You really didn't read the article, did you?
I hate to do this, but I have to disagree with Dr. Sowell. We cannot just jail 12 - 20 million people. All we hear about now is jail overcrowding. Besides, why should we pay to keep them here in jail?
I’m surprised that Dr. Sowell missed the best idea. Crack down on employers. HARD. When the jobs start drying up, most of the illegals will go home on their own.
I agree that's what will have to be done.
From article:
Just as we don't need to solve every crime and catch every criminal, in order to have deterrents to crime, neither do we have to ferret out and deport every one of the 12 million illegal aliens in this country in order to deter a flood of new illegal aliens.
I don't think he's talking about jailing 12 to 20 million.
If hiring illegals were NOT tax deductible, then the IRS, the most feared beauracy in all the land, would take care of this problem in nothing flat.
I expect Teddy Kennedy and the like to betray us, but the people we fought to elect? The magnitude of the betrayal and the ramifications if this passes...are unthinkable.
I don't know who it is exactly that you are disagreeing with, but it isn't Dr. Sowell. Sowell NEVER made the proposal you are claiming he did.
Quite to the contrary, Sowell made the explicit point that it would NOT be neccessary to round up and jail them all.
Instead, he rightly noted that if we started actually treating these people as criminals, subject to arrest and trial, many would repatriate themselves forthwith. Take away the incentive, put in place some serious disincentives (like enforcing existing law), and the busses south will be filled to the brim with folks looking for a new life in Mexico.
Read again what he said:
Imprisoning known and apprehended lawbreakers for the crime of illegally entering this country, in addition to whatever other punishment they receive for other laws that they have broken -- and then sending them back where they came from after their sentences have been served
He's talking about those already being jailed. Those we already pay for. Jail them longer for illegally entering the country and then kick them out.
If they know they'll get a longer sentence and get deported, they'll be less likely to come in the first place. Crack down on employers as well, but punish the lawbreakers, more.
So very true. That, combined with not providing ANY social services to illegals will take care of most of the problem. They will go home voluntarily. Any employer who knowingly hires an illegal immigrant should be harshly punished. We hear big business complaining of labor shortages, but that is bogus. They are afraid they may have to pay a little more than minimum wage to get people to work for them, and they want to import slaves to keep wages down.
1. Unforgeable encrypted picture id with social security number on it. The numbers and photo will be both visible and encrypted.
2. Data base accessible on the Internet for employers to consult before hiring anyone.
3. Fines of 1000 dollars a day for each illegal caught working for you.
4. If there are no jobs the illegal will go home.
The costs of construction and agriculture will go up. The free market will pay enough money so that Americans will take the jobs. I would much rather my food costs and housing costs go up than to lose my country.
enforce the law
Exactly. A million bucks a pop for every violation; each individual illegal (criminal trespasser), for every violation. Make the most recent employer responsible for the subsequent behavior of any "between jobs" illegal who commits a felony.
Agreed. Imprisonment and fences are bad ideas. The best thing to do is deny illegals the priveleges of those who are here legally. No welfare, no health care, no voting, no driving, no jobs. If those things are achieved, their home country might start to look a tad better.
You really didn't read the article, did you?
“When the jobs start drying up, most of the illegals will go home on their own.”
Or turn to crime or welfare. Those are often better alternatives than returning home to no job and no welfare. I think putting the onus on companies when it is the government which has failed in one of its principal functions: national defense, is misdirected. Many of these IIs use false IDs to demonstrate they are legal to employers. So now the employers have to be checking the validity of the IDs because the goverment has failed to keep these guys out?
Also, as much as I admire the mind and writings of T. Sowell, he won’t touch the economic aspects of this issue. He is a supporter of NAFTA and offshoring and any other 100% free-trade initiative (no restrictions) on the theory that global competition (even for jobs) is always good.
The fact that illegal workers have created an underground economy (a false floor of low prices in some key areas of economy, agriculture, construction) would topple a balance we’ve become comfortable with.
Once the citizenry becomes fully aware of the economic false floor, they will shout loud and hard against international competition for work (that is, people in foreign countries being able to do our jobs from their countries) because they will see that there is an unfair playing field in that they can work (at a much greater profit than those workers are used to) for wages far below the standard of living we are used to. I sent a couple of lengthy emails to Mr. Sowell outlining this very position, that the illegal immigrants are a concrete example of the theoretics behind international job competition. He shrugged it off and said he addresses the issue in the latest issue of his Basic Economics. I've only read the older version, so I don't know what his stats say. But we all know about statistics.
His point is that we don’t have have to catch and deport EVERY criminal; just like other crimes, rigorous enforcement will have a deterrent effect.
In the book “Crime and Punishment” there is this (much-overlooked) gem: It is not the severity of punishment that deters crime, but the certainty of its enforcement.
I wish our public officials and the American public as a whole would remember this.
I don't think that he meant jailing every illegal alien: I think that he meant that if an illegal alien commits a crime of any sort, they need to be jailed AND THEN deported. If it's not a jailable offense, they should still be turned over to the feds.
Mark
Fill containers with birdseed for 5 days, in your back yard, soon you will have all kinds of birds will come to your back yard, hundreds of them. Now take away the birdseed and see how many birds will come to your back yard.