No one really is serious about immigration, even when they say they are. I have run numbers that indicate that even allowing for the taxes that illegals pay, the contribution to the national work force and their being consumers - we would be better served to actually round up all illegals and deport them. The cost is NOT prohibitive. Now remember that I am a liberal and being such am not as against expansion of government or the expenditure of government collected taxation so the concept of going out and picking up every illegal in the country is not as abhorrent to me as it would be to a conservative..
What is being missed due to short memories and lazy legislators is that we tried this amnesty thing before and the result was an even larger influx of illegals this go round. Amnesty in any form does not work. What it is, is a statute of limitations rule that encourages more of the same. "listen Quac, if you manage to get to this country and stay here long enough, eventually the government will give you a pass".
A true fence and well guarded southern border is a great start. Next would be a real streamlining of immigration and naturalization rules that would actually give folks of little means a chance at getting into this country legitimately and in a short amount of time. I read recently that it could take as long as 28 years to become a U.S. citizen if one has no contacts or "friends" in the country.
But I am aware that most illegals aren't illegal because the legal system is too cumbersome, they never even attempted to do things the legal way. They simply don't see the point in going that route when they don't have to.
Which brings me to the real argument. Why are we punishing people who for the most part simply want to make a better life for themselves? Why aren't we going after the source of the problem - the companies that hire illegals.
I recall once, years ago, just before the last amnesty move, seeing a line. I was consulting for a carpet company, a large one. I saw a line of thirty or forty latinos waiting to get to a truck and on the flatbed of this truck were several people giving something to each person in the line, one at a time. I asked what they were doing and was told not to ask, i asked anyway and discovered that these people were being paid every friday in cash for their work that week installing carpet.
It is the illegal's "fault" for being in this country, but he is only enabled to be here if he has a legitimate job. Serious sanctions placed upon employers would eliminate a number of problems. When illegals (those from the south) get to this country they manage to find low paying jobs - jobs that pay so poorly that they cannot afford to live in their own apartments but pack themselves into houses or apartments in multiple families.
There is a national child support database that enables states through the federal government to discover all new hires within a single fiscal quarter. If this database and system were used to keep illegals from being able to find employment it would quickly slow the flow of illegals and begin to reverse that flow.
Most companies are aware that they can skirt employment laws - employment services or "manpower" workers know full well that their people are illegal and they are not sanctioned when that is discovered.
Strict rules and harsh punishment for employers who hire illegals would go a long way. Better safeguards on falsified social security numbers would protect the companies that truely want to comply but are fooled by counterfit paper.
Finally, an international PR campaign would help greatly. I have seen the pamphlets passed out in Mexico on how to manage one's self when they are attempting to cross the border or after they have reached the United States. Some of those pamphlets are distributed by well meaning U.S. organizations but the point they make to the population is that illegal entry and habitation in the U.S. is not a big deal. If we have it appear to be a big deal, then it will become at least to some, a big deal.
So we have a fence, deportation of anyone caught breaking any other laws in the U.S., strong sanctions against employers of illegals, safeguards against counterfit social security numbers and a campaign informing potentials that they could be jailed before being deported (or something scary). I don't know what the constitutionality of holding an illegal until he finds the money to pay for his transit out of the country is but this might be worth looking into.
Any thoughts?
