More federal hypocrisy

The US Department of Interior’s move to hasten our “inevitable” federalization is largely based on a single premise: the intolerable influx of alien workers. The presence of alien workers alone, rather than their alleged mistreatment, seems to be the factor that irks the Department of Interior the most. It is the factor constantly cited in Mr. Stayman’s annual reports, as the primary pretext for a federal takeover.

If Interior were indeed genuinely concerned about the rights of alien workers, they would not be objecting so adamantly to the “problem” of alien births. If human rights were Interior’s primary concern, why would they object so vociferously to the rights of US citizenship by American birth, as provided for in the US constitution?

The Department of Interior is not concerned with the rights of our nonresident workers. The plight of our nonresident workers means little or nothing to the Interior’s Office of Insular Affairs. If it did, Mr. Stayman would not be so eager to deprive them of their CNMI jobs and repatriate them back to their own home countries.

The problem, basically, is the aliens themselves. There are–allegedly–far too many of them. Apparently, this contention alone, constitutes a prima facie case for a federal takeover. Our productive nonresident workers cause poverty and widespread local unemployment, Mr. Stayman claims, with a straight face. They are over-taxing our infrastructure, which they themselves have built, and fomenting all sorts of crime and social unrest.

The regulated inflow of alien workers, now hampered by the labor moratorium and the dwindling economic demand for workers, continues to remain a serious problem, Interior says. But the unregulated, completely free and wide-open influx of Micronesians is not a problem, Interior declares, even though Micronesians are entitled to federal welfare state handouts, while most aliens are gainfully employed in the private sector. Such is the sparkling reasoning of the US Department of Interior, Office of Insolent Affairs.

If aliens are really the problem, however, the feds should first turn to themselves. According to the Center for Immigration Studies and the Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey for March 1998, the US immigrant population is approaching an all-time high; indeed, it is soaring. According to the Washington Post, “ . . . the number of immigrants living in the United States has almost tripled since 1970, rising from 9.6 million to 26.3 million today and far outpacing the growth of the native-born population.”

“No nation has ever attempted to incorporate over 26 million newcomers into its society,” writes Steven A. ,Camarota, the report’s author. Evidently, US immigration law itself cannot curtail the flood of aliens flowing into America.

Yet Al Stayman is not dissuaded. He still thinks we have a serious alien problem, even if the US also has essentially the same immigration “problem.”

A 4.3 percent unemployment rate. Full employment. Low inflation. Rising incomes. The Greatest Bull Market in History. What a problem indeed. If only we had such problems . . . but Mr. Stayman is still worried about our aliens taking away American jobs. Incredible.