In my latest reading of War on the Middle Class: How the
Government, Big Business, and Special Interest Groups Are Waging War on
the American Dream and How to Fight Back, Lou Dobbs talks about
illegal immigration. Dobbs argues that illegal immigrants drive down
wages, and that big business largely supports their presence in the
United States because they are cheap labor.
What should be done
about illegal immigration? I don't like the idea of simply building a
big wall to keep out illegal immigrants from Mexico, for many of them
are escaping dire poverty and are looking for opportunity. So should we
resort to amnesty? That's not particularly fair to those who wait in
line to become American citizens----and there are a number of people who
play by the rules who themselves come from bad circumstances. Should
we have open borders? What would happen if terrorists entered the
U.S.? Should we have a guest worker program? That can drive down
wages, if I understand the program correctly, for businesses could pay
their foreign workers low wages and refrain from offering them
benefits. Maybe the solution is NAFTA, which can lift up Mexicans out
of poverty through capitalism. But, as Lou Dobbs argues, poverty is
still a problem in Mexico, even after NAFTA.
Dobbs states that
Mexico is poor even though it has lots of resources. Is there a way for
Mexico to use its resources to become richer? Can we encourage Mexico
to do that?