Agricultural Personnel Management Program
University of California

9/27/01 News Report -- The Wall Street Journal

Fearing the push for immigration reform lost all its momentum following the recent terrorist attacks in the U.S., supporters are adjusting their argument, stressing that legalizing undocumented immigrants would actually boost national security.

Even as anti-immigration groups respond to the attacks by calling for tighter border controls, and as a sinking economy weakens the demand for immigrant labor, key backers of legalization and of opening legal channels for more immigrant workers are pushing ahead.

"We should be respectful, but we shouldn't crawl into a hole" says Eliseo Medina, vice president for the West Coast of the Service Employees International Union, one of the most pivotal supporters of reform of immigration laws. "We must not lower our expectations. If we do, the issue will be forgotten."

But supporters realize that the argument for immigration reform must adapt to the national mood. Before the attack, the argument for reform revolved around satisfying the nation's demand for labor and awarding the immigrants that supplied it the same rights as other workers. Now, some backers are arguing that legalization would bring aboveboard the millions of illegal immigrants who currently live hidden from U.S. authorities.

"The work force has to be regularized," says Antonio Gonzalez, head of the William C. Velasquez Institute, a think tank based in San Antonio. "From the national-security perspective, it is in the U.S. interest to bring them out of the shadows," says Craig Regelbrugge of the American Nursery and Landscape Association, who is co-chairman of the Agriculture Coalition for Immigration Reform, a group calling for more temporary visas for immigrant farm workers.

Backers note that it would be economically counterproductive, not to mention nearly impossible, to expel the roughly eight million immigrants that currently live illegally in the U.S., providing the labor force for industries ranging from food processing to tourism.

So it is better if these workers are legal residents who will cooperate with the authorities rather than hide from them, supporters of reform say. Indeed, Raul Hinojosa, an economist at the University of California at Los Angeles, adds that if the U.S. were to adopt a national identity card to keep track of people's comings and goings, it wouldn't make sense to exclude currently undocumented workers.

Supporters add that it is unlikely the government can stop the flow across the U.S.-Mexican border of immigrants seeking work. Instead, it should aim for more control of the flows. A visa program for low-skilled workers would achieve this, ending the demand for illegal immigrants and choking off the smuggling rings that could pose a true national-security risk.

Despite the added arguments, the immigration reform plans, which had gathered significant momentum under the joint push of businesses, labor unions and immigrant-advocacy groups, were dealt a heavy blow by the attacks on Sept. 11.

"The amnesty proposals hit a brick wall just now," says Steve Camarota, director of research for the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington think tank that argues for less immigration. Before the attacks, President Bush seemed committed to easing restrictions on immigrant workers. Now, says Mr. Camarota, not only is the reform effort uncertain, but border controls already have been tightened, and internal policing to weed out undocumented immigrants is likely to increase in the workplace.

Even some of the core backers of legalization are laying low. Cecilia Muñoz, director of policy at the National Council for La Raza, a Latino advocacy group, says that the push for immigration reform should be dropped for the time being -- while the government deals with its campaign against terrorism -- and can be picked up again later, perhaps next year.

But all backers argue that the current national mood doesn't alter the fact that the U.S. needs the immigrants who live here illegally, and that current law has failed to stem immigration and doesn't fit the economic reality. "They're not all lawn cutters and maids in hotels. They work in food processing and light manufacturing. They do important stuff," says Mr. Gonzalez. Kicking them out, he says, would be catastrophic. "Forget a recession. There would be a depression. Talk about endangering national security."