Chris Kemp

There is one word that when merely uttered sends waves of nausea through the stomachs of the politically correct liberal left: Wal-Mart.

The epitome of global, corporate and capitalistic success, Wal-Mart is not despised without reason. However, my left-leaning, Gap-wearing friends do not realize the inherent hypocrisy in their arguments against the retail giant.

And, as I am about to prove, the same people who would march at the front of a Wal-Mart labor picket have more in common with the recently publicized vigilantes patrolling the 23-mile Arizona-Mexico border than many would ever care to admit.

Sure, Wal-Mart’s average salary may be a sad $8.50 an hour for an average yearly earning of about $14,000, according to the Project on Technology and the Workplace at the Century Foundation, but the underlying cause of low wages at the retail giant is not mere greed on the part of Chief Executive Officer H. Lee Scott Jr., who, by the way, made a modest $29 million in 2003.

Rather, we should be changing the focus of anti-Wal-Mart arguments from Scott to those who choose (or are forced by economic conditions) to work for the behemoth.

In many cases, these people are undocumented immigrants.

Following the 2003 raid of 60 Wal-Mart stores, in which more than 300 illegal workers in 21 states were arrested, one would think increasing pressure to enforce immigration laws would be placed on Wal-Mart, as well as on other industry leaders. However, according to a 2003 Christian Science Monitor article, the number of fines given to companies for lapses in immigration policy has dropped dramatically since the late 90s.

For example, in 1998, 7,115 employers were fined for hiring illegal immigrants, compared to only 178 in 2000.

Furthermore, last month, the Pew Hispanic Center reported there were an estimated 10.3 million illegal immigrants living in the United States last year, an increase of an astonishing 23 percent from 2000.

And, where do you think these immigrants are working now? More than likely a few are at your neighborhood Wal-Mart, because sadly, illegal immigrants can earn more in an hour at a Wal-Mart store than many of them could in a whole day at home, according to the National Immigration Forum.

While it is easy to point the finger at just one corporation that is known for hiring illegal immigrants, such obviously is not the case. In addition to the retail sector, agriculture is also a transgressor of immigration laws. American vegetable and citrus growers have become reliant on sub-contracted, inexpensive labor.

It is the contradiction between encouraging U.S. corporations’ economic interests and taking a harder line on illegal immigration that has caused a split between President Bush and many other Republicans in the legislature. Although the Homeland Security Department announced last month it is assigning 534 additional agents to the Arizona-Mexico border, Bush has proposed a plan to allow some illegal immigrants to remain in America under a special work program.

Not only is the president’s proposal unpopular among federal lawmakers, it is also pitting him against many state legislatures that are frustrated by recent influxes in illegal immigration.

For example, a new Utah law will replace licenses with driving-privilege cards for illegal immigrants in an attempt to make the state less appealing to undocumented individuals, and a Virginia lawmaker proposed barring illegal aliens from attending the state’s universities.

Perhaps the most recent restrictive measures have come from Arizona, the busiest illegal entry point in the United States, according to an Associated Press article.

Last year, Arizona voters approved a law that denies some welfare benefits to illegal immigrants and now lawmakers are trying to bar them from attending adult education classes, obtaining child-care assistance or receiving in-state status at public universities. The state claims to shoulder tens of millions of dollars in costs each year for illegal immigrants’ health care and schooling.

By the way, as of October 2004, there were 29 Wal-Mart Supercenters, 19 discount stores, four Neighborhood Markets, 11 Sam’s Clubs and three distribution centers in Arizona, and, as of Monday, the chain employed 27,299 people in the state.

So, you may ask, what is one to do if the federal government seems to look out for the economic interests of big business over the rights of American and Mexican workers?

Well, you could follow suit with the self-proclaimed, not to mention self-armed, Minuteman volunteers of Arizona and “do the jobs our government won’t do” or you could stop supporting industries that profit by exploiting cheap labor.

Pelleymounter is a senior print journalism and political science major and editorial editor of The Spectator. Pelley’s Perspective is a weekly column that appears every Thursday.