Illegal Immigration Fix

The issue of illegal immigration, and the problems that surround it, continue to vex our nation, and divide us as a people.  Solutions keep eluding us, but that is not because there are no solutions.  Rather, it is because there are some very powerful and entrenched special interests that want this situation to stay exactly where it is, no solutions wanted, thank you very much.  The two major bad actors here are the corporate interests who desire an ongoing supply of low cost and legally marginalized workers, and the gangs and drug cartels south of the border who want easy access to our nation for their nefarious activities, such as drug and human trafficking.

The good guys in this are the American people, on two fronts. First of all, our workers should be protected against the greed of the corporations.  Let free and fair markets prevail, so that only after every willing American worker has a job with a livable wage do we consider bringing in guest workers, and then only on an open and legal basis.  That also brings up the second major interest the American people have in this controversy; the rule of law.  There will be more on this subject later, but suffice it to say for now that allowing all this illegal immigration erodes the rule of law in this nation, and eroding the rule of law always hurts the middle class and poor.

 

Let’s get some background on this issue, to ground ourselves with some wisdom and compassion, before presenting the three pronged proposal to start fixing it.

            One aspect of this wisdom is to recognize the terrible poverty and oppression that so many folks are fleeing from in the third world, especially Latin America.  With lives dominated by violence, hunger, disease, ignorance, and fear, the promise of living in America has to be so attractive that no one can blame the immigrants, legal or not, for wanting to come here.

            We must not, however, allow our quest for wise compassion to end at recognizing the suffering that those who come here are escaping.  Once the illegal immigrants are here, they still, because of their illegality, endure undue suffering.  They face legal marginalization; overworked, underpaid, and at constant risk of deportation.  For instance, one has to wonder if those arrested at some of the ICE roundups, those not warned off by management, aren’t those who have acquired some seniority and are therefore on the high end of some company’s pay scale.  That’s the kind of thing that gets done.  So for us to allow the illegality to continue isn’t all that compassionate of us towards the illegals (some of whom face near slave like conditions) even if they can’t resist the lure of coming to America.

            Our search for a heart of wise compassion can’t end with just the illegal immigrants either, because they aren’t the only ones being hurt by this practice.  Another group calling us to compassion is low skilled, low paid English speaking Americans.  I can speak with some authority here, because even though my excellent writing skills should be paying the bills, they don’t.  So I have at times been reduced to seeking gainful employment (a day job) in the food service industry.  I can tell you what, it has been hard slogging, even though I have more than twenty years experience in kitchens, to find a job that works well with my writing, and the trouble has been that I don’t speak Spanish.

            To be precise, (because I do speak enough Spanish to get by in a kitchen) the problem seems to stem from the fact that I’m not Hispanic/ illegal.  This could be seen as a problem of racism (and maybe it is), since that is what it looks like, but instead it points out that the real problem with illegal immigration is that it is illegal.  The problem is not immigration, as we are a nation of immigrants and their descendants.  The problem is not Hispanic culture.  No, the real problem is that the illegal aspect of illegal immigration causes illegals to choose not to associate with legal American citizens.  If there is a dispute or a fight, the citizen will call the authorities, the illegal won’t want to do that, and so they prudently choose to stay to themselves, and try to exclude Americans from the places they work.  So the illegal aspect of illegal immigration causes the illegals to appear to be racist, and definitely slows the assimilation process that all immigrant groups must go through.

            What’s more, and it should go without saying, the influx of illegal workers has greatly reduced the employment options for Americans in a lot more areas than just food service.  Housekeeping, janitorial, and the construction trades are just some of the affected jobs.  These fields used to be dominated by Black and White Americans, and now those groups are almost nowhere to be found in those jobs.  One has to wonder where those people are working now (I personally have had to take temp or part time work, although the economy is, at least for now, improving), and one also has to wonder if some of the rise in gang and underground economic activity can’t be traced to the dearth of legitimate employment opportunities for our young people.

