Opinion

POINT/ COUNTERPOINT

Immigration Boosts U.S.

New York/JTA

T

he U.S. government raid on the
kosher meatpacking plant in
Postville, Iowa, galvanized the
Jewish community and Jewish immigra-
tion activists. For most of us activists, the
May 12 raid — which netted 389 undocu-
mented workers — re-confirmed that
compassionate, just immigration reform is
long overdue.
For a tiny minority, however, appar-
ently it presented renewed opportunities
to reintroduce a host of red herrings that
prey on Americans' fears of economic
ruination in the wake of allegedly unbri-
dled immigration.
The current role of immigrants in our
economy, as it was when many of our
grandparents and great-grandparents
escaped European pogroms, is positive.
This is as true in the entrepreneurial
world, where recent immigrants to the
United States have founded Google, eBay
and Intel, as it is within the less-skilled

labor force.
The United States continues
to see real economic benefits
from immigration. A recent
study by the University of
California demonstrated that
overall annual growth in Gross
Domestic Product is approxi-
mately 0.1 percentage point
higher as a result of immigra-
tion. This may not seem like
much, but it represents billions
of dollars in economic output
and when compounded across
a generation, a significant improvement in
the standard of living for our children and
grandchildren.
Nor is the oft-repeated accusation
true that immigrants erode the wages of
native-born citizens and even rob them
of their ability to make a living. The same
University of California study reveals
that between 1990 and 2004, native-born
wages increased an average of 1.8 percent
as a consequence of immigration.

The assumption that foreign-
and native-born workers with
the same level of education and
experience are interchangeable
in the U.S. market is another
red herring, as differences
in cultural backgrounds and
language skills prevent most
immigrants from competing
with native-born workers for
jobs.
As our country continues to
grow and age, we need more
people for our economy to
run smoothly. Federal Reserve Chairman
Ben Bernanke has stated that we need
to raise immigration levels to 3.5 mil-
lion people annually to overcome the
effects of baby boomers aging out of the
workforce. In fact, many employers need
more immigrant laborers than the 5,000
currently provided by government quotas
for unskilled workers but have no legal
avenues to recruit them.
Yet responsible immigration advocates

do not support unregulated, undocu-
mented immigration. When we argue for
a generous immigration policy, "generous"
does not equal "open!' The exact numbers
and criteria should be developed through
a rational debate in American society and
subsequent action in Congress.
Polls consistently show that the major-
ity of Americans wants comprehensive
immigration reform that includes a real-
istic path to citizenship for those already
here as well as smart and effective security
measures to keep out those who want to
do us harm.
We do indeed believe that the 12 mil-
lion people living in the United States with
undocumented status should be allowed
to legalize. This policy is not equivalent to
supporting undocumented immigration.
It simply acknowledges that attempting to
deport 12 million individuals, many with
children and spouses who are U.S. citizens,
is impractical, costly and inhumane.
Legalization would be a long process,
with appropriate penalties for violating

At Issue: What is your take on current U.S. immigration laws and practices?

Stop Illegal Immigration

Washington/JTA

T

he immigration raid on the
Agriprocessors meatpacking
plant in Postville, Iowa, the larg-
est kosher plant in the country, caught
most American Jews completely off-guard.
Since the raid in May, which resulted
in the arrest of nearly 400 illegal work-
ers, additional serious allegations have
emerged against the plant owned by
the Brooklyn-based Rubashkin family,
including inhumane working conditions,
egregious violations of child-labor laws,
sexual harassment of female workers and
multiple workplace safety infractions.
Lost in the controversy over
Agriprocessors is a discussion in the Jewish
community of sensible immigration policies.
Avoiding that discourse is tantamount
to complicity in what transpired there,
and ignoring the problem of illegal
immigration virtually guarantees that
Agriprocessors' despicable practices will
be repeated elsewhere.
Most Jews have responded admirably
to the Agriprocessors news by condemn-
ing worker exploitation and advocating

A34

September 11 • 2008

ethical kashrut practices. But
We don't have a plethora of
conspicuous by its absence is
manufacturing jobs anymore;
outrage over violations of U.S.
we don't suffer from under-pop-
law and sovereignty by illegal
ulation and we no longer need
aliens — the precipitating fac-
unskilled immigrants. We have
tor in the ensuing events.
73 million adult Americans with
Rendered myopic by political
only a high school education,
correctness and uninformed
and that's more than enough
sentimentality about immi-
unskilled labor. With cheap
gration, many in the Jewish
immigrant labor flooding the
Step hen
community have failed to rec-
market, millions of Americans
Stein
light
ognize that the Agriprocessors
are unemployed and many have
Counte rpoint
nightmare is an inevitable con-
despaired about finding work.
sequence of massive immigra-
Massive immigration has
tion by the unskilled and uneducated poor disastrous consequences for America's
— legal and illegal — into a knowledge-
most vulnerable: the unemployed, par-
based, post-industrial society.
tially employed, working poor, recent
When many of our parents and grand-
legal immigrants, African Americans and
parents came to these shores during the
elderly working populations. Legalization
great waves of European immigration,
will sanction and perpetuate this assault
the American industrial colossus needed
on struggling Americans by flooding the
semi-skilled and unskilled workers to
workforce with more cheap labor.
fill millions of manufacturing jobs with
The immigration policy embraced by the
opportunities for upward social mobility.
Jewish community establishment is disas-
Millions of small farmers were needed to
trous for America. It condones illegal immi-
feed this country's soaring population, and gration, and that doesn't improve working
there was an empty continent to fill.
conditions for immigrants but has brutal
But all that is history.
consequences for struggling Americans.

By supporting legalization of illegal immi-
grants, the Jewish establishment endorses
the Bush administration's immigration
policy, which seeks to create a huge, perma-
nent legal underclass of impoverished immi-
grants that will drive down wages and wors-
en working conditions for all Americans.
Jewish establishment agencies once distin-
guished between supporting generous legal
immigration as opposed to illegal immigra-
tion. But when the leading lobby for increas-
ing immigration, the National Immigration
Forum, erased that line, Jewish member
organizations abjectly surrendered.
The Jewish establishment's hypocriti-
cal approach undermines the rule of law.
Advocates of legalization argue that illegal
immigrants are easily exploited and that
unscrupulous employers prefer them for
that reason.
Legalization is not the cure, however.
The mantra about "bringing them out of
the shadows" will not solve the problem
because, once they are legalized, they have
to be paid the prevailing wage, making
them far less desirable hires.
Illegal aliens are poor not because of
their legal status but because of their lack