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Cato Daily Dispatch for November 27, 2002

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(Links to outside sources were active as of the date of this dispatch; however, not all news sources maintain links to current stories indefinitely. Some links also may require registration.)

Fox Urges Powell to Resume Negotiations on Immigration

President Vicente Fox urged Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and other visiting U.S. Cabinet members yesterday to restart stalled negotiations on improving U.S.-Mexico immigration rules, but Powell offered no hope of early progress on the divisive issue, according to The Washington Post.

"The tragic events of [Sept. 11, 2001] obliged us to give priority to the topics of security and postpone solutions to other important matters on the bilateral agenda," Fox said, addressing Powell, Attorney General John D. Ashcroft, and five other members of President Bush's Cabinet at an annual binational meeting here. "Now it is the moment to take up our negotiations again with newfound energy."

Fox has been criticized for having little to show for his extensive efforts to improve relations with the United States, particularly on the border issue, which affects the many Mexicans who travel to work in the United States or have family members who do so.

In "Mexican Workers Come Here to Work: Let Them!" Daniel T. Griswold, associate director of Cato's Center for Trade Policy Studies, writes that "migration from Mexico is driven by a fundamental mismatch between a rising demand for low-skilled labor in the U.S. and a shrinking domestic supply of workers willing to fill those jobs. . . . Mexican migrants provide a ready source of labor to fill that gap. Yet immigration law contains virtually no legal channel through which low-skilled immigrant workers can enter the country to meet demand. The result, predictably, is illegal immigration and all the black market pathologies that come with it."

Griswold closely analyzes Mexican migration in the trade policy analysis released last month, "Willing Workers: Fixing the Problem of Illegal Mexican Migration to the United States".

New Law Puts Pressure on Failing Schools

Children attending public schools deemed failing under a new federal law have to be offered transfers to better schools, regardless of whether those schools are already full, according to final regulations released today by the federal Education Department, The New York Times reported.

The new regulations, which are more stringent than expected, could leave hundreds of districts scrambling for alternative places for children who want to transfer out of poorly functioning schools.

The new regulations do not oblige school districts to adopt specific solutions. At a news conference here today, Education Department officials said that schools might consider signing contracts with neighboring districts to accept students from failing schools, hiring more teachers or building new classrooms at more successful schools.

In "Pulling Up Stakes from Failing Public Schools," Education Policy Analyst Casey Lartigue Jr. writes that parents should abandon public schools that aren't educating their children. "If there is an indictment of the public school system, it is the fear exhibited by its defenders," Lartigue argues. "They worry that if people are given a chance to leave with vouchers or tuition tax credits, public schools will be abandoned like ghost towns in the Old West. And that may not be such a bad thing."

Lartigue is the author of the upcoming Cato study, "The Need for Educational Freedom in the Nation's Capital," which will be released on December 10.

Judge Strikes Blow Against Campaign Finance Law

A federal judge yesterday struck the first legal blow against the new campaign finance law that Congress enacted earlier this year, ruling that an antiabortion organization was free to run television and radio political ads in connection with a special House election in Hawaii, reports The Washington Post.

In Washington, U.S. District Judge Henry H. Kennedy Jr. granted Hawaii Right to Life's request for a temporary injunction against enforcement of the law. That cleared the way for the group to run ads before the primary scheduled for Saturday and the general election on Jan. 4. The special election is to fill the vacancy created by the death of Rep. Patsy T. Mink (D) and is the first to be held under the terms of the new campaign finance law, which took effect Nov. 6.

The new law imposes restrictions on the use of "issue ads" that clearly identify a candidate for federal office within 30 days of a primary and 60 days of a general election. Several groups have challenged the constitutionality of that provision and other parts of the law in a separate lawsuit that is being heard by a special panel of three federal judges here.

In "This Is Reform? Predicting the Impact of the New Campaign Financing Regulations", Patrick Basham, senior fellow at Cato's Center for Representative Government, argues that the "reformed campaign of the future" will be less competitive, less controlled by candidates and their parties, and more influenced by the mainstream media and will involve fewer voters than the typical campaign of today.

Jonathan Block, editor, jblock@cato.org