Reason Together on Immigration Policy : * Reform Is Needed, but Inflammatory Rhetoric Isn’t

When U.S. senators and the governor of California visit the border and serve up prescriptions for immigration reform; when the President of the United States says the nation must regain control over illegal immigration; when a news magazine puts immigration on its cover; then immigration has become, as they say, a hot-button issue.

It is also an issue open to exploitation by demagogues, know-nothings and nativists, people willing to take advantage of understandable fears of an economic downturn and increased unemployment, of wrongheaded searches for scapegoats.

Fortunately, the governed appear to be out ahead of some politicians on the issue, judging by the results of a four-day Times Poll of Orange County residents.

Poll respondents recognized that the issue is complex and not susceptible to magic bullet solutions. Despite the notorious Orange County Grand Jury call in June for a three-year halt to legal immigration, an overwhelming majority in the Times Poll rightly recognized that it isn’t those who enter the country legally who cause the problems. Fittingly for a nation of immigrants, one that prides itself on being a “melting pot,” the majority of county residents consider legal immigration a benefit to American culture. They are right.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) was the first of the recent border trekkers and proposed a $1 fee on each person coming into the United States from Canada or Mexico. The $400 million that would raise each year could pay for border agents, equipment and helicopters. It’s a good idea. Gov. Pete Wilson chimed in soon afterward. He was right in his “open letter” to President Clinton to remind the President that Congress has been negligent in not helping California pay some of its costs to provide social services for immigrants.

But Wilson, who like Feinstein is up for reelection next year, got most things wrong in his letter. The governor in effect called for repealing the 14th Amendment, thereby denying citizenship to children born in this country to illegal immigrants. He also urged cutting off education and health care to non-citizens, including children. Those proposals are bad, though they do reflect the discontent of many residents with the problem of illegal immigration.

Times Poll respondents said they, too, were concerned about illegal immigration and considered it a major problem. But on their list of concerns, it ranked behind crime, gangs, unemployment and growth. That sounds about right. Equally right was the opposition of 42% to a constitutional amendment barring the children of illegal immigrants from becoming citizens. It is unfortunate that 52% supported the idea, but given the ease of a knee-jerk reaction to that position, we should be thankful for the size of the opposition.

Concerns about the cost of medical treatment for illegal immigrants and educating their children are justified, but Draconian solutions are not the answer. People don’t crowd onto boats in appalling conditions or jump the fence at the border to reach America for medical treatment and good schools. They come for jobs.

The Times Poll respondents agreed that immigrants usually take jobs that Americans don’t want. And they agreed that there should be less concern with penalizing illegal immigrants and more with protecting them from mistreatment by American employers.

The poll should warn politicians not to talk down to voters and try to ride their fears into office. A complex problem like immigration needs more reasoned discussion.