Immigration Reform and Georgia

The best argument against the harsh laws many states (including GA) are opting for to stop illegal immigration is the simple modern history of how we've handled the issue in the US.

As our economy shot up like a rocket in the 1950s and 1960s there was a yawning gap between the needed work force and what was available, especially in the booming southeastern states. Rich southern businessmen (who tended to be conservative) needed a much larger workforce and they looked southward, across the border, but they didn't like the idea of making Latinos actual US citizens or of having to treat them as such (in terms of workers rights and minimum wage) so they simply made 'arrangements' with law enforcement officials so that they might bring Latinos by the thousands into the US (often paying their transportation) to work for them.

I witnessed this first hand having grown up during this period working in golf course construction in the southeast starting at the age of 13. At the end of the day the white workers went home and the Latinos went to their camping area where they received their 'pay' which was often just a jug of milk and a loaf of bread and at most one or two dollars each.

When I was older I moved into the food and beverage operations of various country clubs (some in Georgia). There I found the same thing. When I tired of the hassles of waiting tables at one club I asked the head cook if I could work in the kitchen in food prep'. I knew it might start at minimum wage, but I still wanted to try it. The chef said "Sure, if you want to work for less than half the minimum wage." which is what he payed the illegal workers. I kept waiting tables. I can still hear him call out, when a Latino worker didn't show up, "I need a Juan, somebody find me another Juan." 

By subverting our legal system rather than seeking legal immigration reforms, wealthy US business people created a situation where the illegal immigrants they employed and often transported into the US had every reason to think that their working in the US was in fact legal and certainly was the norm. This went on for decades.

When Ronald Reagan gave millions of illegal immigrants amnesty (with no accompanying change in enforcement) he codified this system and idea.

My point is this; after decades of encouragement by the 'powers that be' to come and work and live in the US illegally it is immoral and inhumane to try to enforce these laws verbatim, all at once. Most of the workers who came here illegally over the last 50 years spoke no english. It is only natural that they trusted the Americans that payed them and brought them here. For decades as they came and worked and raised families they had no reason to think the US government had any problem with them at all.

It is only fair and decent to offer a pathway to citizenship to illegal immigrants who are in the US now, as part of long needed immigration reform. And as we've seen from the past, it is far more important in future efforts to control immigration, for us to to focus our demands and sanctions on successful US citizens who hire illegal workers, rather than to make some futile effort to have police officers profile every person they see and randomly demand as yet undefined paperwork as proof they are here legally.