The Public Policy
Fixing America’s Immigration Black Market
Overly strict government policy is creating incentives for illegal, rather than legal, immigration.
From Arizona to the U.S. Senate, immigration is at the forefront of the national debate. Much of the concern revolves around this fact: There is an enormous immigration black market in the United States. Millions of undocumented immigrants and temporary workers enter and leave every year. Legality is considered strictly optional. This problem will not go away until fundamental reforms become law.
Recently, the Department of Labor (DOL) has tried to solve the problem with rules, regulations, and enforcement. They raised the hourly minimum wage to $12.24 for foreign farm workers. Background checks are now mandatory for all immigrant farm workers, at the employer’s expense. Employers are also on the hook for the full cost of paperwork and applications. All existing contracts have to be redrafted and refilled according to these new rules. The total cost runs to thousands of dollars per employee.
In short, DOL has put in place the perfect program for increasing the size of the black market. When compliance costs too much money, time, and hassle, few people will bother. That’s how the world works.
Based on the most recent data from 2008, 100,000 to 125,000 agricultural workers are residing in the U.S. illegally. 173,103 H-2A visas were issued in that same year. DOL’s new regulations won’t change the number of immigrants. The change will be that fewer of them will bother with legality, and more will enter dangerous black markets.
Think about it. If H-2As were liberalized instead of covered in red tape, at least 100,000 illegal immigrants could be brought out of the black market. And that’s just for that one type of visa.
For the much coveted H-1B visa, which covers highly skilled foreign workers in specialty occupations, the U.S. Customs and Immigration Service (USCIS) will schedule 25,000 surprise workplace inspections this year. That’s a five-fold increase from last year!
Workplace inspections are probably the most destructive reform. When government agents inspect foreign workers, work can grind to a total halt for days. Government agents take their time to check the paperwork and compare it with what’s on file in Washington. Workers are interviewed, and their complaints are registered.
When this is done on the farm, crops don’t get picked, farm equipment stays dirty, and the farmer loses money. That is bad enough. But when H-1B inspections occur, entire software, engineering, or other highly productive businesses are interrupted for no good reason. Considering how dependent the high-tech sector is on skilled immigrants, this is a major problem for Silicon Valley firms like Google, which was co-founded by an immigrant.
No wonder there is such high demand for black-market immigrant workers. They are thousands of dollars more attractive compared to legal visa holders.
The problem doesn’t just affect H-2A and H-1B visas. New rules are hitting the books every month increasing compliance burdens every class of immigrant and work visa. The government couldn’t make the black market more appealing if it tried.
Clearly DOL is taking the wrong approach. What’s the right approach to dismantling the black market? Liberalization. The immigration black market only exists is because the government has made the legal market as cumbersome as it can.
True immigration reform makes legal channels more appealing, not less. That means lightening the paperwork and the regulatory burden, and eliminating quotas. The more unattractive legality becomes, the more attractive illegality looks in comparison.
Black markets are anathema to a free society. Murder, theft, smuggling, and even slavery are part and parcel of immigrant black markets. They are also easily avoidable - just shrink the black market by making legal immigration easier.
From Plymouth Rock to the present day, people have risked everything they have to come to America in search of a better life. The government does everyone a disservice when it gets in the way of that noble quest.
About the Author
Ryan Young is Fellow in Regulatory Studies at the Competitive Enterprise Institute.
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P Henry| 4.27.10 @ 7:57AM
The H-1b visa program is riddled with fraud, why wouldn't you want more enforcement? Oh yeah, you are paid by the companies that abuse this CHEAP, FOREIGN labor.
Ryan| 4.27.10 @ 8:44AM
What's better - enforcement of laws, or liberalization of policy that allows more needed H1-b workers?
Ted| 4.27.10 @ 9:33AM
What's better? Both. We may need a more liberalized policy. That is certainly a public policy debate we need to have. However, we do need to enforce the law.
