<div dir="ltr"><font face="georgia, serif">Dear Visionaries,</font><div><font face="georgia, serif"><br></font></div><div style><font face="georgia, serif">I've suspended my column writing until I get my book "Religious Violence in Asia" done, but I thought I would repost some items of interest.</font></div>
<div style><font face="georgia, serif"><br></font></div><div style><font face="georgia, serif">This is first column I did about immigration and picking pears with Braceros when I was a wee lad f 14. I was the only illegal in the orchards.</font></div>
<div style><font face="georgia, serif"><br></font></div><div style><font face="georgia, serif">Yours for common sense immigration reform,</font></div><div style><font face="georgia, serif"><br></font></div><div style><font face="georgia, serif">Nick</font></div>
<div style><font face="georgia, serif"><br></font></div><div style><p class="" style="text-align:center"><b><font face="georgia, serif">LONG LIVE THE BRACEROS: </font></b></p>
<p class="" style="text-align:center"><b><font face="georgia, serif">ESSENTIAL GUEST WORKERS NOT FELON</font></b></p><p class="" style="text-align:left"><span style="font-family:georgia,serif;text-indent:0.5in"> In
1958 I got my first job picking pears in my hometown of </span>Medford, Oregon<span style="font-family:georgia,serif;text-indent:0.5in">.
With 10,000 acres of orchards, </span>Medford<span style="font-family:georgia,serif;text-indent:0.5in">
is called the Pear </span><span style="font-family:georgia,serif;text-indent:0.5in">Capital of the World.</span></p>
<p class="" style="text-indent:0.5in"><font face="georgia, serif">When
I was growing up there was an annual Pear Blossom Festival, and I would march
with my accordion band alongside a float decorated with pear blossoms. </font></p>
<p class="" style="text-indent:0.5in"><font face="georgia, serif">Later
I thought that this probably looked as amazing as the cello playing Woody Allen
"marching" with his school band in his film "Take the Money and
Run."</font></p>
<p class=""><font face="georgia, serif"> </font><span style="font-family:georgia,serif;text-indent:0.5in">Except
for a few migrant families from the South, I was the only white kid in the
orchards. Most of my peers thought I was crazy taking on such demeaning work.</span></p>
<p class="" style="text-indent:0.5in"><font face="georgia, serif">My
crew boss thought that I was saving money for a "jalopy," and he was
mystified when I told him that I was saving for college. I was paid 12 cents a
box and one day I picked 150 boxes, not bad earnings for a 14-year-old 55 years
ago. </font></p>
<p class="" style="text-indent:0.5in"><font face="georgia, serif">Most
of the pickers were Mexicans hired on the Bracero Program. They were legal guest
workers, but I was an illegal because I lied about my age to get the job. </font></p>
<p class="" style="text-indent:0.5in"><font face="georgia, serif">A
small portion of my social security check comes from that job, but even after pleading
in the courts, the Braceros were denied these benefits or a refund on their
deductions.</font></p>
<p class="" style="text-indent:0.5in"><font face="georgia, serif">The
Bracero Program was started in 1942 because of the severe labor shortages
during the war. More than 4 million
Mexicans crossed the border legally, and they helped transform America's
orchards and fields into the most productive farms in the world. </font><span style="font-family:georgia,serif;text-indent:0.5in">The
program ended in 1964, but the demand for this labor was higher than ever, and
millions more began to cross the border illegally.</span></p>
<p class=""><font face="georgia, serif"> There is an argument by analogy against immigrants that is
making its rounds on the internet. I
will offer an edited version and then give my critique.</font></p>
<p class="" style="text-indent:0.5in"><i style="text-indent:0.5in"><font face="georgia, serif">Let's say I break into your house. Let's
say that when you discover me and you insist that I leave. But I
say, "I've made all the beds and washed the dishes and did the laundry and
swept the floors; I've done all the things you don't like to do. </font></i><br></p>
