Posted on 11/30/2005 8:40:01 AM PST by epow
To zap illegals, jail those who employ them
Published on: 11/30/05
On Monday, President Bush gave a speech designed to reassure his conservative base that he is serious about protecting the country from illegal immigrants.
Speaking before an invitation-only audience in Tucson, Ariz., the president didn't spend too much time talking about the valuable contributions that immigrants have made or about granting them the opportunity to become citizens. Instead, Bush focused on fences and raids and deportations. In so doing, he reached out to a disaffected Republican constituency that is increasingly hostile to immigrants — especially to those Latinos who enter the country illegally.
Bush's tough talk will certainly have widespread appeal in Georgia, where many voters have become anxious — even angry — at what they perceive as the staggering burden of illegal immigration. There is a backlash brewing — a rising tide of frustration born of resentment over schools forced to accommodate non-English speakers, hospital emergency rooms beset by uninsured patients and perceptions of higher crime rates.
Over the past decade, the immigrant population has grown faster in Georgia than in nearly all other states. Immigrants — with and without documents — find work in carpet mills in Dalton, poultry plants in Rome, farms in South Georgia and construction companies throughout metro Atlanta.
But Bush failed to call for the one policy change that would make the greatest difference in deterring illegal border crossings: harsh penalties for employers who hire undocumented workers. Most illegal immigrants, especially those who come in through the porous Mexican border, are drawn to this country by the promise of work. If jobs dried up, the torrent of illegal immigrants entering the United States would diminish to a trickle. And the best way to curb the hiring is to put employers in prison for hiring illegally.
But the president didn't say one word about harsh penalties for businesses. That's because business executives are a core GOP constituency, and Bush doesn't want to risk alienating them.
Oh, he gave the usual lip service to the idea of responsible hiring. He spoke of his plan for providing temporary permits for immigrants to work in those industries that need their labor, and he described IDs that would be tamper-proof, thwarting the common practice of using fake IDs. He announced the expansion of a program called "Basic Pilot," an automated system through which businesses may determine whether a prospective employee is authorized to work in this country. Basic Pilot is now available for use nationwide. But employers are not required to use it.
Bush didn't say anything about business owners who knowingly hire illegal immigrants because their labor comes cheap: They will work for less than minimum wage; they don't seek health insurance; they don't complain about safety violations in the workplace.
It's not difficult for employers to check on the immigration status of prospective workers. The Social Security Administration maintains a database of all Social Security numbers. It's easy enough for employers to learn whether a worker's number is valid. But many employers don't do that.
While many industries claim they can't find willing American workers, the truth is that they could find more Americans willing to do tough, dirty jobs if they paid more for their labor. Is it true that poultry plants couldn't find enough Americans to fill job openings? Or is it more likely they couldn't find enough American laborers for the wages they were willing to pay?
Of course, the higher labor prices would be passed on to consumers if the Bush administration and Congress really cracked down on illegal hiring. Homebuilders, for example, get to squeeze out a bit more profit when they use illegal workers, but they also pass some of the savings on to consumers. Houses are cheaper — and so is chicken, farm produce and lawn care, among other things — because illegal immigrants do so much of the labor. Americans who denounce illegal immigrants may not have calculated the additional costs they'd incur once that labor disappears.
It's easy to bash illegal immigrants. They are desperate; they are vulnerable; they don't vote. But they are here only because we've developed a bipolar policy that devours their cheap labor while discouraging their assimilation. If we are serious about curbing illegal immigration, the place to start is with business owners who hire illegal workers.
• Cynthia Tucker is the editorial page editor. Her column appears Wednesdays and Sundays.
And they will soon be on the voter registration rolls. Sorry, I don't want Mexicans voting for politicians who will be making rules for me. If I want to live in a corrupt hellhole I'll move to Mexico.
It isn't that hard. We have computers nowadays. You can't rent an apartment without getting a background check.
This is a lame excuse.
With 5.5 billion people in the world poorer than Mexicans there is for all practical purposes an infinite supply of labor in the world that would dearly love to be paid the American minimum wage. If we don't put some restrictions on our labor market we will all be living like the little kids in India I watched on Fox News the other night who were 7 years old and working 18 hours per day in sweatshops for 35 cents per week.