Alan Brooks| 4.27.10 @ 12:11PM
We have to explain it better:
'unchecked illegal immigration is probably a greater threat in the long run than terrorism. And if America goes belly-up, then Latin America would be worse off '.
Is this mistaken or unfair?
Quartermaster| 4.27.10 @ 8:04PM
The H1-B program is not about getting the help a company needs, it's to get low priced help in technical fields. Many of our Engineers and Computer Scientists go unemployed because of H1-B imports. This has been well documented. The H1-B program is a drag on our country and is rife with fraud.
Alan Brooks| 4.27.10 @ 9:19PM
Even more important, if undocumented manual laborers (PC for 'cheap workers') were to be phased out, corporations would be forced to automate.
Alan Brooks| 4.27.10 @ 9:28PM
PS,
Young and Nowrasteh appear to be crypto-libertarians; so their piece, though well-written, is merely interesting libertopian boilerplate.
Besides, it is not very pleasant when authors hide their ideology.
BZ| 5.4.10 @ 4:18PM
Alan Brooks appear to be a crypto statist. Whether of the left or right, it's hard to say, as he doesn't tell us. It's not pleasant when someone replies to an article without listing their political beliefs instead of merely demonstrating them by their comments.
maverick muse| 4.28.10 @ 6:13AM
It's unemployment, stupid.
Who ever said that there weren't enough highly skilled US citizen laborers, that imported foreign cheap labor wouldn't cost America more in the end, lied.
Alan Brooks| 4.28.10 @ 4:24PM
"It's unemployment, stupid."
No, it is automation. That is the key-- without it third world cesspools have us by...
the short hairs.
Elvis| 4.28.10 @ 7:46AM
P Henry you are right. The vast majority of H-1B workers have merely ordinary skill levels and common skillsets already possessed by large numbers of American IT workers. They are brought in basically as scabs, even though there wasn't any strike by American workers, for the purpose of lowering wages and working conditions. Many of them are fraudulent, with inflated resumes and unverified degrees. Often they are lightweights at best in skills where they are supposed to be experts.
Alan Brooks| 4.28.10 @ 4:27PM
Elvis, you are even wiser than Colonel Parker himself!
Daniel| 4.27.10 @ 8:43AM
Our children are our future not illegals that dont respect law. Not to mention cheap workers where America's interests come second to their home country. If our children are to become engineers we should give them the security to know it will pay their bills.
Ryan| 4.27.10 @ 8:46AM
How does that answer the above article? It talks about the need for legal immigration, and making it worthwhile to respect the law.
L. Ross| 4.27.10 @ 11:58AM
I'm sorry, Ryan, but in my opinion, this article is not about the need for legal immigration. This article is about easing immigration restrictions, and the counterproductive nature of attempting to enforce the law.
Oddly enough, I happen to largely disagree with the second premise. In my opinion, SERIOUS attempts to enforce immigration law will yeild improved results, just as areas with the actual fence along the Mexican border have lower rates of illegal immigration.
By the way, the inspection of immigrant documentation would not be such an onerous process if we had not let the situation get so vastly far out of hand. It seems to me that the point of this article is unfettered legal immigration is the way to go, and quite frankly, we don't have resources to absorb the tide of immigrants that would yeild.
Dave | 5.4.10 @ 11:33PM
Instead of wasting our time, money, and making government more intrusive in an effort at "SERIOUS attempts to enforce immigration law", why not reform the law to make it more reflect reality? Supply will always rise to meet demand.
Pat| 4.27.10 @ 8:53AM
I have trained many PhD students who are on F1 student visas. They try very hard to stay legal. Given their training, they can contribute much to this country. They have enormous talent and skills.
However, they are having a hard time transitioning to the H1 visa because of the cumbersomeness of the immigration requirements. They would have a much easier time going illegal. Why should that be reasonable?
Quartermaster| 4.27.10 @ 8:07PM
Why is it unreasonable that they go back home and take their skills with them to a home country that probably needs them? We aren't employing our own people. Why add to an already serious problem?
