Outrages of Our Times

HAVE MONEY, will immigrate. That's the message from the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), which began accepting checks for $1 million investments in U.S. firms Tuesday in return for visas for up to 10,000 wealthy foreigners. Come to the Land of Opportunity, the INS seems to be saying--but only with checkbook in hand.

The plan, originally passed by Congress in 1989 as part of a whole passle of new immigration rules, is both cynical and unfair--and Congress should overturn it.

Money, of course, is the big draw. Such programs have been financially successful in other nations. The Canadians, for instance, have made $15 billion (and created more than 40,000 jobs, according to The Washington Post) since their plan began in 1986. On the heels of a biting recession, such figures now look especially sweet.

But for any amount of money, the plan still sells out the American dream. Even as they provide up to 10,000 wealthy corporate types with guaranteed entrance, the INS shuts off those spots to potential immigrants without such deep pockets. These folks are shunted into the competitive and frustrating immigration lottery.

But as we were reminded at the celebration of the refurbished Ellis Island a year ago, the U.S. for more than three decades provided safe haven for 12 million of the world's middle and lower classes escaping from the urban degradation and ethnic oppression of 19th- and early 20th-century Europe. Only 2 percent of those trying to enter were rejected.

These working men and women were at least as essential to the creation of an economically dominant America as the wealthy foreign investors now clamoring for visas.

Worse still, as Sen. Dale Bumpers (D-Arkansas) pointed out during the 1989 Senate debate, the law doesn't require the INS to check the sources of the big ticket foreign investments. The cash could be from a sleazy bank (like BCCI). Or from a bunch of drug runners (like BCCI).

Finally, the plan will take unfair advantage of the fears of Hong Kong Chinese seeking new homes before Britain returns control of the city to China in 1997. Ditto for East Europeans fleeing the ethnic turmoil sparked by the death of communism.

For decades, as The Post recalled, the U.S. has beckoned the world's "starving, [its] poor, [its] huddled masses yearning to breathe free." Now it beckons its Guccis, its Rothschilds, its Mercedes, yearning for front-row Lakers tickets.

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CALIFORNIA GOV. Pete Wilson got scared last week. He saw long-held White House hopes wavering after rankling his conservative supporters just a bit too much in compromising on this year's budget. So he ran for cover.

Last Sunday, Wilson vetoed a California bill to add sexual orientation to the state's employment anti-discrimination laws. This would have meant that gays and lesbians, like other minorities, would be protected under the Fair Employment and Housing Act.

No dice. The business community was pleased. Gay bashers got a kick out of it, too (although the governor insultingly made clear his anti-anti-homosexuality). Obviously, Wilson should change his mind.

The San Diego Republican, twice picked for the U.S Senate before defeating Dianne Feinstein for the governor's mansion last year, has always been the consummate politician. In his 1988 bid for the Senate, the hard working Wilson even won more votes in a single election than anyone in Congressional history.

In Washington, Wilson garnered a false reputation for being a moderate. (The National Journal even gave him a "liberal" rating on social issues.) Indeed, his talk would have made any Democrat proud. And Wilson did vote for a number of environmental measures, especially those preventing off-shore drilling. He even chattered about getting more money for child care and--believe it or not--AIDS research.

But his voting record (except on the environment) always shifted when people associated him with then-senator Lowell Weicker (now Connecticut's Independent governor) and other Republicans who weren't very Republican.

Such has been the case recently. Last month The New York Times ran a long story about Wilson's willingness to appease liberal legislators in hacking out an overdue budget. And they were right. Wilson agreed to more than $7 billion in tax hikes and lower cuts than expected in social spending.

The pressure to reverse this "moderate" trend has been enormous. The Los Angeles Times reported that Wilson received 115,000 letters in response to the budget debacle--only one in 20 supported him. So gays and lesbians became the sacrificial lambs.

Wilson's chameleonesque political career (rivaled only by that of Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton (D), who will announce his candidacy for president today, will probably get a boost from this. Let's hope not.

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THERE'S FOP, HOP and HOC; HUB, FUP and CLUH. Harvard has a ton of organizations--and it's hard to keep them all straight. Despite the large number, though, most of them are doing some cool things.

But there's one that does nothing. Nada. Zip. It might as well not exist.

It's called the Harvard Jobs Program.

My roommate was signed up for this program this year when he applied for financial aid. He didn't ask to be--they just said he was. But that was fine with him. Maybe there were perks.

No such luck. Even as a member in good standing of the Harvard Jobs Program, his sole privilege was to find a job and earn a recommended amount of money as part of his financial aid package.

That was it. Sounds a lot like what everyone else who wants a job at Harvard does.

I was perplexed, so I called the Financial Aid Office (FAO). No, they don't provide a list of jobs available only for those lucky participants in the Harvard Jobs Program. No, they don't offer any special wages or hours for jobs since my roommate did not qualify for the Harvard Work-Study Program, another organization altogether.

"Well, um, what can he do?"

"Go to the Student Employment Office [SEO] and look on the jobs board for a job," the friendly person at the FAO replied.

In short, his search for gainful employment was no different from mine--and I'm not fortunate enough to be in the HJP.

"It's not actually any sort of referral service," said another friendly person, this one at the SEO.

Harvard has every right to make work part of students' financial aid packages. But the Harvard Jobs Program is only a stupid euphemism for finding work. Do they think we're fooled? This is not very outrageous, but it is very silly.

The INS does unfair millionaire recruiting, Pete Wilson does damage to gay rights for political ends, and the Harvard Jobs Program does nothing at all.