I am not about to wait and let the market work that kind of magic here. There are not enough jobs in the world to employee all these people at a wage that lets them live with an American style of living and there likely never will be. The only chance America has to keep our standard of living high is to make sure that the supply of labor here is always tight. A high standard of living is closely tied to high productivity. Agriculture needs to quit whining about cheap labor and figure out how to automate. In your industry the thinking has already been done by the Australians.
I am in favor though of dramatically simplifying the law for you and getting rid of all that I9 and discrimination crapola. Maybe we can agree on that. It should be as simple as if you don't have a social security card that can be quickly verified against a database by magnetic reader or on-line or by phone it is illegal to hire you. If an employer gets caught with an illegal employee, the employer incurs a massive fine and the person who made the hiring decision does some jail time. No exceptions and the penalties get worse for repeat offense.
But if we continue to allow illegal immigration, WE will become a third world nation and then we will pay 60% of our income for food.
Not only is it not hard but it is already in place. It is called the Basic Pilot Project. The President mentioned it in his speech a couple of days ago. All an employer needs to do is make a 60 second phone call.
As an excuse, this is beyond lame!
... and there should a National ID card upgraded to the needs of today's security, that would identify a person as a legal Immigrant. Todays documentation (i.e. Driver's license) is outdated, meant for a different era. Everyone knows you can get fake documents as good as the originals if you can affor the price.
Then the government should make it easy to check ID. That's part of the problem, the government doesn't want to stop illegal immigration because most of the employers who hire illegals are big supporters (read $$$) of the president and GOP Congressmen. Bush and the GOP need to be representing ALL their constituents on this issue, not just the ones who contribute the most $$$.
There are plenty of "white folks" who are happy to do menial labor. You don't hear about them because they don't make as big of a splash in newspapers.
For example, Amish, Hutterites and fundamentalist Christians do all kinds of menial jobs in farming, contracting, maid services and manufacturing. They are legal, they speak English, they aren't trying to take over the Southwest to create a Hispanic state and they don't clutter up the criminal justice system.
We need more of them. But since they have about six kids per family and their numbers have increased by a factor of 36 in the last century, we should have enough after we kick out the illegals.
All of the above. Pass the cost on to the consumer. But it is worth it because the alternative is to lose our country.
The illegals send about $15 billion (with a B) back to Mexico each year. That's another figure that's not usually mentioned when the cost of illegal immigration is discussed.
But you hired him before you knew his status? That was dumb.
Laws to that effect should be changed. I'm not saying that employers could do all that needs doing by themselves, the government should be doing it's job by reforming the applicable laws. Then the employers would be legal in refusing to hire any applicant whose ID is in doubt.
I WILL PAY!...IT will be the first TAX I AM HAPPY TO PAY :)
BTW, this tax would be saved in other ways
If they turn out to be illegal, you will pay for it. So you had better do some checking.
Okay, but there are already millions in the country. It's going to be expensive to deal with them, but tough. War is hell.
I understand it very well: I have several good friends who are in the fruit-growing business in WA. And to be perfectly honest, I don't really have a big problem with these folks coming up from Mexico to pick the fruit, prune and thin, and whatever else needs to be done. By all accounts those folks work very hard, and very well -- and at lower price than Americans are willing to work for, which is a serious business consideration for folks who're close to the margin.
At the same time, we really do need to have at least some degree of positive control over who gets to cross the border and work here, which is why I think some version of the "guest worker" program, coupled with a compliance-checking/registration system on the part of employers.
If those white folks were not drawing a government handout check I bet they would be a lot more willing to work for a wage close to what you're paying illegal Mexicans. As long as they can sit on their butts watching Judge Judy and Oprah all day and still draw more from Uncle Sugar than they can make working they won't work. This stuff aint rocket science folks.
Nope, it's politics, which makes it even harder than rocket science.
Rey, it appears that you are emphasizing the administrative burden this supposedly involves, when your real concern is that hiring only legal workers would increase your labor expense.
One way to deal with this is to have sting operations. Undercover agents posing as undocumented Mexicans.
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