Mike| 5.4.10 @ 10:55AM
Who are "our" people? "Americans"? I don't know about you -- but if you aren't Cherokee, you don't have a leg to stand on in this argument! Is this finders keepers on the national level?
Everyone has the right to offer their labor for a market price. If someone of a different color is willing to sell their labor cheaper, the unemployed have two choices: compete on price or differentiate.
Ken (Old Texican)| 4.27.10 @ 8:59AM
Ryan,
Your argument smells distinctly like the argument for legalizing hard drugs in the US.
P Henry,
If the cheap foreign labor is so abused here...compared to their abuse at home, then duh, why are they here to start with?
Folks,
The whole immigration issue has been so muddied with PC and vote shopping, that finding the ends of the "string" to unsnarl it becomes impossible.
Let's cut the "gordian knot" right through and send all the folks home. Let's build that fence, then set up a reasonable "guest worker" program and enforce it.
...Ah...and no more "anchor babies".
Ryan| 4.27.10 @ 10:08AM
Yeah, but I don't advocate legalizing hard drugs. It's apples and oranges.
I support a process for immigration that allows more people in legally, because there is work here for them to do. That's the root of the whole matter.
With drugs, it's about advocating legalizing something that is wrong.
With legalization, it's about legalizing and streamlining something that isn't necessarily harmful to America.
Ken (Old Texican)| 4.27.10 @ 10:47AM
Mr. Young,
Thank you for your response above. I am honored that you let me put a fine point on your column, and allowed you to sorta' zero in on your logic.
Uh,
Let me just ask one simple question then.
HOW MANY AMERICAN YOUTHS ARE OUT OF WORK...AND DRAWING ON ENTITLEMENTS AND SELLING DRUGS TO EACH OTHER?
Ryan Young | 4.27.10 @ 1:08PM
Ken - Ryan Young here. The Ryan commenting above is a different Ryan. Just thought I'd clear that up. Thanks for commenting!
-Ryan
Ryan| 4.27.10 @ 3:15PM
He's right - I'm the Ryan that usually posts on here. Different guys, same cool first name.
Ryan| 4.27.10 @ 3:32PM
How many of those youths are made to be responsible for their own actions? How many are told or taught that there are jobs they are "too good for?"
There is a systemic problem with entitlement in American labor that doesn't exist with Mexican immigrants. Maybe that's the problem instead.
Dan Hirsch| 4.27.10 @ 10:52AM
Sorry, Ryan. The old Texican handed you your petard and you climbed up on it.
You just wrote that "With drugs, you are legalizing something that is wrong." Well, friend, illegally crossing a sovereign state's border is wrong, too. Forgiving that transgression without cost only encourages further lawbreaking.
You substitute economic arguments for principles. Successful economic arguments, which you did make pretty convincingly, fail in the face of failed principles, which you have ignored.
In the long run, all the economics in the world cannot fix failed underlying principles.
Cf Detroit Michigan and the UAW.
P.S. That's why Obamacare is fatally flawed-health care is the product of some citizens' time and efforts. When someone else has a "right" to another's time and efforts, we call it slavery. Funny how our most reparations prone president would want to promote this program...
Ryan| 4.27.10 @ 3:14PM
I see your point, and I was more driving at the idea that immigration isn't necessarily a bad thing in and of itself - we actually need it for the American workforce, and have essentially over-regulated something that needs streamlining and opening.
We need more documented legal immigrants, in other words.
PHenry| 4.28.10 @ 10:09AM
"If the cheap foreign labor is so abused here...compared to their abuse at home, then duh, why are they here to start with?"
I'm not sure what that means. If you are trying to say that their situation is worse in their home countries, OK. It would have to be if they are willing to come here and work for less. How does that change the argument that we shouldn't let scumbag corporations hire these cheap imports over American citizens?
