What really is the problem?

Illegal immigration has vaulted its way into the American conversation largely because of Arizona’s new law that mandates local law enforcement to get involved in a federal issue. The debate has been hot, filled with shrill rhetoric regarding the dubious benefits of this law. And while the various parties have a wide array of opinions on how to deal with illegal immigration, all parties appear to agree on one thing: illegal immigration is a problem.

Really? Illegal immigration is a problem? How is it a problem? I’m serious with this question: how is illegal immigration a problem for society and for us as individuals? We run around saying that it is a problem, but do we really understand the problem?

This whole conversation makes me think of a man with an arrow through his shoulder. Hmm.

“It’s just as if a man were wounded with an arrow thickly smeared with poison. His friends & companions, kinsmen & relatives would provide him with a surgeon, and the man would say, ‘I won’t have this arrow removed until I know whether the man who wounded me was a noble warrior, a priest, a merchant, or a worker.’ He would say, ‘I won’t have this arrow removed until I know the given name & clan name of the man who wounded me... until I know whether he was tall, medium, or short... until I know whether he was dark, ruddy-brown, or golden-colored... until I know his home village, town, or city... until I know whether the bow with which I was wounded was a long bow or a crossbow... until I know whether the bowstring with which I was wounded was fiber, bamboo threads, sinew, hemp, or bark... until I know whether the shaft with which I was wounded was wild or cultivated... until I know whether the feathers of the shaft with which I was wounded were those of a vulture, a stork, a hawk, a peacock, or another bird... until I know whether the shaft with which I was wounded was bound with the sinew of an ox, a water buffalo, a langur, or a monkey.’ He would say, ‘I won’t have this arrow removed until I know whether the shaft with which I was wounded was that of a common arrow, a curved arrow, a barbed, a calf-toothed, or an oleander arrow.’ The man would die and those things would still remain unknown to him.” (MN 63)

If we skillfully examine the notion of one’s immigration status, we understand that it is a fabrication. As a fabrication, it is empty. In fact, “immigration status” really doesn’t exist at all. The only reason we believe there is such a thing as “immigration status” is that we collectively believe that there is. As long as we collectively agree that there is such a thing as “legal immigration status” and “illegal immigration status,” then we experience no embarrassment over the fact that we believe in something that doesn’t exist. It also doesn’t matter. Because the alleged “problems” with illegal immigration have little to nothing to do with one’s immigration status.

“Malunkyaputta, did I ever say to you, ‘Come, Malunkyaputta, live the holy life under me, and I will declare to you that ‘The cosmos is eternal,’ or ‘The cosmos is not eternal,’ or ‘The cosmos is finite,’ or ‘The cosmos is infinite,’ or ‘The soul & the body are the same,’ or ‘The soul is one thing and the body another,’ or ‘After death a Tathagata exists,’ or ‘After death a Tathagata does not exist,’ or ‘After death a Tathagata both exists & does not exist,’ or ‘After death a Tathagata neither exists nor does not exist’?”

“No, lord.”

“And did you ever say to me, ‘Lord, I will live the holy life under the Blessed One and [in return] he will declare to me that ‘The cosmos is eternal,’ or ‘The cosmos is not eternal,’ or ‘The cosmos is finite,’ or ‘The cosmos is infinite,’ or ‘The soul & the body are the same,’ or ‘The soul is one thing and the body another,’ or ‘After death a Tathagata exists,’ or ‘After death a Tathagata does not exist,’ or ‘After death a Tathagata both exists & does not exist,’ or ‘After death a Tathagata neither exists nor does not exist’?”

“No, lord.”

“Then that being the case, foolish man, who are you to be claiming grievances/making demands of anyone?” (MN 63)

There is real suffering connected with the fabrication “immigration status.” Just because something is a fabrication and is empty doesn’t mean that our collective belief in it as something real doesn’t have consequences, that it isn’t a source of suffering. But instead of dealing with the real issue – the arrow in the shoulder – we get caught up in a lot of unskillful conversations about who shot the arrow, what kind of arrow it is, what time of day was the arrow shot, etc.

