On to the Next Major Reform by J. F. Kelly, Jr.

A commentary by J. F. Kelly, Jr. Its massive medical care overhaul plans in tatters, the Obama administration will turn now to what’s left of its ambitious but overreaching domestic agenda. While job creation and job stabilization is what Americans need and want most now, what they are likely to get next is an attempt at a massive overhaul of immigration policy. It will probably turn out as badly as the last attempt. Perhaps Mr. Obama and the Democratic-controlled Congress will profit from lessons learned in the failed attempt at health care reform. On the other hand, maybe the lessons weren’t learned at all. The health care overhaul legislation sank under its own weight. The public wanted specific problems fixed like providing better access to coverage for those who lose their jobs or suffer from pre-existing conditions. They didn’t ask for a 2078-page missive, so wordy and complex that few members of Congress read or understood all of it. Perhaps they didn’t bother to ask their constituents what they really wanted. It’s hard for the ruling classes to admit that they really aren’t very good at crafting massive overhauls. So they will probably use the same approach in their promised overhaul of immigration policy. The result, I fear, will be another fiasco that will be hotly debated and ultimately rejected by the public. It will almost certainly contain a path to citizenship for the 12 million or more illegal aliens already living here. That will prove to be a poison pill for most Americans. Double digit unemployment continues to plague the nation’s workforce. Wage and benefit increases for workers, at least in the private sector, are at their lowest level since the Labor Department started collecting such data. Many workers have taken pay and benefits cuts in order to keep their jobs. The last thing most Americans want is a continued flow across the borders of unskilled, poorly-educated workers, desperate to work for any wage, adding to the growing pool of lower-skilled labor already in the country, further depressing wages in the farm, service and food-handling industries. Defenders of unrestricted or increased immigration argue that these willing workers will do jobs that Americans won’t do. That argument may unravel with continued high unemployment, forecast by most experts to persist far into this decade. Americans will do these jobs if they must and if wages are realistic. For years we have exploited cheap Mexican labor to generate profits for the agriculture, food preparation and service industries. This labor should be fairly priced and the jobs given to American citizens. Continuing to provide jobs to an illegal, clandestine labor force, not only exploits these workers, it robs at least some Americans of jobs and promotes an increasingly dangerous immigrant smuggling racket. President Barack Obama will leave the heavy lifting on immigration reform to Congress. We can expect them to overreach on this just as they did with health care reform. This time, they should first consider asking their constituents what they actually want in the way of reforms. If polls are to be believed, most do not want a path to citizenship for those who have willfully violated our laws. They do want greater border security. They are concerned about out-of-control crime and drug gang activity in Mexico that has now spread across the border. America still is a land of great opportunity but there are limits to how many of the world’s downtrodden we can accommodate considering our already overwhelmed schools, health care facilities and social aid programs. Immigration quotas should first reflect America’s needs and priorities before those of the immigrants. What America needs are more engineers, physical scientists and medical researchers and practitioners, not more unskilled laborers. Those are the harsh realities today. Unfortunately, the debate on immigration reform will again become tied up in excess political correctness and platitudes about America being a nation of immigrants. In the end, little if anything will get done. Congress should put aside ideology and try doing what the people want for a change. Copyright 2010 by J. F. Kelly, Jr.