Immigration

Alright, I've had it. The current debate over immigration reform is insanity. Here's the president and the Judiciary's plans: let's take the 11 million illegal immigrants in the country and give them legal status, yeah we'll charge them a $2000 fine and back taxes too. Hey, if you have no criminal record and learn English we'll even let you be citizens. Wow that's swell. Oh yeah we're also going to setup a "guest-worker" program allotting some 400,000 work permits for future citizens-to-be.

Ok so what's the problem with this? Well just who is our government working for? I could've sworn citizens got to vote, not illegal immigrants who take to the streets in the most egregious display of arrogance I can recall. Wait, I spoke too soon lest I forget the move in some states to award illegal immigrants (referred to generously as "undocumented") in-state tuition rates at state universities. What!? You're joking. Let's remember, they did show a blatant disregard for the laws of this nation and our sovereignty. So Bush is massaging the Latino vote to make nice with his Republican constituents and who else?

How about big business? Yeah, I get tired of hearing about how evil corporations are out to get us too but in this case there is some basis for concern. The Bush administration says immigrants do the jobs Americans don't want to do. Ok, I'll concede that point but why don't Americans want to do them? Lax border enforcement drives down wages making the jobs less palatable to Americans so to say these are jobs Americans don't want is not telling the whole story. If no one was doing the jobs, businesses would need to raise wages to attract workers and avoid going out of business. Businesses that employ illegal immigrants don't pay taxes or benefits, nada zip. The illegal immigrants don't pay taxes or for benefits, zero. To be sure we're clear, illegal immigrants drive down wages thereby contracting the job market while enjoying the advantage of local, state, and federal services they don't pay for all while enjoying free health care. So Bush serves big business in this case by allowing for a steady stream of low-wage workers. Yes, they'll have to pay taxes now but at least they're cheap. Oh and we're not going to enforce the border so you can keep those illegal immigrants too.

And just how are we going to collect back taxes on people we have no idea have been here or how much they earned? That of course is a transparent attempt to placate those with views to the right of this plan.

Might I remind those of us with short memories we tried this before. 1986 - legalized 3 million illegal immigrants and it has done anything but solve the problem. Now we have 4 times as many and this is the best solution they can come up with? Last year illegal immigrants cost United States tax-payers $60,000,000,000 (NPR). The National Review Online is right when they said the Judiciary Committee "decided to tell the American people to shove it."

I don't think throwing them all in jail, as the House proposed, is any better. 11 million newly charged felons * $20,000/year to house a convict = $220 billion a year. That's a lot of crunk and it doesn't include the cost to locate and take illegal immigrants into custody. I don't really think that's what Republicans meant anyway. What they probably think operationally would be to charge new illegal aliens with felonies but the formula is the same, just smaller numbers compounded over a number of years.

So what do we do? (Brace yourself Republicans and Libertarians) The same thing we should do about the drug problem, lower consumption. If we don't want to buy drugs there's no drug problem. Analogously, if we don't employ illegal immigrants they'll stop coming over illegally. Let's take a close look at who is employing illegal immigrants and make them change their business practices. If you really believe in the free market then you don't need the crutch of illegally cheap labor. Now let's combine that with some actual enforcement of the border and we've got a viable, cost-effective solution.

Those who want to allow open borders and pay for services for all of North American who will call me a nativist, xenophobic, isolationist, Republiterian are just plain wrong. I don't like criminals whose crimes my family and I have to pay for and then having my morals questioned on that basis.