            Here we must re-double our efforts to gain wisdom and compassion, because the mistake, the natural tendency, is to start thinking of this as an us versus them thing, a battle between Hispanic (Spanish speakers) and Anglo (English speakers).  As a short aside, it galls me, the descendant of Irish immigrants, to be called Anglo, but since the term, like Hispanic, refers to the language spoken and not ancestry, it is accurate to apply it to all American ethnic groups, including African American.

            Rest assured though, that the point of this essay is the opposite of trying to rally US to battle THEM.  In fact, it was in reading one of the spokespeople for arrested workers complain that some of the young men were getting ready to “do something”, and the response to that sentiment from many of my American friends, including, surprisingly some Mexican Americans, that can be summed up with the phrase “bring it on” that made me realize that the time to speak for peace and compassion is now.

            If we allow this to become a struggle between the American people and the Mexican people, we will have failed and all the peoples of North America will be losers.   With the “bring it on” mindset already being expressed strongly on both sides, and probably many millions thinking that way, it’s not inconceivable that we could stumble into some kind of civil war if we’re not careful.       

            The pivotal issue in this is the rule of law.  This is a good issue to base the movement on, because it allows us to be certain we are in the right, and it is THE issue that corrupt politicians (by definition) and corporate greedmeisters (by inclination) want to ignore. 

            First, let’s consider how ignoring the rule of law effects workers in one kind of job, janitorial work.  It used to be that janitors were paid by the hour as employees, with benefits, overtime, vacations and insurance.  These days most of the work is subcontracted out, so the worker has no benefits and is expected to pay his or her own taxes.  It’s still very low paid work, averaging little more than ten dollars an hour, and the worker, as stated, must pay the taxes out of that.  This is also the case in the construction trades, where most of the workers now subcontract and are supposed to pay their own taxes.  Most of the illegal workers simply don’t pay them, which maximizes their take home pay.  The only way for an American to compete is to take a job that after the taxes are paid brings home less than seven dollars an hour, or to take the risk of not paying the taxes.

            If the IRS comes after the illegal, they can go underground, get a new phony ID, take a temporary deportation, or maybe just take their savings and stay in Mexico. On the other hand, if the IRS comes after the American worker, they’re in a lot of trouble, with almost no place to hide.  So the situation is that if the American is going to compete with the illegal, they tend to move to a marginalized legal status, just like the illegal.  That’s how it is working, how it has always worked when the law is being ignored, and how it will always work.

            Now consider how this microcosm plays out when repeated millions of times over many years.  As a note, I know that the illegal community contains more than just Mexican nationals, but the situation between our two nations is so unique and we are so tied together that I will simplify the discussion to make my point.

            Basically, if the rule of law continues to be ignored (and if we allow it to continue it will only get worse) the status of Mexican and migrant workers, both in this nation and in Mexico, will stay the same or slowly get worse, and the status of American workers (wages, protections, security, etc) will be, over the course of years, brought down to that level.  This has been happening for decades now, and accounts for the widening disparity between rich and poor in this nation.

            On the other hand, if we insist on the rule of law, requiring our government to do the will of the people and forcing businesses to obey the law, the status of the American workers will stay the same as today, or get better, and the status of the Mexican and migrant workers, in this nation and in Mexico, will slowly be brought up to that level.  Thus, many of our economic issues revolve around illegality and the rule of law.

            This might seem anti business to some, but it really isn’t.  The forces of commerce can be a great benefit to society, but there is a tendency of business to be possessed of runaway greed, exploiting the weak and corrupting government.  It’s not that business is immoral, rather it is amoral.  Like a mindless, amoral beast, it will take as much as it’s allowed to, but just like a beast, if we stand up and say no, it will obey.

