Posted on 04/25/2006 2:07:09 PM PDT by cicero2k
Lets face it, the cause of illegal immigration is economics. A supply is meeting demand. This does not justify illegality, but explains the root cause. Therefore, to correct the lapse in enforcement of the law, economics has to be used.
For example, a tariff of say $300 per month per illegal employee, paid by the employer may suffice. No arrests or deportation, just a tariff. The employer can hire legal citizens for less or continue to pay the tariff.
It does not matter how long an illegal immigrant has been here, and solutions based on that are flawed since it is impossible to reliably evaluate. If this determination can be made reliable, then the tariff should be greater for the persons here the longest.
In one stroke weve documented the illegal immigrants, gained revenue and created incentive to become legal. Perhaps raise the $300 incentive until large numbers of illegal immigrants are told youre fired. Then they will go home or go through the process to become legal.
Of course the cost of many things will go up, but I think this issue is so important to most of us that we are willing to pay. Security and adherence to the rule of law trumps having to pay more for a hotel room or seeing more weeds around the building (for example).
There may be exceptions. Agricultural workers, the legacy class of illegal immigrants, could work with a small tariff. But even this group should have an ID, both paper and bio-metrics. There will be a group to fly under the radar, the day laborers, part time domestics etc. Then again, we normally dont do withholding on babysitters either.
Three hundred is to low, 1000 bucks a head would be more appropriate.
Good idea till someone comes along and calls it unconstitutional, yet sneaking in ILLEGALLY is okay?
Enforce the da*n law already, control the border, stop the anchorbrat cra*, and deport the illegal alien criminals!
Problem solved.
Take back our country and tell them they are NOT welcome!
The way to do this would be to pay whistle blowers a percentage of the tariff. People at work presumably have a pretty good idea as to who is illegal. If employers insist on hiring illegals, they should be made to pay the price. And there's every reason for their legal employees or ex-employees to benefit from exposing their disdain for the law. Heck - make illegal workers eligible for a whistleblower reward as well - that way, if he is fired, he can nail the criminals who hired him in the first place.
How about taxing the western union and other ways that they send money back to relatives?
I've tried to explain that our "free trade" policies preclude us from setting tariffs on labor.
Best Practices Workshops
As the Responsible Coordinator for the Migrant Workers mandate, the U.S. Government, through its Department of State (PRM Bureau), plans to carry out two interrelated activities in cooperation with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the U.S. - based Migration Dialogue Project during year the year 2000.
The first activity involves convening a two- day workshop in Sacramento, California in late April. The objective is to bring together a group of up to forty U.S. experts from various sectors (public, private, advocacy, migrants, labor, NGOs) to develop a suggested set of "best practices" for implementation, within the U.S., of items specified in the Summit of the Americas Plan of Action. These best practices can then be given wider domestic (and possibly international) dissemination. Philip Martin, a recognized expert on migration and development, is a co-director of the "Migration Dialogue" project which (as one of its program facets) organizes periodic meetings and field trips on selected topics focusing on Migrants and Migrant labor.
The PRM Bureau and IOM plan to organize and hold a companion workshop for international experts in June at the CEPAL/CELADE headquarters in Santiago, Chile. The purpose will be to discuss and develop a set of suggested "best practices" for use within the Hemisphere in implementing the Migrant Worker section of the OAS Plan of Action. IOM is serving as the primary organizer of the event by providing assistance in selecting the experts, guiding workshop discussions and producing an after-action report containing suggested sets of "best practices."
Agricultural Migrant Labor in North America
A conference on "Agricultural Migrant Labor in North America" organized by the governments of the United States, Mexico and Canada under the auspices of NAFTA's North American Agreement on Labor Cooperation (NAALC), took place February 7-9, 2000. The trilateral conference enabled experts from government, business, labor, non-governmental organizations, and academia to examine legal, social, and economic issues facing agricultural migrant workers in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. For more information, please see: Trilateral Conference.
Helping to ensure that the rights of migrant workers and their families will be better protected, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) and the International Migration Organization (IMO) signed an agreement on March 22, 2000 at the OAS headquarters in Washington D.C. Under the terms of the agreement, the IACHR and the IMO will work on joint endeavors to promote respect for and effective promotion of migrant's rights in the Americas.
http://www.summit-americas.org/Migrant%20Workers/Migrant-workers.htm
Financial Access for Immigrants: The Case of Remittances
More important for remittances, in February 2004 the Reserve Banks expanded their international ACH services to Mexico, in cooperation with the Central Bank of Mexico. The service potentially connects any bank account holder in the United States with any bank account holder in Mexico, uses an exchange rate guaranteed to be within 1 percent of the Central Bank of Mexico's wholesale rate, and costs the banks less than $1 per transaction. Providing service to Mexico is also an important step for the U.S.-Mexican Partnership for Prosperity, an agreement designed to improve financial linkages between the two countries. These Federal Reserve initiatives will support U.S. banks' ability to serve immigrants by allowing remittances to be sent to foreign banks at low cost. Ongoing improvements in the infrastructure for sending remittances, collaborations among foreign governments, and increased competition among service providers should ensure that cost savings are passed on to consumers.
Remarks by Governor Ben S. Bernanke
At the Financial Access for Immigrants: Learning from Diverse Perspectives conference, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
April 16, 2004
http://www.federalreserve.gov/boarddocs/speeches/2004/200404162/
So, what about the illegal that's here not working, and just getting the entitlements and free benefits that legal citizens tax dollars pay for.
How are you going to subsidize those costs or make those illegals want to leave?
The best way to solve this problem, aside from closing the border and putting up a wall, is to crack down on all employers who hire illegals. Fine them, arrest them, tax them, something, so they wont want to hire illegals. Then, take away ALL benefits and entitlements to ALL illegals.
Take away any and all reason for what illegals come here for.
Exactly - no on is enforcing anything now and I am highly suspicious of anyone saying "new laws" are going to so change anything or solve any of the existing problems. SECURE THE BORDER that is all I want right now. Plenty of time after you show us the border is secure, to debate guest worker, amnesty, amnesty lite, and whatever else it takes to deal with the 20+ million that have already broken many of the US laws.
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