For a moment, let us suppose that the Conservative push to eject Latino immigrants is wildly "successful" and the NeoCon push to fortify the borders to Iron Curtain levels turns away waves of illegal immigrants. What would be the consequences to the U. S. at this time?

I believe that it would push our economy deeper into the recession that already threatens to amplify into a depression as the liquidity crises spreads and reaches new sectors of the service economy that represents 80% of our modern economy.

The Latino "aliens" come to this country to work, to raise their families, and as a group is a determined bunch, a productive and hard working people largely driven to come here by lack of opportunity at home. So the movement of people to this country is both a relief valve from the pressures of poverty in their home country, as well as an important source of foreign exchange flowing to Latin America.

In this country, Latino Immigrants rent homes, providing an important sector of the rental market, buying food to feed their families, and many times paying taxes "informally" without being able to access the services that the taxes pay for. No doubt the lack of universal medical care means that many use expensive emergency rooms instead of clinics, but this is a marginal effect, as is the number in jail. Mixed into the stream of hard working folks are the usual number of criminals praying on both the immigrants and our locals.

On balance, removing this population would drive up the cost of many basic services, especially the cost of housing. In construction these days in many border states, Spanish is the language of the workplace. Without Spanish speakers, the workplace hammers would be silent or at least muted. Likewise with many other simple services, child care, food prep, warehouse operations, landscape maintenance, cleaning, and the like. Without this "grey market" the cost of doing business would inevitibly rise and our economy would show the scars.

Without this very economically efficient sector, we would see vacant rentals, higher costs, and an important sector of our economy wither.

Yet the George Bush machine, the conservative talk shows, the populist cheerleaders who build the idea that authoritarian rule is a good thing would have us believe that this sector is "the problem" in the tired old pattern of blaming immigrants for our woes.

Over time it was the Irish, the Italians, the Japanese, the Chinese, and now the Latino. We know from our history that as we assimilated these groups, our country became stronger. This is a time when we need to grasp that there is a better way, and we must embrace the very people who can help us through the recession at this critical time: Latino immigrants.

We must not ignore issues and lessons our immigrant history teaches us are important: filtering out the criminals, the gangs and attending to the public health issues. In the past, the mafia grew when the protection of human rights by the government didn't meet the need, and likewise diseases such as TB developed hot spots among illegal immigrants. Today in LA we see a similar growth of "Latin Gangs" who represent a power beyond control by the government in large sectors of Southern California, Arizona and Texas today.

These observations point to the need to legalize the 12 million people to the extent that we can bring them into our system as legitimate citizens, the need to ensure that our police protect all of us regardless of immigration status, and the need for education and health care for the families that are here for whatever reason. In this way we hold our American values true, we protect our economy and we build a road that ensures that we get the best.

This does not mean that open borders are the answer, indeed for our national security we need to do more to address the corruption that smuggling engenders, we need to selectively encourage the folks we want to come here and we must educate the children who are here to speak English, to gain the basic skills that make a civil society function.

Unregulated immigration also brings risks to our security including disease and a flow of criminals who insinuate themselves into the flood. By respecting human rights, we can more effectively handle the public health issues. Treating babies as humans and giving them proper diet and health care shows our basic values, and gives them the best chance to grow up to be productive members of society. Babies don't get to choose where they grow up, and shouldn't be punished for the criminal acts of their parents.

When we honor our commitment to human rights, we feed the hungry, we ensure shelter for us all, and we provide basic health care services, environmental justice, education and police protection in a universal manner. This doesn't take away from our country; indeed it makes us stronger as a nation and ensures that our "Homeland Security" means more than concentration camps, secret police, and "security theatre" at the airport. We must spend more on our core human security needs as our people are our country. Our care for the environment is an expression of our self respect, and our understanding of our place in the web of life. This environmental movement needs the support and energy of the immigrants, support that won’t be found amongst folks with unmet basic survival needs.

So let’s stop blaming Latino's for our problems, lets stop the "minutemen" authoritarian and racist harangues and get back to the struggle to meet human needs. If government programs must be cut back, I’m suggesting that our war budget must take the hit not basic programs such as food stamps and aid to the homeless. It’s late, and evidence mounts that Latino’s are already returning to their homeland as our economy contracts, as residential construction declines, and as the borders are increasingly tight.

Immigrants continue to come by the thousands per day from Asia, from Europe and most of them are not walking across the border from Mexico, they arrive by boat and plane. WE must open our colleges again, and encourage the best and the brightest to do research here, to earn business degrees, to become teachers and workers in our economy. Instead of an unregulated flow, we can shape the flow to our needs more effectively if we attend to these basics.

Our country will be better and stronger with this approach.