Written by: Jim Hansen
Wednesday, May 23, 2007

They are all standing around the edges deciding whether to wade in. For years, with fingers in the wind, they have shoved through policies to promote globalization of money, goods, jobs, information...but hey have stood back and done virtually nothing to address real people who want to work, raise their kids in a safe community and pursue happiness.

The immigration system is as broken and ill-equipped as it could possibly be to function in the modern global economy. But, Congress is paralyzed by its inability to sort through the mixed messages it gets from pollsters, consultants and the imbedded media. Finally, there is some movement in the Senate on comprehensive reform. But, of course, the connection to the CAUSES of economic dislocation are still left out of the debate.

The mixed messages can be seen in the split votes from Idaho. Senator Craig lauded the proposal and voted for moving forward with the bill. Senator Crapo refused to support moving forward and voted no.

What if they just put a halt to the policies they passed that facilitate the rapid movement of money, goods and jobs around the world until they figure out how to deal with the connected movement of people? What if they actually made the connection between the causes and the effects? Perhaps there would be a lot more willingness to deal with the issue.

Sadly, there is a huge disconnect. In fact, Congress keeps moving forward with fast-track trade deals that big multi-national corporate interests ask for even though they know the deals they cut in the past have created more pressure for people to migrate around the globe looking for ways to meet their most basic of needs to live.

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