            If we tell the forces of commerce that they can no longer ignore the law to exploit the desperate Mexicans and weaken the status of low skilled Americans, like a dog caught trying to steal meat off the grill at a cookout, they will look up, act friendly, and change plans.  They will probably think something like, “Darn, I was making a killing off that setup, but what the heck, since I have to stop  making so much money off the Mexican workers, and since now they are all in Mexico, why don’t I figure out how to make some money, maybe not as much, but some, off them in Mexico, and while I’m at it, maybe I’ll invest some time and effort into cleaning up the Mexican government so I can maximize that avenue of profit.” 

            With that in mind, now let’s look at that three pronged proposed solution.

First of all, the plan requires that all employers in this country submit to a mandatory e-verify system (this is a data base of social security numbers) If there is a duplicate or a fictitious number, the law would forbid the employer from hiring that worker.  In the same law, attach a heavy fine to employers who try to evade e-verify or knowingly hire illegal workers.

In the same law, enforcement can be rendered almost cost free, in that we should also establish a bounty.  Simply put, half of the fine money collected from an illegal employer goes to anyone who reports the illegal employer to the authorities.  With that bounty system in place, we could expect the law to work very well.

In fact, enforcement would probably work so well that it brings up the second prong of this proposal.  That is that those workers already here illegally would be required to come forward and identify themselves at the same time the mandatory e-verify comes into effect.  When they do come forward, they will be issued provisional numbers which will be plugged into the e-verify system. 

With those provisional numbers, those workers could continue to work, so this law would not cause a significant disruption in commerce.  But it would stop the influx of new illegal workers.

The status of the provisional workers would have to be worked out, with some kind of regularization, in the future.  I know this will provoke howls objecting that this would be an amnesty, and (some will say) we should not allow an amnesty in any case, but especially because it will simply encourage even more illegal immigration.

With this proposal, fully enforcing e-verify, we would not be encouraging more illegal immigration, so that objection fails.  It fails even if we offered a full amnesty, and I don’t think it should be a full amnesty.  Since the first action of the folks who came here illegally was to break the law, it is reasonable that even if they can stay permanently, they can never become citizens, never have a voice in enacting or adjudicating our laws.  Which would mean they can never vote, sit on juries, or run for office.  But they can stay, continue to work and raise their families, save their money and buy their homes.  And their children, the DACA kids, can become citizens.

Let’s take a closer look at the arguments against this limited amnesty.  Every time the discussion gets to this point, some always raise that howl against any kind of amnesty, and the discussion ends.  Since this results in the status quo remaining the same, one has to wonder if some of those howls aren’t being raised by those same bad actors who want things to stay just like they are. 

Let’s go even deeper in considering those with the “no amnesty” objection.  Since, when it is raised, this objection usually just kills the discussion, we never get to ask how they would deal with those illegal immigrants who are already here.  If we are to actually fix the problem, and we won’t allow an amnesty in any form, then they must be advocating that we round up ten to twenty million of our neighbors, seize their property, and turn them into refugees encamped just south of the Rio Grande.

Are they serious?  I very much doubt that the American people have the will to do such a thing in this day and age.  What’s more, if some hard heads managed to ram some law through to do this, is would create so much division and resistance that it is extremely doubtful that we would be able to accomplish it.  It would amount to a kind of genocide, and we would have to enter into it with purpose, unity and clarity.  That’s why I think this objection is raised merely as a distraction by those who don’t want to solve the problem.  Because if it comes to making a choice between a plan that ends the influx of new illegal immigrants with a semi amnesty, or a plan that leads this nation into committing genocide, I doubt that anyone would raise their hand in public in favor of the genocide option.

So that’s the first two prongs of this proposed solution to the problem of illegal immigration.  A mandatory e-verify system that will identify virtually every illegal worker and cost almost nothing.  Then, along with ending the influx of illegal workers, we fold those already here into the legal work force, avoiding any major disruption to industry, and allowing those fields, such as agriculture, where there probably is a real need for foreign workers, to transition into a workable guest worker program.

