The first thing that popped into my head while reading Peter Kwong’s article about illegal immigration was Stephen Colbert’s testimony before Congress during a hearing called “Protecting America’s Harvest.” Colbert was one in a group of 14 who took up the United Farm Worker’s offer to “take our jobs”- to try working in fields to see if illegal immigrants really are taking the good jobs away from Americans. The main points he made throughout the hearing, most of them disguised by sarcasm (gotta love that guy), was that barely anyone took the UFW up on their offer to give them what is considered “immigrant work,” and that the work itself was extremely difficult. Basically, most Americans don’t want that type of job anyway. This parallels Kwong’s point that America relies on immigrant workers for much of it’s labor, and the focus shouldn’t be on targeting the illegals, but rather be less strict on them in order to fight the smuggling issues. He briefly connects illegal immigration to the drug war, saying “the smuggling business is so profitable, that, like the drug trade, it is able to offer high prices to coopt government officials,” which was interesting because I myself see a few similarities. Personally I think that spending billions of dollars fighting the war on drugs is not in the United State’s best interest. Like the way we currently handle immigration, it only supports cartels and makes criminals out of those who shouldn’t necessarily be deemed ones (youth, or in the case of immigration, the illegals). By better regulating immigration, and allowing illegals to speak out against smugglers (give them protection if they come forward) and unfair working conditions (which would take away employer incentive to single out illegals), the problem can be attacked at it’s base. The main problems isn’t the illegal immigrants who come into this country, but rather the people who smuggle them, and the people who hire them.
