by Robert M. Traxler
Is mass immigration a good thing? Is it shortsighted to not have a guest worker program? Are we playing politics with our long-term future?
All difficult questions, but questions we all need to ask to properly plan our long-term national direction. They are also questions that are associated with this election.
Our population growth rate is approximately 0.77%, down from highs of nearly 2.5 %. Factors that influence the numbers are a very aging population, medical and safety advancements that ensure we all live longer, and a low birth rate. I did a slow burn when the media called our health care system a “third world medical care system” during the debate on Affordable Care Act, AKA Obama Care.
In 1900 the American life expectancy was 46.3 years for men and 48.3 for women. The most recent figures I found for today are 76.4 for men and 81.2 for women. We need an infusion of young blood to balance our population; our birth rate is not sufficient to provide the growth rate we need to fund the programs for older Americans and provide the work force we need to grow the economy.
One of the most powerful factors in world history is supply and demand, capitalism is an undeniable economic factor; illegal drugs are a classic example. As I have written before, I was involved in international drug interdiction in the 1980s; we were very successful in eliminating the manufacturing process in one country, only to discover that the only thing we accomplished was to move manufacturing to a different country. As long as there is demand, and enormous profit, there will be a supply. America needs a supply of labor to fulfill the current demand.
We are all told Americans will not take low-paying “demeaning” jobs; I maintain that all work is noble work, and there is no such thing as a demeaning job. The good folks who remove the garbage protect our health and welfare by preventing the diseases spread by rats and flies associated with uncollected garbage, nothing demeaning about that, in fact it is a noble thing.
Let there be no doubt in your mind that the immigration debate is about votes and the power it brings to a political party. The Democrats want open borders and to allow everyone who wishes to become an American citizen, as many new arrivals vote for Democrats. Republicans want a guest worker program to allow foreign labor, but not put them on an abbreviated track to citizenship, thus denying the Democrats a political advantage.
So what is wrong with Mr. Trump’s plan to screen illegals and keep good folks and deport the bad folks? The basic problem for Democrats is that it will deport more people who tent to vote Democrat and keep the very hard-working people who tend to be blue collar Republicans. A guest worker program is a direct threat to the delicate balance of power, as is blanket amnesty.
No surprise that I favor the guest worker program, giving us the ability to have a program similar to an internship or a probationary program. An immigrant who works here for a few years learns to love our country and wants to become a citizen, or wishes to leave and rejoin their native nation. Any guest workers who commit a felony will be required to depart our nation after they serve whatever sentence they receive for the crime.
An immigrant who works here for two to three years and maintains a clean record, pays income tax, state and federal, will earn the privilege to apply for citizenship; we may even have an expedited process. We have a national need for good honest immigrants, so why not have a guest worker program, why not have a screening process similar to existing intern and probationary programs that are so successful in our current employment system?
A guest worker program will not be perfect, but should we deny the good because it is not perfect? Supply and demand, our capitalist system has a demand for labor; we can legally or illegally import the labor, the choice is ours.
Time for a change to a non-politician, a non-Washington insider, a change to President Trump.
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