<p class="" style="text-indent:0.5in"><i style="text-indent:0.5in"><font face="georgia, serif">"I'm hard-working and honest. Not only must you
let me stay, you must add me to your family's insurance plan and provide other
benefits to me and to my family. If you try to call the police or force me
out, I will call my friends who will picket your house carrying signs that
proclaim my right to be here.</font></i><br></p><p class="" style="text-indent:0.5in"><span style="text-indent:0.5in;font-family:georgia,serif">The main
problem with this analogy of course is that these people are warmly invited
into American homes and employers gladly hire them without checking their
papers.</span></p>
<p class=""><font face="georgia, serif"> </font><span style="font-family:georgia,serif;text-indent:0.5in">The
last thing they are doing is calling the police. These Americans are breaking
the law just as much as their workers are.</span><span style="font-family:georgia,serif;text-indent:0.5in">
</span><span style="font-family:georgia,serif;text-indent:0.5in">Some growers have admitted that they could mechanize much of their
harvest, but they say it's cheaper to hire immigrant labor.</span></p>
<p class=""><font face="georgia, serif"> T</font><span style="font-family:georgia,serif">estifying at a recent Senate hearing, New York City Mayor
Michael Bloomberg stated that his city's economy would collapse if the
estimated 500,000 illegal immigrants were deported.</span><span style="font-family:georgia,serif"> </span><span style="font-family:georgia,serif">He also predicted that this would happen to
the national economy as well.</span></p>
<p class=""><font face="georgia, serif"> </font><span style="font-family:georgia,serif;text-indent:0.5in">The
Republicans who wish to criminalize these workers' existence are the largest
recipients of campaign money from employers who rather would pay illegal
workers less and provide no benefits.</span></p>
<p class="" style="text-indent:0.5in"><span style="font-family:georgia,serif;text-indent:0.5in">The
original Braceros worked and lived under miserable conditions and suffered
brutal discrimination, and, sadly, those conditions have not improved much
since the 1940s. </span></p><p class="" style="text-indent:0.5in"><span style="text-indent:0.5in;font-family:georgia,serif">Larry
Kudlow, writing for the conservative journal </span><i style="text-indent:0.5in;font-family:georgia,serif">National Review</i><span style="text-indent:0.5in;font-family:georgia,serif"> (4/4/06), praised the Bracero Program and urges
Congress to expand the ridiculously low unskilled H-2B quota from 140,000 to
the millions of visas that are needed for our service and agricultural economy.
Since Kudlow wrote his article, the number of these visas has dropped to
66,000.</span></p>
<p class="" style="text-indent:0.5in"><span style="font-family:georgia,serif;text-indent:0.5in">Kudlow
reminds Americans that these people are “contributing to our wealth, not
reducing it, and only 10 percent of them have sent a child to an American
public school and just 5 percent have received food stamps or unemployment
benefits.”</span><br></p>
<p class="" style="text-indent:0.5in"><span style="font-family:georgia,serif;text-indent:0.5in">In
2010 illegal immigrants paid $2 billion in Medicare deductions and $8.7 billion
for social security.</span><span style="font-family:georgia,serif;text-indent:0.5in"> </span><span style="font-family:georgia,serif;text-indent:0.5in">The current senate
bill would fine these people if they wish to apply for legal status.</span><span style="font-family:georgia,serif;text-indent:0.5in"> It is only fair, however, that these deductions
should be used to pay the fines with any remaining funds applied to future
benefits.</span><br></p><p class="" style="text-indent:0.5in"><span style="font-family:georgia,serif;text-indent:0.5in">It's high time for us to recognize the contributions of
these hard working people, face the economic facts, and stop the fear mongering
that has demonized a group of people who have enhanced an already great nation
of immigrants.</span></p>
<p class=""><font face="georgia, serif"> Nick Gier taught philosophy at the University of Idaho for
31 years.</font></p>
<p class=""><font face="georgia, serif"> </font></p></div></div>