The third prong of this proposal is that we start to do something about the hellish conditions in those countries to our south, because those hellish conditions are creating so many emigrants and refugees that it is a threat to our national security.  Short of invading and occupying those nations (which would create a whole plethora of new problems) there are a lot of things we could do, as a nation, a government, a people and a culture, to encourage stability, justice, peace and prosperity in Latin North America.  In short, we simply have to learn to wage peace, and to get as good at that as we are at waging war. 

Frankly, this would be verging close to the dreaded “nation building” but we should instead think of it as nation nurturing. Let’s be real here.  With the near anarchy in much of that region, and the threat that looming chaos in our neighborhood holds for our nation, we have the right to do something.  What’s more, staying real here, a lot of the breakdown in those nations is a direct result of rapacious corporate greed enabled by our government.  So, in addition to a right, we really have a duty to do something to fix it.  And unless we want the kind of drug cartel generated horror that is going on in Juarez and Mexico generally to become even more established here, we’d better do something soon.  

Leaving the obvious answer of military assistance for another discussion, there are numerous things we can do to nurture stability in those suffering nations.  For instance, encouraging investment, education and civic engagement; also we could work to provide clean water and healthcare. As we bring a halt to the flow of illegal migrants, the safety valve of moving to the United States will no longer be available to relieve the pressure on those societies.  So let’s work, church to church, community to community, business to business, and government to government to relieve that pressure by bettering the lives of the people in those nations.  Then the solving of the illegal immigration problem will work to unify, not just this nation, but the whole continent. One will notice that this part of the plan is long on sentiment, but kind of short on specifics.  That’s because the specifics should be filled in by those good people more knowledgeable in the arts of peace than this writer.

The only thing left to discuss is a wall, or Trump’s wall as it is known today. Some say only 700 miles would be needed, others that we should build a wall the whole 2000 plus miles.

The first objection to this, no matter how long the wall, is that it is estimated that more than 40% of the illegals come in legally via tourist and student visas, and then they just stay here.  A wall would have no effect on them.  What’s more, a wall could be broken through, tunneled under, climbed over, and illegals could be smuggled over the border via trucks, cars and boats.  Even worse, once built the wall will be a draconian thing, the site of shootings and drama and protests and increasing division.

So in sum, a wall is a lot like the idea of rounding them all up and deporting them; it sounds good, and feels satisfying to propose such a thing, but it won’t be workable because of the logistics of such great numbers, and the limitations of physical reality.

On the other hand, once we would turn off the economic magnet attracting illegal workers, by us putting the weight of the law on those who would employ them, we would have a much better idea of what kind of border security we truly need.  We still might want to erect a wall, at least in some urban areas of the border, to prevent the illegal entry of terrorists and other criminals, people who can lose themselves in the crowd today.  In addition, if we curbed the illegal employment, and track all employees, we would have a much clearer idea of how many guest workers we actually need, while protecting low skilled American labor.

With all that, we should still streamline our immigration process, facilitating the flow of seasonal workers and those who would be citizens.  A well functioning guest worker program, streamlined citizenship, and effective punishment of those who would employ illegals would reduce the flow of illegals to a trickle, and enable us to control the flow of workers.  Then the greed of the elite would be controlled, the interests of poor and low skilled Americans protected, the foreign workers we do allow would be treated with dignity and their rights protected, and our neighbors to the south would have much more stable and prosperous lives.  Above all, we would be restoring at least some of the rule of law, which will return to the American people the sense that they have some control over the course of their nation.

            That then is the initial proposal for fixing illegal immigration.  Now we should discuss it, improve on it with an eye toward reaching wider agreement, and then continue the process of discussing, improving and agreeing until a critical number of the people of this nation agree on what should be done.  We the people must do this because we can’t expect our elected leaders, captive as they are to special interests, to generate a solution to a problem they are benefiting from. When we do the work and come to a general agreement on a solution, the so called leaders, in government and the media, will have no choice but to follow along.  In sum, this is the time we must put into action the truth that when the people lead, the leaders will follow.