Changing Weather for Temporary Protection Statute 

By: Lorenzo Dee   Belveal

This reporter thought TPS had something to commend it when unemployment in the United States was running around 4% or less. Then, when the jobless rate jumped to 5.4% and with prospects that it will continue to climb, I must admit that I am  no longer so sure. My reservations about the wisdom of further extension of the Temporary Protection Statute (TPS) were intensified when the Bureau of Labor Statistics raised the rate to 5.7% at the end of March, 2002.

It's worth pointing out that this writer is not alone in this viewpoint. The same reservations are increasingly being shared on Capitol Hill. So, with the final decision still a few months in the offing, there is still time for us to take a long and searching look at this highly flawed proposition. 

As a great many Americans and all illegal immigrants in our country know by now,  TPS is a piece of legislation that has already extended  the period of time certain illegal immigrants may remain in the United States without risking expulsion and other penalties.  Now it has been proposed that another extension be granted to these same illegals.

To place this issue into somewhat clearer perspective, let us consider the plight of illegal Hondurans, in the light of this ongoing debate. It is authoritatively estimated that there are 600,000 illegal Hondurans in the United States who fall under the purview of this warmed-over TPS proposal. 

The pat argument that these people (600,000 of them - all illegal) are only
filling jobs that Americans don't want, and therefor constitute no threat to legal American workers is pure poppycock. Among this group of illegal Hondurans are to be found cooks, waiters, gardeners and day laborers, to be sure. But the raw figure also has significant components of taxi-drivers, truck-drivers, store clerks, carpenters, plumbers - and on and on - and on.

But the bottom line is the pre-emptive one: All of these people are illegal!
Nothing is going to change this fact, unless the United States congress passes a law that effectively declares a "prize" for anyone who can successfully breach the U. S. border, break the immigration laws, escape capture - via phony credentials - a fake Social Security Card, or otherwise, for long enough to get a steady job, have a child,  or otherwise establish prima-facie evidence of
"entitlement" to U. S. hospitality.

This "hospitality", it must be added, is meant to include schooling in their own native language, medical care, food stamps, housing assistance, Aid to Dependent Children, etc., etc., etc., etc. Needless to say, these are awesomely expensive "trimmings" to provide to incursionists who are in the United States illegally. There are lots of perfectly friendly, intelligent, hard-working Americans who think this is taking American "hospitality" much too far.

Latin Americans in particular tend to view the United States of America as a
huge "grab-bag" from which they may (with near-impunity) "grab" whatever they can get, and keep it, provided they can pull off the scam for some modest period of time, without being caught in the act. Lawbreaking doesn't even figure into the equation. It is considered a-moral by the people who do it. 

Thousands of illegals are known to occasionally hold camp-ins in Lafayette park - right across Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House, there to exhibit their signs and chant their slogans urging amnesty, legal 'forgiveness'
or some other form of indulgence for the law-breakers hiding out among us. What nerve! What gall!! By what entitlement do these immigration law-breakers consider themselves entitled these special indulgences?

Meanwhile, their own political honchos regularly make pilgrimages to Washington, D. C., to beg the U. S. government for special mandates, that not only allow these illegals to continue to take advantage of American hospitality, but - eventually - to perhaps even lead to cut-rate American citizenship for the "border-jumpers". The political pitch offered up to justify this outrage leans heavily on the inherent humanitarian considerations:

The illegals in the U. S, send dollars back home, which in the end result helps
to keep their families fed and thier bankrupt, failed, corrupt local governments afloat. As a measurement of this, Honduras - for a single example - tells us that the "remittances" from illegal Hondurans in the U. S. constitutes the biggest single category of economic activity the Republic of Honduras  has!

In the meantime, it is difficult if not impossible to see what Honduras is doing -
or has ever done - to qualify for such lavish favors for her illegal invaders.  Honduras consistently refuses to extradite indicted, fleeing, criminals to the United States to stand trial. Indeed, Honduras serves as a known and notorious conduit for the shipment of drugs into the United States. Honduras is a willing collaborator with criminals wherever located, in schemes to victimize the United States in every aspect of international criminality.

These are facts! Honduras, by any realistic measurement, is no friend of the
United States. At best, it is a "collaborator" for hire when the price is right. On the basis of more than thirty years of close, personal observation, this reporter doesn't  think Honduras is really anybody's "friend". Honduras is in business for itself. It has no place for "reciprocity" in either its official vocabulary or its sovereign practices.

The United States may, indeed, extend the TPS coverage a few more months,
providing a bit more "wiggle-room" for the illegals, their lawyers and their political special-pleaders. But should this happen, it will be on the basis of pure
charity. Nobody should make the mistake of attributing such action to feelings of community and/or reciprocity. Least of all, obligation.

The United States is a generous country, but it is not a fool. The United States
of America knows full well who its friends are, as compared to those who seek to capitalize on temporary "arrangements of convenience".

To the extent that the Temporary Protection Statute countenances and protects illegal competition for jobs in our oversupplied labor market, it constitutes a signal disservice to unemployed American workmen and women. 

In our current unemployment situation, where the number of jobless is known to be high and growing, TPS is a charitable indulgence we can ill afford. 

Shortsighted politicians may see the passage of TPS as a way to curry favor with Hispanic voters, but when it comes at the price of increasing lines at our Unemployment Offices, the trade-off quickly becomes too expensive to even consider. 

The Temporary Protection Statute extension proposal is a bad idea whose time has come on the wings of an economic slowdown and an increasing malaise in the American workplace. 

--------- E N D ----------

Lorenzo Dee Belveal

======================
Copyright © March, 2002                                                                               All rights reserved by the author

=======================