We were returning from a short one-day trip to
Tijuana when I saw it. We had just turned right on the road that goes to
the airport. We saw the airport on the right and on the left was what
looked like a wall. Then I saw the crosses with the cocked cross arms with
names on them. Suddenly I realized that I had seen this in countless news
articles, and what I was looking at was the wall between southern
California and México. The names, of course, were of those who died in
attempts to cross the border.
It's one thing to look at this in the newspapers, but I was suddenly
looking at reality. These were the names of real people, some of whom were
families that were run down on the other side of the wall where there is a
freeway. Later on, Mexican murals, and still later graffiti replaced the
crosses. Finally it was just a plain gray wall stretching into the
distance past the airport entrance.
I am reminded of two other walls between countries. First, of course, was
the Berlin wall, built by the soviets to keep people in the communist
prison of Eastern Europe. That was complete with land mines and armed
guard towers to make a killing zone that had to be crossed. I also
remember President Reagan, in a famous speech saying "Mr. Gorbachev, tear
down this wall!" Of course, the times were different, but the wall did
come down and that led to the regeneration of modern Europe.
The only other wall like this is the wall still under construction by
Israel to keep terrorist bombers from carrying out suicide missions out
against them. Even though that wall is still under construction, it has
made a significant reduction of attacks on the Jewish State.
So, in one case, there was a wall designed to keep people in, and the
other is to keep people out. In both cases these walls were and are being
built to completely seal off a border . . . to completely isolate
countries from each other. Is this the object of the California wall? If
so, it an expensive failure. There is no plan to extend this type of wall
across the entire border. There are plenty of other areas that the border
is just a barbed wire fence. As it is, the wall is just an expensive and
obscene show piece. There was once an area near the Pacific that families
could come to a fence and see each other on the other side. Now that is
being walled off also.
In reality, the wall represents a policy of not only walling off people
going north, but also results with sealing inside the ones who did make it
to the US, making return impossible. Many who simply wanted to work in
jobs that are available can't go back for fear that they will never be
able to get back to the US again.
We should think of the illegal immigration process as a conveyor. After
going north and finding themselves trapped, many simply start working
themselves up in society and leave the lower paying jobs to others. It is
a dynamic thing that keeps going as a flow. The man you see picking
berries today might well end up learning a skill and working in a factory
tomorrow . . . or even go on to found a business. Without the continued
flow, there are no berry pickers left. We have only to listen to the cries
of the California farm sector saying that they can't find enough field
workers to do the harvest this year.
So they build a wall and seal people in but stop the people needed to do
the work that "even blacks won't do".
What is needed, of course, is an intelligent visa system that works. One
that can admit workers to do temporary work that exists and lets them
return home to come back later when there is the need. But what can you
expect from the existing broken system that takes 5 months for a tourist
to make a short visit? I remember my father in law, who worked in the
bacaro program in the 1940s. He worked, paid his taxes, sent money home
and returned to his family to return again later. There isn't anything
like that now and nothing on the horizon.
If you take this a step further, with a controlled and well functioning
system, you can screen applicants and keep out criminals and terrorists.
The existing free-for-all leaves the uncontrolled border wide open.
If it were really done right, there would be a system in place that
demands immigrant workers receive the same benefits that all workers have.
That would eliminate the objection of trade unions that illegals undercut
wages and benefits. In other words, like Canada has done with their
program. Let's level the playing field for the benefit of all. As it is,
the illegals are frequently exploited and the US citizens are undercut.
To this, I would like to say; "Mr. Bush, tear down the wall and put a
functioning system in place for the benefit for all." Do you have the
courage to do this, Mr. Bush?
But then, what could we expect to be done with the cumbersome bureaucracy
called the DHS?
___________________________________
Richard N. Baldwin T., a HispanicVista.com (http://www.hispanicvista.com/)
contributing columnist, lives in Tlalnepantla, Edo de México. E-mail
at:
R1041643422@aol.com
By
Richard N. Baldwin T. /HispanicVista.com