Immigration Insanity
Why are Republicans so worried that illegal aliens might benefit from amnesty? Why is no one asking how corporate interests responsible for the hiring of illegal aliens are going to be held accountable? "We can't reward illegal behavior." That's what I keep hearing. But aren't the corporations that encouraged/enabled illegal immigrants to come to this country just as responsible for the immigration problem as the immigrants themselves? After all, it's a two-way street: immigrants show up, somebody hires them. Without the second half of that equation, none of this would be happening.
What's more, it is just as illegal to hire illegals as it is illegal for illegals to be here. So why is nobody interested in pursuing legal action against the companies who broke the law for the past 20 years? If we can track down the people who crossed our borders illegally, surely we can find out where they worked.
Yet, I've heard no talk of fining the people and/or businesses that profited from frightened workers, who have historically been over-worked and under-paid. Instead, high-level Republicans (whose own business interests likely benefited from the 12 or so million illegal aliens now working in the United States) are so fearful that the very people they profited from might actually benefit themselves, they are inundating the talk show circuits. And, as usual, they're playing a broken record: "they broke the law" is the favorite tune of the hour--never once do any of them acknowledge the fact that the law was also broken by everybody who profited from hiring illegal aliens. That never seems to come up.
If we want to be fair (though clearly fairness is not the goal) we would charge every individual or company who hired an illegal alien--knowingly or not--a fee. We could base that fee on what it costs to educate a foreigner to be conversant in our complicated language and to understand our complex system of government.
Of course, to be really fair we would have to make the companies that hired illegal immigrants pay back wages as well. They should be forced to cough up the difference between what they paid their workers and what they would have paid if forced to pay minimum wage. That would be an interesting exercise, wouldn't it? At the same time, of course, we would need to crack down, viciously, on any future violations of immigration laws--punishing those hiring even as we seek to punish those sneaking across our borders.
As for those already here, when they have completed and/or tested out of their training, they should be allowed to apply for citizenship through the usual process, while working here and paying taxes. As long as we eliminate any future practice of hiring illegal workers, there will be no incentives for additional illegal immigrants to show up here. The key, however, is enforcement.
As long as we force businesses to pay for their criminal behavior, and the fines are in excess of what they save paying slave wages, there will be no incentive for them to continue to lure illegal immigrants across our borders. When you remove the cause of a problem you don't need to deal with symptoms. Besides, as one comic put it, try building a 700-mile fence without Mexicans. The fence isn't the answer. Enforcing the law is.
We need to admit that we allowed this problem to fester and take responsibility for that fact. What's more, we need to stop acting like it's a new crises--this is not new. The only reason it's coming up now is that Bush can't find a single other area to talk about that gives him even a semblance of credibility with anybody. This is it--his last hurrah. If he can win the hearts of Hispanics everywhere, he won't go out in utter disgrace. He needs something to work on that will make him look better than he does right now. He picked immigration. It's one of the few areas he hasn't already picked up, screwed up and had to run from. Now he figures he can boost the ratings with his peeps by getting Hispanics across the country to side with him. He's a desperate man. This is a desperate move.
It's also a repeat. Remember Reagan? He did the same thing. Only he called it "amnesty." And what happened? We let folks stay but nobody kept up the other end of the deal, the end that said we should start enforcing laws against hiring illegal immigrants, and stop encouraging them to come here covertly. That never happened. So here we are again.
What is the definition of insanity? Oh yeah, doing the same thing and expecting different results.
What's more, it is just as illegal to hire illegals as it is illegal for illegals to be here. So why is nobody interested in pursuing legal action against the companies who broke the law for the past 20 years? If we can track down the people who crossed our borders illegally, surely we can find out where they worked.
Yet, I've heard no talk of fining the people and/or businesses that profited from frightened workers, who have historically been over-worked and under-paid. Instead, high-level Republicans (whose own business interests likely benefited from the 12 or so million illegal aliens now working in the United States) are so fearful that the very people they profited from might actually benefit themselves, they are inundating the talk show circuits. And, as usual, they're playing a broken record: "they broke the law" is the favorite tune of the hour--never once do any of them acknowledge the fact that the law was also broken by everybody who profited from hiring illegal aliens. That never seems to come up.
