LAST MONTH, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives approved an immigration bill that trumpeted a brilliant new approach to curbing the flood of illegal immigration. The legislation, which the Senate will probably take up next month, seeks to control illegal immigration by making it, well, more illegal.
A recent poll revealed that four in five Americans think the government is not doing enough to prevent illegal entries into the U.S. As a result, members of Congress are falling all over themselves trying to make it look like they've heard the public outcry.
But despite its supporters' claims, the House bill -- which makes illegal entry into the U.S. a felony rather than a civil offense, imposes criminal penalties on social service agencies and church groups that offer support to illegal immigrants, and authorizes the construction of 600 miles of fence along the U.S.-Mexico border -- would do little to solve the problem at hand.
The bill's fundamental flaw is that it focuses entirely on enforcement measures without taking into account the push and pull of the global economy that elicits mass international migration in the first place. Consider this: Since 1986, when the U.S. began adopting increasingly strict enforcement measures, the number of illegal immigrants has skyrocketed.
Indeed, in 1986, the Border Patrol had a budget smaller than that of the average municipal police department. By 1998, the Border Patrol's budget was eight times higher and the number of agents had more than doubled -- it boasted more officers authorized to carry weapons than any branch of the federal government except the military.
Ironically, in the 1980s, the average annual flow of undocumented immigrants from Mexico was roughly 158,000 per year, but now that number has surpassed 480,000 annually. In 2004, the ineffective enforcement of the Southwestern border cost taxpayers $2 billion.
So why do so many politicians insist that ever-expanding enforcement is the answer? Because it gives the public the impression that decisive measures are being taken. In addition, many politicians naively believe that the federal government can legislate mass human migration out of existence.
