Posted on 06/10/2008 9:33:19 AM PDT by AuntB
When discussing the problems massive illegal immigration has caused for the American taxpayer, many are at a loss when it comes to what to do with the millions of illegals who are already here. The majority of Americans want tougher border controls (are you listening up there in Washington?). People want immigration laws enforced, they want employers to be responsible for hiring legal workers, and they don't want to reward law-breaking with amnesty. What Congress and many Americans don't realize is that by doing the basics to stop the hiring of illegal aliens, deportation will take care of itself. It's the basics of supply and demand.
As Rachel Alexander noted in a recent posting in The Loft, "Since Arizona's local law enforcement began enforcing illegal immigration laws and an employer sanctions law went into effect, illegal immigrants have been fleeing the state in large numbers."
Fewer illegal immigrants are using hospital emergency rooms, so waiting times have decreased. Although the rest of the country is in an economic slump, unemployment is going down in Arizona, from 4.5% in January to 4.1% in March. Day laborers loitering outside of Home Depot and other stores have mostly disappeared, ending months of confrontation between illegal immigrant sympathizers and protesters. Desert lands near the border are returning to their pristine condition and the wildlife is coming back. Identity theft and car thefts are decreasing.
That's right.... by simply enforcing immigration laws and penalizing employers for hiring illegal aliens, the numbers of illegal aliens went DOWN. Does this mean they all left the country and returned home? No, of course not. Some probably did, while others went to another area of America where laws are not respected or enforced.
The point, however, is that this crackdown on illegal immigration did not involve "rounding them up," or mass deportation. This phrase is often used by immigration reform critics as a way to demonstrate the "mean spiritedness" of those who want illegal immigration to stop. As readers can see from the Arizona example, deportation takes care of itself by simply enforcing the laws regarding the hiring of illegals. Stop the demand, and the supply goes away.
Now, it appears the White House is ramping up its efforts to go after employers who hire illegal aliens. As noted in the Associated Press story Bush orders contractors to check legal status of employees, "President Bush has signed an executive order requiring contractors and others who do business with the federal government to make sure their employees can legally work in the U.S."
The federal government has had some embarrassing moments when illegal workers have been discovered to be working for contractors they've hired, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said in a news conference. For that reason it's trying to get its own house in order, Chertoff said.
''The federal government should lead by example and not merely by exhortation,'' he said.
Rep. Brian Bilbray, a California Republican who heads the Immigration Reform Caucus, is quoted in the story as saying, "I think it's a great decision. I think it's what the American people have been asking for, common-sense, basic things that are not Draconian or dramatic. Employer verification addresses the real problem and that is illegal employment."
If there are no jobs available for illegal aliens, they will return to their own countries. They will go where the jobs are. It's a simple concept. Yes, we can deport 12 million illegal aliens. We can do it without "rounding them up" or using extra resources. All American employers need to do is dry up the jobs.
In short, you can cut Kyl some slack for the parliamentary move, but everyone else who voted "nay" should be voted out of office.
I will assume for a moment that brute force could "work". The massive police-state infrastructure required to go door-to-door, set up roadblocks, and so on may be a cure worse than the disease. The innocent would be punished along with the guilty. Illegals are already doing enough to destroy the country with OUR help!
I supported Tom Tancredo until he dropped out, and was very warm to Duncan Hunter and Ron Paul. Illegal immigration infuriates me. But the fix for the problem has to be looked at as a whole. It has to be realistic, and it should not involve turning America into a totalitarian state (no matter how important the cause - a village destroyed is not a village saved). Current ICE raids can be part of the solution, but the intensity required to round up all of the illegals would be extreme. Even Tancredo was a proponent primarily of policies which would foment self-deportation, not brute force. For example,
1. I'd like to slash entitlements altogether, but sufficient for illegals is to use government ID requirements to cut off the entitlement benefits, including
- free primary education
- college subsidies
- free health services
- free emergency services
- food stamps
- housing subsidies (yes, all this crap is available for illegals right now)
2. Eliminate birthright citizenship for children born to illegals
3. Build a real double fence, with land-mines, moats filled with crocodiles, angry subterranean crotch-seeking wolverines, or whatever else it takes to make sure the only inward flow of people is through the front door.
4. Send flagrant abettors to jail. These people are not innocent - they serve the nectar of the lawbreakers, providing them with material support. Right now, fines are simply drawn from corporate operating accounts. The people abusing the immigration system often don't personally lose anything. Some time behind bars would change their risk analysis.
Make it uncomfortable enough, and the illegals will leave on their own. No need for an expensive, intrusive police-state infrastructure. No need to collectively punish all of America for the crimes of illegals.
Brown skin is insufficient probable cause to check for legal status
However, inability to speak English SHOULD BE considered probable cause to check a person's status
agreed!
They certainly do wear uniforms especially the recent arrivals. Do you for a minute think you can walk around France and the locals will think you are French? The new arrival’s clothes are cheap knock offs, their demeanor is different and most do not speak English.
Kick the obvious scum out and then work your way through to the ones who have been here longer. Fine and imprison employers who hire them. Hiring an illegal alien should have a far greater penalty than a DWI. We don’t need a police state we just need some smart executives with resolve not a bunch of liberal limp wristed pansy politicians running the show.
To imply that one cannot easily tell a newly arrived illegal alien Mexican from an American of Mexican decent is a slap in the face of the American.
Well, OK. That didn’t fit with my understanding of the man.
Then you might as well stay out of the inner cities because there isn’t much english spoken there...
ebonics on the other hand......
Kudos to Indiana for this. I hope to see other states following their lead.
“Vigorous enforcement will cause many to leave on their own...”
In my neck of the woods they had a series on illegals that had gone back to Mexico. They even followed them back with photos of the small shacks they lived in with their extended family.
Many of them had not been deported, but knew people that were, and were “living in fear, never knowing when a knock on the door would come”.
After reading all about their upheaval, loss of their dreams, children getting stripped of an education, etc. I needed a tissue to dry my eyes. (Not really, but I’m sure the majority of readers had that hoped-for response).
Yes we can..
Why would there be a need to physically round up the 20+million illegals? All it would take to take care of nearly all of the problem is to massively step up immigration enforcement, cut off all public benefits to illegals, and severely crack down on the employment of illegals. Between the intimidation factor, no jobs, and no benefits, there would be no need to stay here. Those that do stay - the gang bangers and other criminals could then be much more readily rounded up and air dropped on Mexico City...with no parachute.
Actually, Sheriff Joe Arpaio has had several sweeps of areas where illegals were known to congregate and arrest them if they did not have appropriate documents. They were then thrown into the tent-city jail to await ICE.
False argument. We don’t have to deport them. Once there is no money, no benefits, and no work for them, they’ll leave on their own.
“The ones that stay to actually work are the ones we want here anyway...”
I wouldn’t go so far as to say “WE”. I think they should go home too.
I don't care what their skin color is, I just want them to come here LEGALLY and BE Americans when they do get here. Leave the dreck of your previous Third World sh*tholes behind you.
We won’t have to. Enforce the laws, close the border, crack down hard on those employing illegal workers, and most of those 12 million will leave on their own.
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