Immigrants: Legal, Illegal Or Just Human (III)

by Jacob Jaffe

I was relieved that I could tell the youngsters--and the attending teachers and principal--how the story ended. After World War II, my father returned to his Russian birthplace and despite the war's devastation, discovered that his town hall was still standing. He got a copy of his birth certificate and when he returned, rather than being prosecuted or deported, he was allowed to retire two years earlier! I was able to tell the youngsters, "Justice comes to America, but it may take time." Witness how long it took to free those involuntary immigrants who were brought here as slaves. Or Japanese-Americans, even citizens, to be exonerated after their having spent years in our World War II concentration camps.

We now are again debating the issue of immigration. While there are millions of newcomers who are undocumented--a term I prefer and is more accurate than illegal--they make up an estimated one quarter of agricultural, building trades, domestic, resort and restaurant workers. Despite our employers' desperate need for these low paid workers, Arizona, in 2004, sharply restricted these workers from entering the state. The result: farmers were unable to get workers to harvest their crops; nearly a billion dollars worth of produce rotted in the fields. The xenophobic legislators not only prevented undocumented workers from making their low wages, but they also harmed their "legal" indigenous--and citizen--farmers.

Our politicized patchwork of immigration compromises has contributed to the problem. We allowed 400,000 Mexican workers to enter the country legally, work, and return home. Some had the capital to remain in Mexico, others returned the following year. Family members would remain in Mexico and not have to come here to remain together. Congress abolished this mutually beneficial and controllable arrangement--called the "braceros" program--in an anti-foreign pique in the 1960's. One does not have to be a mathematician to realize what happened when our nation needed these workers and these workers needed jobs. But the government did come to its senses and confronted reality; in 1983, Congress finally enabled 3,000,000 workers to establish themselves as "legals." Today there are those who seem shocked--or ignorant--when such proposals are made.

About the Author Dr. Jacob Jaffe is a psychologist who has taught at Columbia and City Universities. He is also a psychotherapist and the author of two novels,"Hobgoblins"a political-psychological thriller and "Land of Dreams,"based on his family's immigrant experience. Find out more, visit http://www.jaffeauthor.com