Jackson Free Press

Immigrants and their children sent a loud message last week. About 50 people marched on the capitol, protesting recent raids at a Laurel factory and a new Mississippi law that puts people in jail for being undocumented and employed at the same time.

SB 2988 has more intrinsic flaws than a wax frying pan. Business advocates say it unfairly snatches the licenses of business-owners whose sub-contractors and suppliers hire undocumented residents. They're right. But the greater horror in SB 2988 is its ability to put a guy in jail for holding a job. It doesn't matter if he has any American children born on American soil—that guy is likely on his way back to the motherland, with or without his kids.

But Senate Bill 2988's greatest flaw, by far, is the emotion that fueled it. Frank Curiel, vice president of the Laborers International Union, said it best: "You know why they have the raids? Because (whites) don't want to see people like us take over this house."

Sure, legislators base their backing for SB 2988 on protecting the economy, but they'd just as likely spit their whiskey at the thought of a Sen. Sanchez. The money complaints, after all, just don't add up. Employers of immigrants say Americans didn't want the jobs they're giving immigrants in the first place, and you can't say immigrants—no matter how "illegalԗdon't pay taxes when they pay the same payroll, sales and property tax as the rest of us. The companies they work for also pay the same money to the state that every other state company pays. In fact, the economic benefit of cheap labor on the state economy is very clear, when you only look at the money. The truth is, the immigrant issue is about race, and this problem can't be solved by institutionalizing that racism.

Fixing immigration starts from the ground up, with a hard look at every-damn-body. American consumers want the cheapest brand available, sold by the cheapest outlet—and the recent economic downturn will place an even higher preference on the cheapest widget out there.

Meanwhile, those same buyers will also be sure to tell their representatives, during this economic downturn, to cut taxes and short state and local governments of infrastructure investments, forcing those governments to hire the cheapest contractors around, who stay good and cheap, of course, through immigrant labor.

Fixing the immigration problem starts where it always did: in our own hearts and minds, just like it did when the problem immigrants were those damned Irish Catholics, or those damned Italians. Like then, the debate will only be complicated with an "us vs. them" mentality.

Take out the emotion and the blame—and let's really solve the problem.