[Mb-civic] Foolish Fences - Douglas S. Massey - Washington Post Op-Ed

[William Swiggard]

Foolish Fences

By Douglas S. Massey
Wednesday, November 30, 2005; A23

It's no secret that the U.S. immigration system is badly broken. Indeed, 
it has been broken since 1986 and is getting worse. Rep. Steve King 
(R-Iowa) has proposed building a fence along the entire border with 
Mexico. President Bush, speaking this week in Arizona, emphasized the 
need to choke off the flow of illegal immigrants, stating that "illegal 
immigration's a serious challenge, and our responsibility is clear. We 
are going to protect the border."

Unfortunately, unilateral attempts to close the border won't solve the 
problem of undocumented immigrants. They will only make it worse. The 
central problem concerns the relationship between Mexico and the United 
States.

After Canada, Mexico is our largest trading partner. We share a border 
of almost 2,000 miles with Mexico, and trade that totals $286 billion a 
year. The movement of goods and services is accompanied by the movement 
of people. In 2004 some 175,000 legal immigrants arrived from Mexico, 
along with 3.8 million visitors for pleasure, 433,000 business visitors, 
118,000 temporary workers, 25,000 intra-company transferees, 29,000 
students and exchange visitors, and 6,200 traders and investors. At the 
same time, 1 million Americans live in Mexico and 19 million travel 
there each year as visitors. U.S. foreign direct investment in Mexico 
totals $62 billion annually.

These massive cross-border flows occur by design, under the auspices of 
the North American Free Trade Agreement. But at the heart of NAFTA lies 
a contradiction: Even as the United States moves to promote free 
movement of goods, services, capital and information, we as a nation 
somehow seek to prevent the movement of labor. We wish to create a North 
American economy that integrates all markets except one: that for labor.

To maintain the illusion that we can somehow integrate and still remain 
separate, the United States has militarized its border with a friendly 
country that poses no conceivable threat to U.S. national security. Even 
as binational trade with Mexico grew eightfold from 1986 to the present, 
the Border Patrol's enforcement budget increased tenfold. The Border 
Patrol is now the largest arms-bearing branch of the federal government 
save the military itself, with an annual budget exceeding $1.4 billion.

But our attempts to stop the flow of Mexican workers into the United 
States through unilateral enforcement have not only failed miserably, 
they have backfired. Heightened border enforcement has not deterred 
would-be immigrants from entering the United States, nor has it reduced 
the size of the annual inflow. What it has done is channel migrants away 
from traditional crossing points to remote areas where the physical 
risks are great but the likelihood of getting caught is small. As a 
result, the number of deaths has risen to around 460 people a year while 
the probability of apprehension has fallen from a historical average of 
around 33 percent to around 10 percent.

We are spending more tax dollars to catch fewer migrants and cause more 
deaths, and once they are deflected from traditional crossing points, 
Mexicans have moved on to new destinations. Whereas two-thirds of 
Mexicans who came to the United States during 1985-90 went to 
California, in the past five years only one-third have done so. Our 
misplaced border policies have transformed what was a limited regional 
movement affecting three states into a mass migration to 50 states.

U.S. policies have also pushed Mexican migrants away from seasonal 
movement toward permanent settlement. Raising the costs and risks of 
undocumented entry has not deterred would-be migrants from coming.

Paradoxically, it has discouraged them from going home once they are 
here. Having faced the hazards of border crossing, undocumented migrants 
are loath to do so again, and instead they hunker down for the long 
term. As migrants stay away from home longer, they increasingly send for 
spouses and children.

Rather than remaining a circular flow of temporary male workers, 
migration from Mexico to the United States has produced a settled 
population of permanent residents and families, driving up immigration's 
social and economic costs to American taxpayers.

Instead of attempting to stop the cross-border movement of workers 
through unilateral police actions, we should bring these flows of people 
above board, legalize them and manage them in ways that minimize the 
costs and maximize the benefits for all concerned.

Instead of viewing Mexican migration as a pathological product of 
rampant poverty and rapid population growth, we should see it for what 
it is: a natural byproduct of economic development in a relatively 
wealthy country undergoing a rapid transition to low fertility in close 
association with the United States. Mexico has a trillion-dollar 
economy, with per capita income approaching $10,000; a 92 percent 
literacy rate; a total fertility rate of 2.2 children per woman; and 
population growth of just 1.2 percent per year.

Seeking to manage immigration rather than repress it would put 
policymakers in a better position to protect U.S. workers, lower the 
costs of immigration to taxpayers and enhance the security of American 
citizens.

The writer is a professor of sociology and public affairs at Princeton 
University and co-author of the book "Beyond Smoke and Mirrors: Mexican 
Immigration in an Age of Economic Integration."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/29/AR2005112901101.html?nav=hcmodule
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