Posted by
Haakon B. Dahl on Saturday, June 09, 2007 3:32:12 AM
Should Guest Workers Face Taxation Without Representation?
With
this recent "Immigration Reform" bill, and in particular with the Guest
Worker provisions, I get the feeling that nobody is even checking to
see if a given proposal is conservative or not. That is, nobody
evaluates positions with regard to the fundamental principles the
country was founded on. The bill has been laid to rest, but no stake has been driven through its heart--it will be back.
A Mexico-America guest worker program
can only be justified on two grounds--that the Mexicans need it, or
that the Americans need it. If Mexico needs it, then it should be their
bill, and if America needs it, then we are in grave trouble. America is
a Constitutional system of government of the people, by the people, and
for the people. Now those people, of, by, and for whom that government
is constituted, should be the exact same people in all cases. The most
basic principle upon which America was founded, and to which it remains
committed, is that one group of people should not govern another.
America
has not always lived up to this ideal, and it is with a sense of shame
that we look to those times when we have not, and with a fierce pride
we regard the times when we have overcome those pernicious inequities.
So if we now create by law a new class of people within our borders who
are protected by and subject to our laws, but who are neither allowed
nor invited to participate in establishing or abolishing those laws,
how could this action be squared with our Declaration of Independence,
or with many of the provisions of our own Constitution? Shall these
workers on our lands who have no representation in American government
be subject to American taxation? Shall they be relieved of American
taxations despite living and working here, sharing the same privileges
and hazards as a Citizen? Shall they be granted sufferage to vote for
representation as a remedy for these ills? If so, then how would they not be citizens?
There is nothing conservative about a Guest
Worker Program. The funny thing is, there is nothing liberal about it
either. There is no way to make
a Guest Worker Program work in America.