Pingback| 4.27.10 @ 9:55AM
Fixing America’s Immigration Black Market | OpenMarket.org links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Tunnel Rat | 4.27.10 @ 10:30AM
This is just more propaganda from the nation's high-tech junta that wants to legally bypass the "uppity" American tech workers, with all their demands for decent wages, freedom from exploitation, and decent working conditions. The CEI is a tool of the Silicon Valley slave traders, and nobody should buy their garbage.
Melvin| 4.27.10 @ 11:03AM
I will say this, many, many years ago I came back from overseas with my family, got off the plane at Oakland, went through Immigration and the Immigration guy said, "Your wife should receive her Green Card in about 90 days, because that was the date that was stamped upon her passport.
Four long years later many phone calls, many letters, two Senators, Hillary Clinton, and multiple visits to the Federal Bldg. in LA having to stand for long hours in a line that snaked around the bldg. my wife finally got her Green Card.
I won't even go into what it took for her to get her citizenship.
Bottom line, the Immigration and Naturalization Service is broken, overworked and overloaded by bureaucracy that hasn't a clue what is going on in the field.
Many of the people that worked in the INS were very nice, but my God! these poor people desks were stacked with piles and piles of everything. There just wasn't enough hours in a day to ever catch up for these people.
The INS had my wife's application they had just not gotten to it yet and this was four years after port of entry.
If anything that needs to be done is to completely revamp and repopulate the INS branch with adequate staffing, training, and get the administrative bureaucratic jackals off their backs to allow these people in the field to do their job properly.
Pingback| 4.27.10 @ 12:08PM
Legalize It (Immigration Edition) - Hit & Run : Reason Magazine links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Derek Leaberry| 4.27.10 @ 1:25PM
The libertarian-oriented stew that the two authors gurgle to support open borders and gung-ho free enterprise at the expense of American workers displays the cultural nihilism and deracination that marks their ideology. They have more in common with Daily Kos urban liberals than red state, rural conservatives. Perhaps they do not understand that the root word of conservative is not laiisez-faire capitalism but "conserve". That America needs more conserving is obvious.
Their little history jingle at the end of their essay is facile and comic-bookish. The truth is that the settlers at Plymouth were religious fanatics who ran a regime as authoritarian as modern day Iran's. They were not 17th Century devotees of Austrian economics. Perhaps the young gentlemen would be better informed about early American history if they read David Hackett Fischer's "Albion's Seed" rather than relying on pap history.
Ryan| 4.27.10 @ 3:33PM
So....what does that have to do with immigration?
Ken (Old Texican)| 4.27.10 @ 1:32PM
Melvin,
Thank you for that insight.
wolf| 4.27.10 @ 1:37PM
for a bureaucracy to survive it must be as innefficent and as convoluted as possible...either by design or circumstance...a prime example..the DMV (to give credit..it is better than it was..but that is like saying "the fever is down to 103 from 105") to complete a simple task at the DMV - renew you registration - you need to go to a counter .. wait in line .. present the paperwork to a clerk and wait for the transaction to be completed...it may take several minutes...it may take longer..depending on the clerks ability/experience/attitude...now...the Auto Club offers DMV service to their members...the same transaction can be completed without an appointment with friendly service and great efficency.. both the Auto club employee and the DMV clerk keep their jobs by maintaining that level of service and attitude...the DMV employee may just be watching the clock...which is accepted behaviour and may even be encouraged..not saying ALL govt employees are like that..but an efficient bureaucracy is self destructive..
GW| 4.27.10 @ 3:14PM
What makes liberalized, legal immigration better than the illegal immigration we have now? Not only do we need a stop to illegal immigration, we need to slow down all immigration as well. With unemployment at 10%+, the job pool is already to small for American jobs to be taken by unskilled migrant workers who's allegiance does not lie with this country! Meanwhile, Mr. Amnesty himself John McCain only got 1/3 of the Hispanic vote. Why are Republicans pandering to the immigrant? Restrict immigration, build the wall, secure the border, deport the illegal. It is still our country, is it not?
