Analysts: Crackdown Won't Halt Immigration

The bill passed by the House late Friday to step up border enforcement and crack down on the millions of undocumented workers in the country would be doomed to failure if enacted because it does not acknowledge the inexorable economic forces that drive illegal immigration, according to many analysts.

"Enforcement alone will not do it," said Demetrios Papademetriou, president of the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute. "There is a certain emperor-has-no-clothes aspect to these enforcement-only bills. The only way they can work would be if you totally militarize the border. And even then, people would find some other way to come in."

The view that more than tougher enforcement is needed has been echoed by President Bush, who endorsed the House measure but also has said that a guest worker program that would create a legal channel for a significant number of unskilled workers to come into the country is a crucial element in any effort to control illegal immigration.

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Gregory Siskind, an immigration lawyer in Memphis, said that the government's enforcement efforts are constrained by the reality that illegal immigrants are central to the nation's economy. While the country absorbs about 500,000 illegal immigrant workers a year -- many of them entering from Mexico -- the federal government grants only 5,000 permanent visas for low-skill workers annually.

"There is no legal means for millions of people working here in restaurants or on construction sites to come into the country," Siskind said. "Personally, I think a lot of what we have seen on this issue is for show. I think there is a recognition that illegal immigrants are a vital part of the workforce. They want to enforce it in a way that sounds good for commercials, but not so much that you would cause economic changes."



http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/17/AR2005121700882_pf.html

than almost anything else, even abortion. The repubs have to sound like they want to kick all illegals out in order to satisfy the vengeful right wing and the religious haters that form their dumshit base. But they do this with a big wink at the people they really work for - big bidness, who of course wants more illegals if anything - as a source of cheap labor. So anybody who thinks for a minute that the repub party is really gonna do anything about illegal immigration in the US is in for a large letdown.