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IMMIGRATION REFORM BILL DEFEATED

The Immigration Reform Bill that was proposed in the Senate last month is temporarily off the table. But that does not mean that other reforms will not be forthcoming. Many of the provisions in the bill were controversial, especially the guest worker provision and the provision providing for what many called an "amnesty" for millions of current resident workers. In a survey published by the New York Times in May, about two-thirds of the American population were found to support immigration reform as well as providing legal status to the millions who are currently in the U.S. without status. What was not surveyed was whether Americans supported paying billions of taxpayer money on so-called "security" provisions to strengthen the border. The bulk of the money would be used to increase policing of the border and building a huge untenable wall across hundreds of miles of shared border. If we stopped to think for a moment, that same money could be spent on programs that improve our economic competitiveness or in other ways that increase productivity. In fact, if we spent billions of dollars on improving the Mexcian economy, we would not have to spend any money keeping the Mexican border "secure". If we invested that kind of money into Mexico, we could just open the border, and Americans might enjoy the opportunity to invest in valuable Mexican beach-front property (to accomplish that goal, Mexican laws would have to be changed as well) and embrace our neighbors in much the same way as Western Europe has reached out to its Eastern European neighbors. If America wants to survive in the global economy today, we have to think of our neighbors as potential partners in a greater economic union, and not as our enemy combatants who must be kicked, beaten back and deported out of here.

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