Sunday, March 05, 2017

An Unreported Economy


While we might want to believe that there is no effect of immigration policy on the economy. The truth is that the impact of what we say or do has a direct effect on how people respond. If we fail to tell the truth we conjure up feelings of despair or even desperation. People make rash and uninformed decisions and everyone can suffer as a result.

Recently in a community not far from our Nation’s Capitol, I visited a small business whose customer base was 1/3 Hispanic origin. His business had been off significantly over the last 30 days and previously substantially for about an additional 3 months. The economy in general has been off for some time. He presented me with the last 30 days work orders. None of them had Hispanic surnames. Then he presented the work orders for the previous 12 months. At least 1/3 were exactly that. There is no question that there was a direct correlation between the news cycle and the precipitous drop off of his business.

He then related information with respect to other business that he dealt with, some of whom were his customers and others who provided goods and services to him. All of them had similar drops in business. It was stunning news to say the least. Most of these business had been in the community for many years, one of them had actually closed its doors. Of course this is business gossip which like any other gossip has to be taken with a grain of salt, but given the general business climate and history of the area it was not difficult to find more true than embellishment.

While there are no armies of jack booted thugs going door to door to root out immigrants who are in this country without the proper documentation or who have broken the law in violation of the terms of their visa or have come here illegally and been deported and returned illegally again or multiple times, there is an effort to find violent criminals and to deport them. Federal agents have been given broad discretion otherwise to the point that they can ignore all other persons a wanted person may be found with if that makes the best use of their time and resources. Unfortunately that is not the word passing through the Hispanic communities in the area and even people here legally are finding themselves living in some degree of discomfort or even fear.

These businesses cannot post signs “Hispanics Welcome” or ”No Immgration Agents on the Premises for Your  Protection” mainly because it would be pandering and it would also look ridiculous to everyone else who frequents their establishments. What they can do is demand that the media explain in no uncertain terms that the streets are not filled with deportation police. That people can live there lives and continue to do business as usual. That they should not abandon their homes and their jobs and their cars. They should sleep at night like they always have, unless of course they are a violent criminal or repeat deportation violator. Then they will have problems.


The President is not seeking to break up families, or to ruin the lives of the so-called “Dreamers”. The President has been very clear about his intentions and his directives respecting enforcement of current law,  not any new laws, laws that are and have been on the books for many years. There has been a hateful and willful attempt to undermine everything that the President has attempted to put in place regarding domestic immigrants without legal status. There is no wonder that people are asking used car car dealerships to take back cars they have purchased because they are self deportating, and on and on…

So it has become exceedingly clear that whether we like it or not that the undocumented workers in our country have a huge effect on our economy. If they disappear it makes a difference in a very short period of time. The time to permanently fix for our broken immigration system is now. In the 1980’s then President Reagan agreed to give amnesty to nearly 3 million undocumented persons mostly of Hispanic origin on the condition that our borders be sealed and that the act of giving mass amnesty would never ever occur again. Today we find ourselves in a situation that is much worse than it was under President Reagan. Today up to 20 million but perhaps as few as 11 million undocumented workers require some kind of legal status be established for them by President Trump. We have a bitterly divided Congress with slim Republican majorities that cannot on their on pass comprehensive legislation. They may have some luck passing pieces of a larger package on the way to  full reform. Only the voices of the American people can push the resolve of Congress over its loyalty to Special interests and its own selfishness.

The bottom line is something will happen sooner than later because of our National Debt. We can little afford to ignore the potential tax base an additional even 11 million legal persons provide. We've run up a huge debt and we have massive holes in Medicare and Medicaid the need to be plugged with payroll taxes from people living in the shadows. These economic issues will outweigh all other concerns. In the meantime let's all demand that there be real truth delivered to everyone especially our undocumented friends.




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