It’s Time, Mr. Wilson, for Some Reassessment : Politicizing of illegal immigration issue shouldn’t continue

Gov. Pete Wilson, who campaigned for reelection last year in part on the issue of illegal immigration, should now reflect on the wisdom of further politicizing that complex issue. Years ago, it turns out, when he was mayor of San Diego Wilson and his first wife hired an illegal immigrant as a housekeeper and failed to pay the required Social Security taxes. The revelation is an embarrassment to Wilson that could haunt his presidential aspirations.

What’s sad is that this issue shouldn’t have gotten so big. Pete Wilson is hardly the first Californian to have hired, knowingly or not, an illegal immigrant. California has so many illegal immigrants, from so many countries, that they cannot even be counted accurately. The main reason they have come is to find work. They find it at the carwashes, in the restaurants, with building contractors. And the reason the work is here for them is that we, the citizens of California, want it to be: The labor provided by the immigrants is relatively cheap.

However, at the same time we allow this illegal though hard-working labor force to subsidize our economy, many of us seem eager to embrace politicians who climb onto the soapbox to turn the illegal-immigration issue to their own advantage. These same politicians pass laws limiting illegal entry but then don’t provide funding for enough immigration officers to enforce those laws. And they make notable exceptions for politically powerful industries, such as agriculture, that claim they must have foreign farm workers to do the bone-wearying jobs that allegedly no U.S. citizen will take.

What’s even worse is that potentially excellent would-be public servants are being immolated on the pyre of this hypocrisy. When the talented corporate lawyer Zoe Baird--President Clinton’s first nominee for attorney general--admitted she had employed illegal immigrants, the nomination died overnight. Then Kimba M. Wood, a well-regarded federal judge in New York whom Clinton was eyeing for the attorney general post, stumbled over the matter.

The way things are going, half the population is going to be disqualified from public office under this ridiculous standard. What’s more, the illegal-immigrant challenge surely will intensify because, unless the country gets serious, the employment of the newcomers will continue.

Pete Wilson knew all this when he exploited the growing resentment against illegal immigration, when he made support for Proposition 187 a key plank in his 1994 campaign, indeed when after his reelection he vowed to lobby for a national version of the state initiative. Didn’t the governor realize that the problem is so pervasive that many in his own Republican Party as well as the opponents’ camp could have some past employment situation blow up in their faces? Now, in the irony of ironies, it is Wilson who has been hit by the blast.

How sad. What a waste. But also what an opportunity for the governor, and for all of us, to lower the rhetoric, stop pointing fingers and work together to start to solve the problem. That means finding more money for enforcement. That means working with the Mexican government to develop a bilateral solution to the need for temporary, low-cost labor. And that means treating everyone, even those here illegally, with the dignity they deserve as workers and human beings. In short, that means cutting out the hypocrisy.