Today’s Agenda

A backlash against immigration, once the lifeblood of the United States, is sweeping the nation and the state. And the deep recession in California is helping to fuel the sentiment.

Both legal and illegal immigrants are being blamed for a host of ills--including rising welfare and school costs, increasing crime and the loss of jobs by native Americans.

Following the World Trade Center bombing in New York and the cases of smuggled Chinese aboard vessels along the Pacific Coast, the immigration issue has heated up. Lawmakers, like Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who are sensitive to the shifting sentiments of the populace are rushing to adopt laws that will curb the number of people coming into the country.

And according to the latest Newsweek Poll, 60% of all Americans see today’s levels of immigration as harmful, a perception that is frustrating advocates for the newcomers.

Msgr. Jaime Soto of the Archdiocese of Orange agrees in today’s Testimony that the immigrant population is young and brings with it challenges for the country and the region. But he argues that we must not underestimate the benefits they bring.

Others cite the sales, property and Social Security taxes that many immigrants pay.

“Any family realizes that when you have children, the children are going to be a drain on the resources of the family, but any wise family will know that is a sound investment. California both with its Hispanic and its Asian population is making an investment in its future,” Soto contends.

“They have a sense of their own self worth and the joy that comes from building a new life in a new community for themselves maybe a thousand or two thousand miles away from their homes in Mexico. There is also an ease and joy with which they help each other.”

Harold W. Ezell, a member of the U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform and former commissioner, Western Region, of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, does not dispute that legal immigration is good for America.

“But I reject the hypothesis that says legal and illegal immigration is the same. We must separate apples and oranges. Legal immigration is good and illegal immigration is bad.

“I said 10 years ago that if we don’t shut the back door on illegal immigration, that the front door on legal immigration will slam shut.

“It is now politically correct to talk about controlling our borders. My big concern is that once (President) Clinton gets his budget through, he will forget about the border issue.

“Even if we fund the 600 new agents called for in Clinton’s budget, it’s going to take a year and a half for them to take the classes and get them on the border. We’ve got to take the military out there and put them on the border. We’ve got to address the employer role and we need a new tamper-proof Social Security card.

“This is not a temporary problem.”

Two starkly different perspectives from two sincere men, evidence that there are no easy answers for a very complex phenonenon.