I am agog at the number of people without any understanding of just why the flood of immigrants, especially from Mexico and other points south, keep coming into the U.S. If death in the desert, repeated deportation, and being designated "wetback" once they're here doesn't discourage the travelers, they must be leaving something worse behind. And, handily enough, U.S. economic policy and corporations have been major players in creating that something worse.
I'll be talking about Mexico because I have more knowledge of that country than of others, and because so many come here from Mexico. And we know Mexico's position--"so far from God, so close to the United States." The U.S. has used and abused its power and relationship with Mexico for decades; the result (aided and abetted by most Mexican administrations)is low pay and terrible conditions in most all jobs in Mexico that are connected to U.S. corporations, and that is a LOT of jobs.
It's a simple matter of following the money--low pay and minimal investment in worker safety equals higher profits for the employer and owner. That's true here in the U.S. when a company's workers accept poor pay and conditions.
Why would someone work so desperately hard in this country for low wages and no benefits, paying withholding taxes that they never lay claim to, and not speak up or organize? Someone who left an even worse job in Mexico (created in part or in full by U.S. economic behavior in that country) and who is afraid of discovery and deportation because that person came here without documents. The ideal employee in many, many U.S. businesses.
But why come here the hard way? Why not go the route of the documented immigrant? If you believe the self-righteous clamor of those asking these questions, you probably think that the immigration process consists of asking politely to be allowed into the U.S.
The process is actually grossly labyrinthine and counter-intuitive. To visit a U.S. representative in Mexico for a preliminary visa interview actually costs the Mexican about one hundred dollars. Right away, the ideal desperate worker for U.S. corporations is shut out of the established process. He or she is coming regardless, and begins a difficult, dangerous life in the U.S. by crossing the border without benefit of papers.
If there were no lure, they wouldn't come. If there were no U.S.-encouraged poverty to escape, they wouldn't come. And if there were any other way beside crossing a killing wilderness to get here, they'd go that other way. All other options are cut off, and they still come.
I am of the opinion that the bodies left in the desert and mountains north of the border are human sacrifices to greed and politics here. To appear tough on illegal immigration while still ensuring a goodly supply of cheap, cowed labor, nothing could say "Well, we tried to keep them out" than bodies strewn across the path into the U.S. The policies and practices that create death in the desert don't change because they work--at creating death in the desert. Cynicism and unspeakable greed are the motives, and the result is murder.
Using and abusing Mexican labor is a historical tradition in the United States. Maybe we'll start a new one soon-- put people before profits to save lives and realize the benefits of having a creative, hard-working, rich culture released to improve all of our lives.