Alabama Rep. Should Apologize For Anti-Immigrant Rant

[Editor’s note: The following is an op-ed from Somos Republicans.]

By Bob Quasius

Recently, Congressman Mo Brooks said he would do anything short of shooting illegal immigrants. Even his colleagues in Congress rebuked him. Words have consequences, and in recent years there has been a surge in hate crimes against Hispanics, such as the slaughter of a Mexican-American family of citizens by a Minutemen group in Arizona, and fifth generation Mexican-American Juan Varela who was killed by his neighbor who told him to return to Mexico. Brooks should avoid such violent rhetoric, which can easily stimulate others to acts of violence.

Mo Brooks claims undocumented immigrants “clog” emergency rooms, though numerous credible studies show undocumented immigrants use emergency rooms and healthcare in general less than U.S. Citizens. Brooks also claimed undocumented immigrants make our education system more expensive, ignoring the fact that most undocumented immigrants also pay taxes, and 73% of their children are U.S. citizens who will provide a return on our education investment when they become working age adults. Brooks claims there are too many undocumented immigrants in jail, although though credible studies show immigrants have lower crime rates than citizens. Lastly, Brooks claimed undocumented immigrants are taking jobs from citizens, when in fact most jobs filled by undocumented immigrants are not wanted by most Americans, who generally have higher educational levels.

As someone elected to Congress to solve problems, we expect Brooks to educate himself on the issues, and to know that problems are solved not by treating symptoms but by addressing root causes. The U.S. has seven million undocumented immigrant workers. Quotas for unskilled guest worker visas are a ‘drop in the ocean’ compared to need, and quotas for highly-skilled workers are also low, leading many employers to relocate research facilities overseas. Some family members of U.S. Citizens have been waiting since September 1992 for immigrant visas. For those who are not close family of citizens or highly skilled professionals, there is essentially ‘no line to stand in.’ Immigration issues go well beyond enforcement, and enforcement-only strategies only increase the hardship on both businesses and immigrant families who are being forced apart or detained.

One need only look at the worker shortages in Georgia and Arizona to see the dire consequences of enforcement-only strategies that don’t address the needs of America’s economy. We fully expect Alabama’s large agriculture industry to be severely impacted by worker shortages. 40% of Yuma Arizona’s lettuce crop went un-harvested after 100,000 Hispanics fled Arizona following passage of SB1070, even though Yuma has unemployment rates rivaling those of the great depression. Georgia passed a similar law, and now farmers are struggling to find migrant farm workers and now must decide which crops to leave rot. According to a recent study by the Cato institute, for every farm worker in the field, another 3.1 workers depending upon their work. How many Alabama citizens will lose their jobs due to HB56?

Throughout U.S. history, whenever legal immigration has been unreasonably restricted, the result has been illegal immigration, first with Chinese immigrants in the late 19^th century, then with Southern and Eastern Europeans during the 1920s, and today with unskilled undocumented workers, over 70% are from Latin America. Our last major immigration overhaul was in 1965, at a time that 50% of native adult Americans were high school dropouts, as compared to 6% today. Clearly, our demographics and needs have changed but our immigration system hasn’t.

Mo Brooks should apologize for his remarks, stop bashing immigrants, and instead work with his colleagues on a complete overhaul of our broken immigration system, as proposed by Somos Republicans or others.