Undocumented Save Wall Street, by Georgia Mattison

The Massachusetts Senate on May 27 approved “a series of measures to tighten immigration enforcement” (New York Times).  The same proposal failed in the Massachusetts House of representatives earlier by six votes. The measure, according to a May 25 Boston.com article, “would require that adults applying for public benefits supply proof of legal residence, such as a state driver’s license.

Otherwise, they must produce an affidavit saying they are here legally and be checked through the federal Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlement program, or SAVE.” Massachusetts benefit programs including TANF (Welfare) and Unemployment Assistance already run checks on applicants, according to the US Citizenship and Immigration Services, the federal agency that runs the program.

The measure according to the Massachusetts and Immigrant Advocacy Coalition MIRA “would mandate that all employers contracting with the state utilize E-verify, a federal database to ascertain work authorization of all employees. This is costly for employers, particularly small businesses. The system according to the Social Security and Government Accountability Office has a high error rate.”

Senator James B. Eldrige, Democrat of Acton said, “these measures could create new delays for the elderly and others who do not carry driver’s licenses or other traditional forms of identification.” In 2006, Colorado passed this exact bill, but less than a year later after spending more than $2 million dollars did not save money (by finding any adults who were not eligible for benefits) according to the Massachusetts Law Institute MLRI who had produced an analysis of this measure.

So if checks are already in place to prevent undocumented immigrants from receiving benefits and an exact same measure cost money but found no one getting benefits that they shouldn’t why the popularity and deep support for this measure. The issue is what is happening to those who support this measure and not if an undocumented immigrant somewhere may be receiving benefits.

Banks have been bailed out from an economic catastrophe that they were in large part the cause. The rest of us are suffering from a persistent high unemployment rate of 10%, 20% if you include those who have stopped looking or have been reduced from full time to part time work. (Bureau of Labor Statistics) Government job creation has slowed down or stopped. Private sector job creation is erratic. (New York Times, June5, 2010) All of the aspects of a deep recession continue, loss of housing, foreclosures, loss of income, more and more income inequality with less and less markers of hope.

“Violence is more common in societies with less income equality” writes Wilkenson and Pickett, authors of The Spirit Level, Why Greater Equality Makes Societies Stronger?

One strategy of violent reaction is to focus against what caused this loss of security. Punish the Government for not doing enough against Wall Street, through protests and /or elections. The other aided and abetted by elected officials and politicians is to focus on those perceived to be exempt from this freefall and anxiety for survival, the poor who are receiving benefits, but especially the undocumented who might possibly be getting benefits. The undocumented have saved Wall Street again.