obviously a guest worker program won't fix illegal immegration - it encourages it, but what about the following for an idea.
The reason Mexico encourages illegal immegration is that the money their illegal immigrants send back home is one of the top sources of the country's revenue. And how does an illegal immigrant send money from US to Mexico ... via a Bank Card. They deposit the money in a US bank and a relative withdraws it from the ATM machine in Mexico. Extremely easy.
Let's have the Senate Banking committee draw up a law that prevents intra-country withdrawls and the illegal immigration problem would be dramatically improved.
3 things would happen:
1) Illegalimmigrants in the US couldn't send the US-made money to Mexico. The money would stay in the US (good for America).
2) Since the money wouldn't go to Mexico, there is no reason for Mexico to encourage illegal immigration (bad for Mexico).
3) If an illegal immigrant got a job in the US and kept the money, they would be more likely to pay their own way, less likely to get government handouts (good for America).
Thoughts?
PS: It is my first post - be kind!
The only problem with this is that it would bring ALL international commerce and business to a dead stop. How about we have the corrupt elements in CIS forfeit their pay, pay a fine, and be incarcerated? More laws never fix anything. We have good laws (Immigration Reform Act) already. They need to be applied and enforced correctly.
Won't work. I and millions of other American Citizens that vacation in foreign countries won't like the fact that we can not get to our money at an ATM.
Even more, Mexico does not have to spend any money on its citizens who are illegally in the USA yet get billions and billions in money. What a bargain!
I don't think it would make them less likely to take "hand-outs" because the fact is they work for less money than it costs to live in this country, so the shortfall has to be made up by government assistance.
That's why it amazes me that people think illegal workers are a boon to our economy. It's true that US citizens can't work as cheap as illegals, not enough money to live on. Funny thing is, it's not enough for the illegal to live on either, that is why they have to get on the dole,in some fashion, even if they are hard-working.
"Thoughts?
PS: It is my first post - be kind!"
Some interesing comments, but Mexico sees us as a dumping ground for their social problems.
We need enforcement of the laws that are on the books, steeper fines for illegal employers, and a physical barrier.