We thought we had heard every argument from those who oppose comprehensive immigration reform. But lately, because of recent events, we have heard another rather strange one: We can't offer a pathway to earned legal status to any of the 10.3 million illegal immigrants now living in the United States because of drug violence in Mexico.
If you're having trouble connecting the dots, you're not the only one. The Mexican drug war has very little to do with immigration. The people coming across the U.S.-Mexico border aren't refugees but economic migrants.
According to border enforcement officials, most of them come from the five or six poorest states in Mexico. If they didn't want their families to starve, those people had the choice of entering the drug trade or crossing the U.S.-Mexico border.
They chose the latter. So they're not connected to the drug violence. In fact, because their lives were directly impacted, they're probably more passionately opposed to it than most Americans.
The drug violence in Mexico is a headline-grabbing story that causes anxiety and fear. So it's natural that the opponents of comprehensive immigration reform would cynically try to use it to further their cause. It's just not logical. And so, hopefully, this kind of blatant fear mongering won't be very persuasive. Illegal immigration is a real problem. As we debate it, let's stick to real arguments.
REPRINTED FROM THE SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE.
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