MIGRATION PROBLEMS I wonder at times, if it might be that we are living on the tail end of one age and nipping at the edge of another era.
We are not the only nation with serious problems concerned with the movement of large masses of people from one area to another. This is not a new problem with us, but, rather, one which we have - again-and-again - refused to face. The time is now. We have put it off for far too many years and for anyone interested in doing a sort of autopsy examination of the structural damages done by the delay will find plenty of material with which to work in showing how we miss-managed our responsibilities.
Ours is a problem made worse by our having tried to by-pass its con sequences in our economy. Every since I was a kid Mexicans have been moving north into the United States. They readily found work in our border state and grew to be a worthy and an important segment of our southwestern area of our nation.
They became essential to the far-west economy. Essentially, they were of a family -oriented people and as one group prospered others followed. They came in steady streams and few here noticed that more of them were not Mexican at all but from other Central American nations.
As we procrastinated and fumbled with temporary rules and regulations "foreign worker" became numerous in various areas all over the country. I remember when the first came to this Valley of Virginia in large numbers. At first I recall them as migratory harvesters of the apple and peach crops of the Shenandoah Valley area. They, however, became firmly set in the Valley's poultry industry and local people began to notice that the so-called "Mexican worker" was so called because he came through Mexico - not, of necessity, from Mexico.
From time-to-time busloads of them were hauled "back to Mexico" as illegal aliens. Their local Landlords and Landladies in nearby towns didn't even try to close up or re-rent their rooms knowing full-well that-after a weeks vacation - the same worker would be back at his job eviscerating chickens and doing other unpleasant "wet work."
The problem might well have been made less threatening years ago if existing laws concerning the employment of alien workers had been enforced. We are now confronted by illegal migration dangers of far greater import on all of our borders - including those with Canada.
A.L.M. March 27, 2006 [c436wds]
