This week, former Mexican President Felipe Calderon praised President Obama's executive actions that will grant up to 5 million foreign nationals, including Mexicans, lawful access to American jobs despite being in the U.S. illegally. Calderon expressed hope that more Mexicans could get temporary U.S. work permits soon. Donna Leinwand Leger reports:
Most Mexicans come to the United States "looking just for opportunity for more revenue," Calderón said. "They're not looking for a new country with a new family."
While they come looking for work, they often stay because they can't return freely to Mexico without risking running afoul of U.S. immigration law, he said.
Calderón said he believes Republicans and Democrats could find common ground. A program to allow Mexicans to work seasonally in the U.S. would provide the labor the U.S. needs while giving Mexicans the jobs they seek, he said.
"If you provide flexibility, many Mexicans will go home," he said.
Calderon's position makes sense from his perspective. Although migration (legal and illegal) from Mexico to the U.S. significantly dropped in recent years (reaching net zero a few years back before rebounding slightly as the U.S. economy picked up) one out of three Mexicans (40 million people) say they would move to the U.S. if they had a chance. This presents a conundrum for Mexico. While in office, Calderon said, "Every single migrant to the United States is one family that is losing the father, or one family that is losing a son." Yet the U.S. is a place for Mexican citizens who are frustrated with crime, pollution, or political corruption to go. They go (legally or illegally) to find jobs. And the money they send home adds up to billions in U.S. dollars.
It's all about the jobs. Or as Calderon puts it, the "opportunity for more revenue." There's nothing wrong with wanting to work hard for more pay. What strikes me is the different ways different people talk about illegal immigration and President Obama's executive actions.
To President Calderon and aliens in the U.S. illegally like Arturo Hernández García and Karina Rodriguez (see previous blogs), working in the U.S. is both a rationale for President Obama's executive actions and a chief benefit of them.
President Obama, on the other hand, has misrepresented his actions as being entirely about deportation relief. Much of the media continues to follow the President's lead. Examples from this week come from the Associated Press (and here), The Hill, and Roll Call (and here). Even Leger of USA Today omits work permits from her summary of Obama's executive actions:
Calderón, in Davos for the World Economic Forum's annual meeting, praised President Obama's executive order allowing Mexican migrants who have U.S.-born children and have lived and worked trouble-free in the U.S. for at least five years to stay in the country without fear of deportation.
This is typical of immigration reporting. Illegal employment is alluded to opaquely and then only as a qualifying condition for deportation relief. Yet readers are not informed that Obama's executive action (not order) comes with a work permit.
Immigration reporting too often lets policy makers off the hook. In addition to approximately 8 million working-age illegal aliens, 40 million Mexicans and 150 million adults worldwide would like U.S. work permits. Assuming they are all good people and hard workers, how many will the U.S. give the opportunity to join the American workforce?
JEREMY BECK is the Director of the Media Standards Program for NumbersUSA
