The recent Southwest Conference on Illegal Immigration, Border Security, and Crime held in Arizona, and sponsored by the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office served as an important forum for open debate on a major issue affecting U.S. national security, long-term economic health, and crime trends. It served also to intensify public pressure on the “pro-business” Bush Administration to get serious about the issue or face voter discontent in the mid-term elections. In fact this ticking political time bomb may do to the G.O.P. congress what the gun issue did to Democrat’s in the 1994 mid-terms; it may become an electoral freight train that could smash the majority party’s hold on congress. Mexican President (and friend of Bush) Vicente Fox bristled recently in response to the sensible immigration reform proposals pending in the U.S. Congress. In a startling display of audacity and hypocrisy he insinuated these policies were motivated by race, calling them “shameful, disgraceful” and a “violation of human rights.” Putting aside, for a moment, the fact that these proposals are modest in comparison to Mexico’s own policy with respect to its southern border, I feel compelled to ask the following: Has anyone noticed that the Mexican émigrés mowing America’s lawns and busing our tables at Red Lobster look nothing like Mr. Fox? This is because, with apologies to C.S. Lewis, these proud and industrious people are not exactly the “sons of Cortez”, or the “daughters of Isabella.” Rather they are part of an oppressed underclass in Mexico, descendants of the people indigenous to the region akin to our own (Native American) Indians. When in 1519 King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella dispatched Hernan Cortez to stake a claim in Meso-America for the Spanish throne they introduced into the “new world” more than just horses and Catholicism. They brought as well a host of European diseases from which the hapless indigenous people of the region had no defense; thousands died in the conquest, millions from disease. And the descendants of the few lucky survivors of this holocaust have, as a result of disastrous social and economic policies of successive, corrupt, and Euro-centric Mexican regimes, been mired in poverty and relegated to second-class citizen status ever since. They now, with the encouragement from and active help of their government, stream across our borders for the chance at a better life. For the racist descendants of the Spanish conquistadors who hold the reigns of power in Mexico, sending millions of it’s teeming underclass north across the border serves two cynical and complementary purposes: They unload the burden of millions of unemployed people in exchange for billions of U.S. dollars in the form of remittances. Indeed should the U.S. ever effectively shut the southern border it would decimate the Mexican economy and perhaps force real political change there. With respect to Mexico’s own immigration policy, the very act of entering the country illegally is punishable by up to two years in prison and fines that could total many thousands of dollars. Furthermore, the detention facilities in which the (mostly Central American) immigrants are held pending deportation make Guantanamo Bay look like an all-inclusive beach resort. Meanwhile, domestically, critics of tougher border enforcement on the right argue that illegal immigrants fill the jobs Americans wont. This is simply not true; they just fill those jobs more cheaply. There are, in fact, millions of students, retirees, stay-at-home moms, and others who would gladly fill these service industry jobs at a higher wage. And the Presidents misguided amnesty proposal may, paradoxically, remove the incentive to hire these “guest workers” by driving up their price (to the extent they become subject to minimum and prevailing wage rules, payroll taxes, mandated benefits, etc.) On the left, Democrats wield the race card like a political weapon to bludgeon Republicans and also believe they’ll benefit at the polls with more poor, Latino voters in the country.The ultimate losers in this twisted game of human hot potato are the hard working Mexicans who sneak into this country, work at slave-wage jobs and never fully integrate into American society. They, in effect, relegate themselves to familiar second-class citizen status in a new country. Secondary losers include U.S. taxpayers who must foot the bill for the myriad social services used by illegal aliens who pay little in taxes and those Americans who are priced out of entry-level and service industry jobs. Unchecked immigration also has national security implications in a post 9-11 world.Fortunately, there are some in Congress such as Tom Tancredo and J.D. Hayworth who recognize the manifest injustice inherent in current immigration policy and are politically brave enough to fix it. Here’s to hoping the Bush Administration hops on board the train before it leaves the station.