nothing, just fooled again...

Here is a sample of the they say, we say material , the rest of which is located here

They say:
Militarize the borderline! Send in the National Guard!

WE say:
Since when do we shoot or arrest people for trying to feed their families? There are over 1500 miles on the southern border and an equal distance on the northern border. The northern border is not being scrutinized to the same degree as is the Mexican border, so leaving one open to potential terrorists at the expense of the other is shortsighted and naïve. There aren't enough Guardsmen to police these borders and they are not trained for this purpose, even if it was a good idea.

They say:
No amnesty! We should not reward law breakers!

WE say:

The immigration system we now use is ‘broken’ and this failed policy is what rewards illegal behavior! There is NO legal immigration to the US and the backlog to process immigrant requests dates to the early 90s. Employers who seek out vulnerable workers gain an unfair advantage over law-abiding competitors and smugglers make millions by ferrying workers to jobs inside our the border . Practically, immigrants seeking to work and hoping to join loved ones in the US do what they must to enter. By combining a path to legal status for those already here, legal channels for those who otherwise might come illegally, and implementing tough enforcement that makes the new system relatively air-tight, we will replace widespread illegality with a legal, orderly system. (TMO Flyer)