Posted on 02/02/2006 1:50:05 PM PST by FerdieMurphy
I *was* responding to what you wrote. You seem to think that given a legal and an illegal option, people will always choose the legal option. There are other factors.
I think that we have to give immigrants only one option - legal immigration or none.
No, again you misread me. The "always" is your insertion.
I said that if government turns up the heat enough, it will start to push more people into the legal channels, and that will have a positive-feedback effect.
I think we agree on that. But I think the gov't has to turn up the heat on the employers, and you think it's enough to turn it up on the illegals. Is that close?
And that would give illegal immigrants a 6 month "window" to get here. And they would come in droves.
Better would be to have a program that starts with the employers. Set up a guest worker application process, and tell the employers that they have 2 weeks to either sponsor their illegal employees for guest worker status, or fire them and hire legal workers.
There won't need to be "a strong show of force" at the border.
First of all, I wasn't talking about easing up on enforcement for those six months any more than we currently are, so it wouldn't give them any more "window" than they have now. Secondly, if they tried to come here through the illegal route by that time, that would be the worst decision they could make for themselves, because they'd be getting here and getting set up just as the heat would be starting to rise, and it would be rising without letup. Their stay here would wind up being quite short. It would be far more in their interests at that point to register with the guest-worker program. Why deal with coyotes (both the human and animal varieties), rattlesnakes, the harshness of the desert weather, and ultimately, the strong likelihood of being caught and sent back and having your efforts all be for nothing, when you can instead go down to the local consulate and apply to get in legally?
And a strong show of force at the border is something we're going to need to do anyway, even if we go with your plan (and even if it will work as well as you claim). It's much too porous as it is, even without ordinary workers trying to get in.
If you give employers a 6 month window for hiring illegals, you are giving illegals a 6 month window to come here. We don't even try to keep illegals from working here. In fact, some local gov'ts even encourage it.
I don't care how much money you spend (of taxpayer money), if you have willing employers and willing employees, you can't stop it.
I already told you that I'm not giving them anything they don't already have. By your logic, they've already had a 2+ year window because of the insane stubborness of so many in Congress not to give up on their illegal-legalizing plans, even for the sake of enacting a temporary compromise that will move things forward. And they're not insisting on this because they think they're being harder on illegals by doing it.
If you think my plan would be softer on illegals, then surely one of the legions of soft-on-illegals in Congress would be proposing it. As it is, it's only being proposed by Congressmen whom the soft-on-illegals and pro-illegals can't stand. Tell you something?
Have you ever wondered whether the reason Congress isn't doing what you want might be because they are concerned about American business and the American economy?
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