March 19, 1999
Could it be that the INS is finally coming to terms with reality? After decades of receiving severe criticism on their handling of the legal and illegal migation, from the Chicano-Mexican American community, it is beginning to look like they are coming to terms with the actual border realities.
In their recently published set of policies the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), appears to be stating "it is better to go after the causes that bring illegal aliens to the United States rather than to go after the illegal aliens themselves."
Could the new view be the result of a new altruism within the government or can it be that reality has finally made a dent in the mentality of the INS? Is it possible that what the activists have been saying since the 60's that "the illegal alien problem" was a labor problem and not a `police problem,' has finally resonated? The need for cheap labor in the U.S. , and the voracious appetite for it, was a serious contradiction that made the INS policy a joke and unenforceable.
It was clear that labor intensive work coupled with low wages, which is the bottom line for American businesses, made it imperative that alien labor, legal or otherwise, was imperative. INS policies ran against the grain of that obvious fact. Unfortunately, it has taken decades to break the mindset that has permeated the leadership of the INS, the Justice Department and the front line troops manning the border and various checkpoints throughout the nation.
Low pay, a lack of American born labor force to work at the levels required, came hand in hand with the very strong appetite for cheap labor. For those willing to work hard it was and is an opportunity that is not available in their own home countries. The INS policy of treating the undocumented workers as criminals was contrary to the needs of the country and colored our dealings the governments of Mexico, and all other provider countries of cheap labor.
The time has come to chuck off the police mentality that permeates our border policies and turn over the function of controlling the ingress and outflow of temporary laborers to the State and Labor departments and remove that function from the Justice Department that by nature carries out a police function. The need to keep prices low on consumer goods, and be able to provide reasonable profit margins, makes a mockery of our current polices and diminishes the stature of our country.
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