Government Policies at Root of Immigration Crisis : Regulations, payroll costs, affirmative action, sexual harassment litigation and family leave make it increasingly costly to employ <i> anyone.</i>

In the late 1920s my father immigrated from Poland to Argentina, where as an itinerant peddler trying to learn Spanish, he struggled at odd jobs. Immigration quotas kept him from the United States until, during the Great Depression, he married my mother, by then an American naturalized citizen, and immigrated (legally) to New York.

There were no bilingual programs in New York, just as there had been none in Buenos Aires. Nor were there modern-day government entitlement programs for immigrants, legal or otherwise, or for anybody. Housing was cramped, public schools Spartan, cops tough. Lawyers did not advertise soliciting accident and worker-compensation claims.

If my father were alive today, this gentle, hard-working immigrant would be part of today’s immigration backlash. Why?

First, he would have seen immigrants as Latino and illegal, although many are neither.

Second, he would have failed to appreciate the economic benefit of illegals, although he would have hired them.

Third, most importantly, he would have felt that our country has changed from welcoming to subsidizing immigration.

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He would have wondered why his tax dollars were being spent on immigrants for public services unavailable 50 years ago.

As one looks at the street corners in the San Fernando Valley, from San Fernando and Van Nuys to Woodland Hills and Agoura Hills, one must respect the work ethic and persistence of these struggling immigrants. Many probably would just as soon do without the American Civil Liberties Union, the Mexican-American Legal Rights Fund and their other “friends” protective of their “rights” and “entitlements” who antagonize the rest of society.

Yet, go anywhere in Valley, and you will see vacant apartments and rents lower than in the past. Home-sellers cannot find lookers, much less buyers. And who really knows how many homes and condos have simply removed from the market?

So the (illegal) aliens are not competing very much for apartments or homes, and only somewhat for the jobs of some of the middle-class voters who are complaining. Indeed, surveys show aliens are thought to take jobs Americans will not.

These laborers, visible at corners bordering on residential neighborhoods in the midst of a lingering California recession, are disproportionately blamed for government cutbacks at the state, county and local level. Indeed, some pay Social Security taxes for benefits they will never receive, or have income taxes withheld and are due refunds they never collect.

But on balance they are net recipients of government largess, consumers of government programs and services.

Republican Rep. Elton Gallegly and Democratic Rep. Anthony Beilenson, the former and present representatives, respectively, of the west San Fernando Valley, have led efforts to, among other things, deny citizenship to the children of illegal aliens. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Gov. Pete Wilson, both up for reelection, have certified the illegal alien issue as fit for discussion. It is now politically correct even for liberals like Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) to talk about the problem that her liberal brethren previously suggested was only the indulgence of racists.

What is left unsaid, because Feinstein and the Democrats dare not admit it, and Wilson and the Republicans cannot explain it, is that the very government policies that have wrought havoc with our economy also have fostered the growth of the alien class.

Government regulation, plus the payroll costs illustrated by Social Security taxes, unemployment insurance, workers compensation insurance, affirmative action, anti-discrimination and now sexual harassment litigation, family leave and all the rest make it increasingly costly to employ anyone.

Americans are frozen out of a job market circumscribed by Big Government regulation, as an underground economy of illegals has grown to avoid much of these costs. Similarly, entitlements that are arguably necessary or affordable for Americans also have been extended to immigrants, legal and illegal alike.

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It used to be that family values really were linked to a beautiful immigrant culture. But now, aliens are part, probably disproportionately, of the landscape of American alcoholism and drugs, child and spouse abuse, crime, gangs and graffiti.

In short, there is no silver lining in this dark cloud. The failure of America to absorb immigrants, as she has done so ably in the past, reflects the engine of the American economy shifted over decades to a lower gear by government interference in the market. That same government instant-entitlement machine now also encourages the alien influx.