So the conversation about illegal immigration gets guided by those who point the finger at illegal immigrants and say, “He’s the problem. He’s the problem because he’s breaking the law coming here. He’s the problem because he is causing us to have to deal with him. He’s the problem because he creates a drain on our government services. He’s a problem because he doesn’t pay taxes.”

But those “reasons” are nothing but ruses. The illegal immigrant is not the problem: illegal immigrants are not the arrow. To identify the arrow, let’s look at just one industry: agriculture.

We collectively demand cheap food. And we want a lot of it. Producers know this, and they also know if they can’t produce food cheaply enough, they won’t make any money. This leads to many producers intentionally hiring undocumented workers because they don’t have to pay them as much, which reduces costs.

They don’t have to offer them health insurance, which also reduces the product’s cost. When a worker or someone in his or her family gets sick, he or she goes to a hospital emergency room because they don’t have insurance. The hospital is a business too, and it passes the lost revenue on to someone who can pay, someone with insurance. Insurers don’t like paying benefits even though that’s what their job is, so they raise rates and look for reasons to not insure someone.

The worker doesn’t pay taxes because the producer pays him or her in cash, if the producer pays at all. Often, producers let it leak out there are undocumented workers at his or her operation, which leads to a roundup by immigration authorities and the workers get deported without pay. The producer gets away with this because he or she is seldom held accountable for hiring the workers in the first place.

The workers live in intolerable conditions that often breed violence. The workers can’t complain because they would be found out. So they keep quiet. And while they aren’t being paid a lot of money, the workers endure it because what they are paid is a hell of a lot more than what they could make back in their home country.

These workers also travel a lot back and forth from their illegal job and their home. This requires help with that transportation, which leads to a new industry – trafficking in illegal immigrants. This often gets connected with the drug trade because as an illegal trafficker, I would have clients motivated to get my service, so I can manipulate them into carrying product on them and have them distribute that product to my contacts. The immigrant suddenly sees there’s a lot more money to be made being a drug mule than in the back-breaking work of picking tomatoes, and there’s plenty of demand to keep busy because there’s plenty of liberal white people who are too lazy to grow their own marijuana.

If all we do is focus on a person’s immigration status, we’ll never remove the arrow.

“Suppose that a man were wounded with an arrow thickly smeared with poison. His friends & companions, kinsmen & relatives would provide him with a surgeon. The surgeon would cut around the opening of the wound with a knife and then would probe for the arrow with a probe. He then would pull out the arrow and extract the poison, leaving no residue behind. Knowing that no residue was left behind, he would say, ‘My good man, your arrow has been pulled out. The poison has been extracted, with no residue left behind, so it is not enough to do you harm. Eat suitable food. Don’t eat unsuitable food, or else the wound will fester. Wash the wound frequently, smear it with an ointment frequently, so that blood & pus don’t fill the opening of the wound. Don’t walk around in the wind & sun, or else dust & dirt may contaminate the opening of the wound. Keep looking after the wound, my good man, and work for its healing.’” (MN 105)

A note about the photo: I do not know the immigration status of these boys. I took this in about 1989 in White Oaks, N.M., at the end of the annual Pony Express race. The boys are brothers who participated in the race as a team, replicating a Pony Express run from Capitan, N.M. through the mountains to White Oaks. During the final leg of the race, their horse became lame, so the brother on the right ran alongside his horse, leading it, for about 3 miles (I said 12 miles earlier, but that can't be right, the entire race isn't much longer than that) to finish the race. The kid was running in cowboy boots.

Additional note about the photo: My memory is slowly gathering the facts, but not all of them. The two boys in the photo are not Hispanic as I originally thought. Rather, they are both Mescalero Apaches. I still can't recall their names.