Immigration is an eternally hot topic, that sears and burns during times of economic turmoil.  Within this cauldron that boils angrily these days, the hottest spots surround immigration from our neighbor, Mexico - particularly that of the illegal sort.  Over 30 percent of all US immigrants come from Mexico, and over half that are illegal, according to the Migration Policy Institute in 2008.

From many American citizens’ perspective, Mexican immigrants burden our schools, hospitals, prisons, and community services, draining our resources without fiscally contributing anything in return.  A physician informally told me that nearly half of her patients in a San Francisco community hospital are uninsured immigrants, and the quality for paying, insured patients is negatively impacted, as the hospitals are broke and administration is poor.  Schools are probably the hardest hit, with immigrant populations surging in many public schools, and Mexican students in particular often receiving little academic support at home, or encouragement to learn English, as Spanish is frequently spoken at home and in the community.  The drain on resources is not refilled by taxes, as work obtained by illegal immigrants, often construction and cleaning, must be undocumented, and hence, untaxed.  These same jobs are unavailable to American citizens, who are currently afflicted with today’s 10%+ unemployment rate.  That said, opportunities for upward mobility are limited for Mexican immigrants, particularly undocumented, which leads to high rates of crime and gang involvement - harming our communities and burdening our prison systems. 

This conflict is strongly polarized, as the flip perspective from Mexican immigrants is similarly upsetting and frustrating.  Coming from a corrupt country with even fewer opportunities, Mexican immigrants often arrive to the United States desperate for money.  They have acquired a reputation for being incredibly hard, dedicated workers under often painful, exhausting conditions; from disgusting meat slaughterhouses to dangerous construction sites to pesticide-laden field work, they accept jobs that most Americans would refuse and government organizations would deem cruel and illegal.  They toil in conditions similarly repugnant to those described in Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle, all for scarce wages to help their families receive a better future.  The poorest are exploited commercially as well, with check-cashing outfits that can charge up to 30% interest rates, or money wiring services that skim all the cream off savings scraped to help loved ones back home.  Many illegal immigrants arrive helpless as children, and are forced to grow up in a country that rejects them and will ship them to a place they do not know if caught.  So now what?  The conflict brews…

Many small business owners and farmers claim that their businesses would not survive without undocumented workers, as they could not afford the taxes and wage laws imposed by the government.  Ironically, obliging minimum wage would still ensure poverty and eligibility for social services, even if the unemployed seized these jobs and those small businesses could afford the additional toll.  However, if we did follow that trajectory we would find more employed, but within what quality of life and with an equally hard toll on our community, or perhaps less employed, if some small businesses sunk and drowned. 

If schools and hospitals rejected young and sick illegal Mexican immigrants, we would have even more displaced families and abandoned children as more would be returned over the border (to what?), and the problems would at best be more concentrated and displaced.  How would the millions of grueling jobs be completed, and from where would the money come to improve conditions to a legal level, or better, a sustainable level that doesn’t yield hazardous runoff in the form of criminal activity, sickness, or death.  And if the ‘problem’ is moved, will the conflict really die or simply gain intensity and potential for worse outcomes.  History has proven that increasing economic and social disparity yields revolutions and violence, the consequence of desperation and ignorance.