A Clinical Diagnosis

About two weeks ago, I posted on the latest set of administration regulations for enforcing immigration law. It was clear that the punitive aspects of the new regulations were intended to target the migrant worker more than employers, although employers were going to have to come up with some records on their hiring practices, which probably would annoy them.

Well, our neighbors to the south also noticed the new regulations, and one op-ed piece in Columbia's El Tiempo has even suggested a diagnosis for the double think required to understand the new regulations.

While it would be an exaggeration to say that the U.S. economy will be paralyzed if the Bush Administration enforces the set of 26 anti-immigrant reform measures that it announced last week, it is possible that the effect on sectors such as agriculture, construction, the garment industry and housing will be devastating.

The astonishing thing is that although President Bush, Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff and Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez admit that rigorous enforcement of the reforms would have disastrous consequences, the insist on implementing them. ...

What kind of sadomasochism is it that the Bush Administration now prescribes for us, when they are destined to create labor, economic, bureaucratic, and most importantly, human chaos, by increasing the number of deportations, separations of families and corporate dislocations - all in the name of saving the country from itself? [Emphasis added]

The article quite properly points out that enforcing the new regulations will require an increase in the number of border guards, an increase in prison space, and, most importantly, the complete cooperation of local police forces who will now be expected to assist in locating, detaining, and handing over miscreant undocumented workers rather than concentrating on their primary role.

And all of this feeds into the growing racism and xenophobia among the less enlightened segments of our citizenry, none of whom would take the jobs that the immigrants, documented or not, take.

Sadomasochism? Perhaps, but I think it more like truly bent delusionary thinking.

[Note: the cartoon accompanied the cited article.]