Review & Outlook

Amnesty Shootout

Mexican trucks aren't the only thing the Daschle Democrats are trying to keep from legally entering the country. In a cynical ploy to win the growing Hispanic vote, they're throwing up roadblocks before President Bush's proposed "guest-worker" program for Mexican immigrants as well.

Mexican exodus

What began as a sensible proposal by the Bush Administration to legalize the status of millions of undocumented Mexican workers has degenerated into an amnesty shootout that is increasingly disconnected from the substance of the issue. This is largely the fault of Senator Daschle and his Democratic colleagues who have become incapable of addressing any issue whatsoever in anything other than election-related terms, an unfortunate Clinton legacy.

The first shots were fired after a task force headed by Secretary of State Colin Powell and Attorney General John Ashcroft recommended that the Administration grant "guest-worker" status, and eventually legal residency, to some of the estimated 3.5 million Mexicans living illegally in the U.S. Officials from both countries have been hammering out the details of a bilateral agreement on immigration to be announced during Mexican President Vicente Fox's summit meeting with President Bush in September.

While an all-out amnesty may not be politically feasible at this time, both Messrs. Fox and Bush recognize the need for some degree of amnesty for illegal Mexican workers already in the U.S. coupled with a guest-worker program to facilitate safer and more orderly border crossings. Last year, more than 300 would-be immigrants died trying to cross the border, a statistic both men find untenable.

Sounds reasonable enough. But it didn't take long before liberals in the House and Senate were up in arms, calling the Bush proposal "unfair" and "discriminatory." Mr. Daschle himself denounced the plan at the national conference of La Raza, a Latino advocacy group, saying "it doesn't make any sense to limit this to people of just one nationality." Meanwhile, Nafta-basher Dick Gephardt took to the Latino airwaves, calling for an amnesty that would embrace all Latin American immigrants. (Apparently, Señor Gephardt is now in favor of free immigration while remaining opposed to free trade.) Big labor has even joined the fight, but not for reasons you might think. The AFL-CIO recently reversed its stance on illegal immigrants and is making impassioned pleas for the legalization of undocumented workers it once denounced as potential "strike breakers." With union membership waning, illegal workers have a right to "form" -- read join -- a union, the new and improved argument goes.

But this issue is about more than winning votes and union dues; it's about reinvigorating the Mexican economy and ending the mass exodus that has plagued our neighbor to the south for generations. Sadly, Messrs. Daschle and Gephardt have muddied the issue by stirring up resentment among other Hispanic groups. A bilateral agreement between the U.S. and Mexico should not be construed as "discrimination" against other immigrants, illegal or otherwise. As President Bush told reporters last week, "the Mexican issue is at the forefront . . . . But I'm open-minded, I'll listen to all proposals people have in mind."

Yet the fact remains that countries like Guatemala, Honduras and Haiti don't share a vast 2,000-mile border with the U.S. Nor are they a part of Nafta and what is rapidly becoming a single economic market. Of the estimated 7.5 million illegal immigrants currently residing in the U.S., nearly half originated from Mexico. Messrs. Bush and Fox understand that the only way to end the Mexican exodus is through increased trade and economic growth south of the U.S. border. Until that time, however, a solution must be found to ensure that the flow of immigration does not run counter to the rule of law.

The President has already unveiled a much-needed overhaul of the Immigration and Naturalization Service and its operations. Instead of ceding the issue of amnesty to liberals and labor unions, Mr. Bush should work with his Mexican counterpart and state the case for a guest-worker and amnesty program that would provide lasting incentives for Mexicans who travel north in search of economic opportunity to remain within the law.

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