Illegal Immigration Debate II

"Hard Line" vs. "Soft Line"... Responses to last week's Dispatch, How Does Illegal Immigration Impact Real Estate? (May 4), mirrored the political divide in our current national debate.

Jim Anderson of Fayetteville, NC, writes, "I really do not care what impact or 'un-impact' [illegal immigrants] do or do not have as lawn mowers, etc. Either get them out of the country or make them legal. I favor deportation, immediately."

Henry Prejean of Long Beach, CA, writes, "Removing all illegal immigrants in many cities would have the same effect that Katrina had on the economy of New Orleans. The solution should be to close the borders [and] allow the illegals here to apply for green cards..."

Julie Leupold of the California Real Estate Journal pointed me to their "Special Report on Immigration" (May 8), which features articles on the importance of immigrants (not just illegal immigrants) to the commercial, residential and retail industries. (Go to Journal site. Click front page image. There are five articles interspersed below.)

For example, according to a lobbyist with the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), "We need to build 18 million new homes in 10 years to meet demand. [But] we can't get enough people in the industry. The foreign-born workforce has become important, and we see that increasing."

Likewise, immigrants are critical to apartment owners. A National Multi Housing Council (NMHC) researcher quotes U.S. Census data showing that "4 million out of 16 million [renter] households are from other countries" and that "From 1999 to 2004, immigrant households who rented apartments increased by 500,000."

Summing up our dilemma, a landscaping contractor concluded, "People don't know how many immigrants work in San Diego and around the nation. We see them in more and more places where you wouldn't have seen immigrants 10 to 15 years ago. They fill jobs we don't want to do. Even my Hispanic employees' kids are in school to do something other than manual labor." ... Hey, maybe they're taking our "flat world" talk too seriously. Just kidding!