If we want to be fair (though clearly fairness is not the goal) we would charge every individual or company who hired an illegal alien--knowingly or not--a fee. We could base that fee on what it costs to educate a foreigner to be conversant in our complicated language and to understand our complex system of government.
Of course, to be really fair we would have to make the companies that hired illegal immigrants pay back wages as well. They should be forced to cough up the difference between what they paid their workers and what they would have paid if forced to pay minimum wage. That would be an interesting exercise, wouldn't it? At the same time, of course, we would need to crack down, viciously, on any future violations of immigration laws--punishing those hiring even as we seek to punish those sneaking across our borders.
As for those already here, when they have completed and/or tested out of their training, they should be allowed to apply for citizenship through the usual process, while working here and paying taxes. As long as we eliminate any future practice of hiring illegal workers, there will be no incentives for additional illegal immigrants to show up here. The key, however, is enforcement.
As long as we force businesses to pay for their criminal behavior, and the fines are in excess of what they save paying slave wages, there will be no incentive for them to continue to lure illegal immigrants across our borders. When you remove the cause of a problem you don't need to deal with symptoms. Besides, as one comic put it, try building a 700-mile fence without Mexicans. The fence isn't the answer. Enforcing the law is.
We need to admit that we allowed this problem to fester and take responsibility for that fact. What's more, we need to stop acting like it's a new crises--this is not new. The only reason it's coming up now is that Bush can't find a single other area to talk about that gives him even a semblance of credibility with anybody. This is it--his last hurrah. If he can win the hearts of Hispanics everywhere, he won't go out in utter disgrace. He needs something to work on that will make him look better than he does right now. He picked immigration. It's one of the few areas he hasn't already picked up, screwed up and had to run from. Now he figures he can boost the ratings with his peeps by getting Hispanics across the country to side with him. He's a desperate man. This is a desperate move.
It's also a repeat. Remember Reagan? He did the same thing. Only he called it "amnesty." And what happened? We let folks stay but nobody kept up the other end of the deal, the end that said we should start enforcing laws against hiring illegal immigrants, and stop encouraging them to come here covertly. That never happened. So here we are again.
What is the definition of insanity? Oh yeah, doing the same thing and expecting different results.
posted by LA Fosner at 12:36 PM
2 Comments:
Laurie:
I read your comments regarding the NSA spying program motives and wanted to make the this prediction: No matter who wins the 2006 or 2008 elections, this program will survive in some form and with in a generation among other things will be used to analyze the citizentry and cull out potential malcontents.
Sadly, the cat is out of the bag and the software will just get more and more sophisticated over the next few years. At some point, it will be misused. In my mind it is a certainty.
Much as I would love to blame it on our fearless leader, Bush has only speeded up a process already in motion.
I enjoy your writing. Keep it up!
Mike Adelson
laurie, tx for mentioning reagan's amnesty thing. this just puts more emphasis on the reality that this so called "neocon" movement has been going on for a long time...and they are winning. the strategy is simply. illegal immigration has been a tool to undermine the unions and democracy. illegals can't vote, have no rights, and work cheap. what a boon for the capitalists! it's not only the big corps that take advantage. every small business owner, farmer, restauranteur, contractor, etc., takes advantage of illegals, because they can. this is the land of opportunist, criminals included. the only way we can ever solve this problem is to embrace a fundamental change in our interpretation of what the "american dream" really is. we must embrace a higher sense of morality, a stronger sense of nationalism and pride...like the old "new deal" days. free trade, offshoring jobs, senseless wartime profiteering...it's all just a way to take more, and give less. this concept is, in every sense of the word, bankrupt and completely out of step with nature. the love of money, is the root of all evil, yes, but whoever is without sin, cast the first stone. this is the problem in america.
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