Linda Chavez: Immigration policy is the problem, not immigrants

[Harold F. Schiffman]

>>From The Victoria Advocate - http://TheVictoriaAdvocate.com

Linda Chavez: Immigration policy is the problem, not immigrants

PATRICK BRENDEL
Victoria Advocate
Friday, April 21, 2006

Political analyst Linda Chavez, speaker at The Victoria College Lyceum
Lecture Series, said her background in education, journalism and politics
enables her to approach dispassionately the subject of immigration reform.
She said the issue often lends to debate that "sheds more heat than light"
on Capitol Hill, and which also has affected her personally.
While much has happened in Chavez's life during the 11 years between her
Lyceum lecture in 1995 and her speech Thursday - including being honored
in 2000 by the Library of Congress as a "Living Legend," being nominated
by President George W. Bush for Secretary of Labor, and being forced to
withdraw her name after it surfaced in the media that she had employed an
illegal immigrant (Chavez said she had assisted the woman, not employed
her) - Chavez's message on Thursday remained similar to that of her speech
in 1995.

The Advocate reported March 29, 1995, that "Chavez's hour-long lecture
touched on the history of immigration in the United States, dispelled the
myth that Hispanics are the 'unmeltable group into the melting pot of
America,' and tackled the backlash of current education policies initiated
by federal government's concern for civil rights." On Thursday, Chavez
only briefly mentioned bilingual education, the subject of her 1995 speech
and a policy she still opposes more than a decade later. Instead she used
history and statistics to illustrate the immigration crisis facing the
United States and to propose a general plan to address the complexities of
immigration reform.

Immigration in the 19th century was uncontrolled, for the most part,
Chavez said, and prior to 1920, all an immigrant had to do was arrive at a
port of entry, prove he had no communicable diseases, and show that he had
no criminal record. Chavez said it was "interesting" that the issue of
illegal immigration has only recently attracted nationwide attention,
because the number of illegal immigrants actually peaked in the year 2000
and has since been on the decline. Border Patrol agents made 1.7 million
apprehensions in 2000, she said, compared to less than 1 million in 2003.
She attributed this to the 50-percent increase in Border Patrol agents
since Sept. 11, 2001, and the reduction of financial incentives for
immigrating due to the 2001-02 recession.

Chavez said the immigration debate has wrongly focused on illegal
immigrants. "The question is about immigration, not just illegal
immigration," she said, adding that several myths need to be dispelled
about Hispanics before the issue of immigration can be considered rightly.
First, Chavez said that immigrant groups have never achieved popularity
until after several generations of assimilation. She said the offspring of
19th century Irish and German immigrants did not like the Italian, Greek
and Polish immigrants of the 20th century. "They were not welcomed with
open arms," Chavez said, noting that the South and Eastern European
immigrants were not seen as fellow Europeans by the Germans and the Irish.

"Italians were called blacks," she said. They were not considered
European, and people doubted that these immigrants could become good
Americans, she said, meaning mastering the language, education and culture
of the United States. "This is a very similar attitude to what you see
today with Hispanic immigrants." Some people, she said, argue that America
has never had a single ethnic group dominate immigration numbers like
Hispanics have. But she said that argument is not true. She said the pool
of German and Irish immigrants of the 19th century was larger than the
current pool of Hispanic immigrants, when taken in proportion to the
nation's population.

Chavez said that perhaps one reason for the stigma surrounding Hispanic
immigrants is that they represent a single language group coming over to
our country in concentrated numbers, potentially making them "hard to
assimilate." On the contrary, she said, the offspring of Hispanic
immigrants have shown, if anything, a greater ability to assimilate into
American culture than their European predecessors. Chavez said that the
high school graduation rate of U.S.-born Hispanics rivals that of
non-Hispanic whites and that the rate of intermarriage between Hispanics
and non-Hispanics is "significantly greater than previous groups."
Basically, Hispanic immigrants, she said, "are doing what other groups
have done before."

The problem with immigration lies not in the immigrants themselves but in
the failure of public policy to balance the country's need for immigrant
workers with border security. The last time the federal government passed
serious immigration reform was 1986, Chavez said, and the result was
amnesty for some 3 million illegal immigrants and employer sanctions. But
it failed to provide a mechanism that would enable the immigrants who want
to work here to come here, she said. Chavez said the U.S. is experiencing
a population growth of about zero if you take immigrants out of the
equation, yet the U.S. economy created 221,000 new jobs just last month,
so this country needs our 12 million illegal immigrants, the vast majority
of whom hold jobs.

She said that it is our country's right to "control our borders" but "It
is in our self interest to have generous immigration policies." The 1986
policies did not provide for the ability to admit more immigrants legally
when the economy is booming and less when the economy is not. She called a
bill recently passed by the House - which would essentially turn 12
million illegal immigrants into felons - "very punitive" and
"ill-conceived." The House bill also called for erecting a wall to
physically seal the U.S.-Mexico border.

The wall, she said, "seems to be a rather large undertaking." Anyhow,
"Who's going to build that fence?" she laughed. She said a better plan was
a bill passed by the Senate defining three levels (based on duration of
residence) of illegal immigrants and prescribing a legalization process
accordingly. The Senate bill also provided for a guest-worker plan.

The House and Senate failed to come to an agreement and will attempt to
address the immigration issue again when Congress reconvenes Monday, she
said. A complete immigration bill, she said, would provide for a flexible,
"hydraulic" legal immigration policy that can be adjusted according to the
country's current economic needs; a policy that does not simply ignore the
12 million people in the country illegally yet is not so prohibitive that
it is openly flouted; and improved border security. "Frankly I'm not
worried about the busboys, gardeners and computer engineers," Chavez said.
"I'm worried about potential terrorists."

Chavez said immigration problems need to be addressed on a federal level,
both for reasons of national security and also because the federal
government profits from illegal immigrants, who she said contribute $7
billion to Social Security and $1.5 billion to Medicare per year through
forged Social Security cards, funds which they never can access, while
local and state governments lose money on illegal immigrants, primarily
through educating their children. Part of what makes this a great nation
is that we welcome entrepreneurial people who, if they do not possess
formal skills, have energy, desire and motivation, she said.

The single greatest aspect of the U.S., Chavez said, is that we are able
to take so many people and "turn them into Americans." Part of the process
of assimilation involves most notably, learning English, an issue she
addressed in Victoria 11 years ago. "Having a common language is
absolutely essential to a national identity. ... No nation has
successfully forged a national identity without a national language."
Chavez ended her lecture Thursday the same way she ended her lecture in
1995, with a reference to the motto of the Founding Fathers: "E Pluribus
Unum" - one out of many.

 Patrick Brendel is a reporter for the Advocate. Contact him at
361-580-6535 or pbrendel at vicad.com, or comment on this story at
www.VictoriaAdvocate.com.


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