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Those whom President Bush calls "guest workers" may be organized in two categories. The first are legitimate, documented aliens who carry a visa. The rest have broken the law by invading our borders. Call them what they are: criminals. To offer amnesty to criminals is to condone their actions and only serves to encourage others to follow their example. On the other hand, legitimate aliens deserve to be welcome in the U.S., and to work under the same labor standards as U.S. citizens, but often they suffer unfair treatment, even unsafe conditions.

Illegal aliens are invaders. We must secure our borders against illegal crossing. Without secure borders, we allow both illegals and the terrorists, whom this Administration purports to be protecting us against, to enter the country at will. To deny this is to ignore the facts; our border with Mexico is a viable point of entry by terrorists. This peculiar gap in our "homeland security" is ignored by the same government that has committed troops abroad. The president has sent hundreds of thousands of troops across the globe under the guise of "protecting America from terrorism," but he ignores an obvious battle front in the Mexican border. If you doubt this, consider the ease with which a terrorist could rent a car in Mexico and drive across the desert into the U.S. No resistance, no fences, only vast, unguarded land. If undocumented Mexicans can cross undetected, so can terrorists. Both are doing so illegally.

Constitutional Origins of "Birthright Citizenship"

Recently the U.S. Congress debated a House bill that would revoke the so-called "birthright citizenship" granted under the 14th Amendment. Though the bill did not pass, the new legislation might have been sufficient to revoke birthright citizenship from babies of illegal immigrants. Of course, this presupposes that you believe birthright citizenship has been mispplied to children of illegals. A small but growing number of Americans are coming to the realization that criminals were never intended to be granted such privileges.

Ratified in 1868, the 14th Amendment was Congress's attempt to put freed slaves on a more equal footing with whites who, until then had been the only ones eligible for citizenship. Recently emancipated African-Americans were not recognized as citizens, even though they had been born in the United States, as had their parents and grandparents before them. Congress took this important step toward healing the wounds America had inflicted through racial exploitation for hundreds of years.

Premeditated Childbirth Equals Fraud

The 14th Amendment is often misapplied when illegal immigrants enter the the U.S. and give birth to a child. The parents enjoy residency, ostensibly because they must now raise the child-citizen. The parents are entitled to file for a permanent visa as the child-citizen's guardians. Awash in newfound legitimacy, they enjoy public services provided by the American taxpayers. After a few years, they even become eligible for citizenship. Not a bad scam, if you can get it.

Parents of so-called "anchor babies" ought instead to be prosecuted for the crime of illegal entry that got them here in the first place. Congress never intended to extend birthright citizenship to illegal aliens. Nevertheless, illegals have exploited this loophole (and, in the process, their own children) for years, sending the message that crossing the border without permission is only illegal if you get caught before managing to give birth. But as long as we ignore the problem, it will only continue. What is necessary is the commitment of our national resources to enforce the law and prevent further illegal entry.

Exploitation of Illegal Immigrants by U.S. Business

President Bush has repeatedly said that Americans will not do the sort of work that guest workers will readily take. What does that mean, exactly? Does Mr. Bush mean that the work is substandard in some way? Does he imply that workers labor under unsafe conditions? Do the employers comply with labor laws? Or perhaps he impunes the American work ethic? It is hard to hear in the president's words anything but the same hollow rhetoric of aristocracy. His lack of practical work experience and several generations of family wealth hamper his perspective, revealing it to be incongruous with the real world, one in which people work hard at honest work without benefit of a trust fund. It is precisely his background of entitlement that discredit him in the eyes of most. There are so many legitimate workers (Americans and legal aliens) who need entry level and manual labor jobs that are often taken by illegals.

When President Bush speaks of these jobs, he is once again playing to his home crowd: lobbyists of the business community. After all, if businesses who hire illegals were to pay them the legal minimum wage and contribute to their Social Security accounts, their precious profit margins would suffer. Perhaps they would be driven out of business. As it stands now, their exploitative labor practices continue because we as a society have not cared to notice. It's not that Americans don't know what's happening; we obviously just don't care. If we did, we would hold employers accountable.

Some take issue with my position on employer accountability. They claim that there are so many aspects of our economy that depend on the hiring of migrant workers, both legal and illegal. It's not as if guest workers are getting a fair shake at work. Their very employment is clandestine, which sets them up for abusive practices by employers who would never be able to get away with treating Americans the way they do guest workers. If we were to make employers treat workers equally and enforce the laws against hiring illegals, the increased labor costs would inflate the price of goods produced with that labor to an unacceptable level. Americans could not afford the increase and whole industries would collapse.

The New Slavery

I would point to similar arguments made by slave owners throughout American history. Not so long ago, long after most industrialized nations had condemned the practice of slavery, America was building a thriving economy on the backs of slaves. Even after abolishing slavery, many U.S. states continued to practice racial segregation to further dehumanize former slaves and their descendants. As Edmund Burke is reported to have said, "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." The civil rights movement was formed by good men and women who decided that equality and justice was worth striving for, and their efforts brought the attention necessary to force the nation to reform its attitudes toward minorities, and local communities, industries, and institutions soon followed. The same can happen today, if we have the courage to do the right thing in regard to all peoples of the U.S.

Effects of Employer Fraud

The reason some employers choose to violate the law in regard to employing illegals is a simple one: It's all about the financial bottom line. When companies hire workers without documentation, they evade Social Security taxes and income taxes. Also, jobs held by illegals often pay well below the minimum wage. Even some landlords who rent to illegals provide apartments that fall below the standards established by their state. Illegal workers dare not complain about unfair practices to the government, for fear of deportation. Such businesses not only exploit workers, but defraud the government and, ultimately, all taxpayers. Law-abiding taxpayers depend on tax revenues to fund public infrastructure, Social Security, and other programs. Most will eventually draw retirement or disability benefits, which depend directly on employer contributions to Social Security.

Solving the problem is a complex one, but it is achievable if we apply the necessary will and resources. It is simply a question of priorities. We must punish employers, landlords, and public service organizations when they violate the law. Relying on market forces alone to hold these companies accountable is unrealistic. We must enforce existing laws against these practices, and create new laws if necessary. Cut off access to employment and public services by illegals. Secure the borders by redeploying National Guard and Coast Guard units that are currently serving overseas in the "War on Terror." Make green cards more difficult to forge (perhaps by partnering with credit card companies, who have this down to a science). Deny birthright citizenship to applicants who are found guilty of crimes, including illegal immigration.

Perhaps most of all, we must work with Mexico to develop the necessary infrastructure within itself, so that the nation may foster a sustainable society for its own citizens. Make Mexico a place fit for Mexicans, with all the dignity and opportunity they deserve. These people have a history of hopelessness, one that has its roots in the exploitation of their ancestors, first by Spanish invaders, then by American ones. They've even been hoodwinked by their own corrupt countrymen. Here I borrow a prescription voiced by Mr. Bush himself, echoing a political philosophy as old as those of ancient empires. We must export America to the world, and we should start with our nearest neighbor. Help Mexico, and we will help ourselves, not through exploitative methods and con artistry, but through the commitment of resources and cooperation. Our vision should not be to turn the Mexican people into clones of ourselves. Rather, it should define a society no Mexican would ever dream of abandoning, one in which every young person grows up longing for the "Mexican Dream."