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=36716
Northern Rebel| 4.27.10 @ 4:15PM
Our "President' admires communist countries, so I suggest he adopt the methods to prevent illegal immigration, that they use:
Torture, and Execution!
I posit the notion, that if we shot people the second they crossed into our country, illegal immigration would be a problem no more.
After the first hundred or so shootings, people would realize that we were serious about protecting our borders.
Let the shooting begin!
jgo | 4.27.10 @ 4:20PM
The problem is that we have too much immigration -- too much legal immigration and too much illegal immigration. There's so much legal immigration that DHS and DoS don't even bother to try to conduct proper background investigations on visa applicants, and DoL is restricted from investigating questionable applicants, and they gave up a token effort to figure out how many and which visa-grantees are present in the USA. And, even so, the visas are so under-priced that there's an annual deficit of over $100M in what it costs to rubber-stamp applications.
H-1Bs are not restricted to the "highly skilled" (nor are L visas). Hundreds are given out to applicants who lack the equivalent of a US high school education, and thousands each year to applicants who lack the equivalent of a US bachelor's degree. Several examinations of the sparse records have shown that the vast majority are doing work that does not require a high level of skill, but merely displaces higher-priced US STEM workers (both directly and indirectly).
Even the very best fraction of the top percent of them are paid a mere 1.001 times the US average. If they were truly "best and brightest", they would measure up to some well above average standard, and be compensated at well above average rates.
Build the 8,600 miles of fence along the borders, put fully-armed defense dept. troops to work patrolling them, control the ports, end visa waivers, reduce numbers of visas issued to reasonably managed levels, conduct proper background checks on visa applicants, preferentially accept/grant visas to only the very brightest and most creative, track the visa grantees, eject the illegal aliens and imprison and fine their employers.
jgo | 4.27.10 @ 4:34PM
Laissez-faire capitalism is good; it's just a fancy way of saying that people make their own choices instead of being dictated to.
Austrian economics rocks. You should read a little Menger, Boehm-Bawerk, von Mises, Hayek, Holcombe, Sowell, and Williams. (Much better than that Keynesian and Socialist mumbo-jumbo.)
Open borders are bad. Invasion, conquest and subversion are bad. Terrorism/domestic guerrilla warfare is bad. Spies and foreign operatives are bad. Initiation of force and fraud are bad. Reasonable defensive measures are good. Study the history of the French & Indian Wars (7 Years War), the American Revolution and most of American history up to the 1920s. There have always been both bounties for bringing in particular kinds of immigrants, and restricted procedures for naturalization.
B| 4.27.10 @ 7:10PM
Why is our government manipulating the labor market by creating two classes of workers: Those that can be fired, and those who can be fired AND immediately deported?
If you are an employer, which one do you think will be more motivated?
Ryan, why do you support this in this article? I thought you were all about free markets!
Employers can legally discriminate against qualified Americans by firing them without cause and recruiting only H-1B guest-workers to replace them. The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has said: “H-1B workers may be hired even when a qualified U.S. worker wants the job, and a U.S. worker can be displaced from the job in favor of a foreign worker.” Some companies that discriminate against American workers are so brazen that their job advertisements say “H-1B visa holders only.” And some companies in the United States have workforces that consist almost entirely of H-1B guest-workers.
Ryan| 4.28.10 @ 8:40AM
Maybe Americans need to realize that there's a competitive marketplace for labor out there.
I've seen plenty of situations where Americans have an entitlement mentality when it comes to work - that they are owed the job or something.
Maybe Americans need to learn to work for less pay, fewer toys, and a more reasonable lifestyle.
The Greatest Generation would be appalled.
B| 4.30.10 @ 12:17PM
I expect to compete with workers that have to follow the same rules that I have to follow. Why is the labor market being manipulated to give me a disadvantage? Even if I am quite willing to work for the same wages as the H1B, the employer knows that I can quit if I find something better, while the H1B cannot.
Pingback| 4.27.10 @ 9:04PM
Problems on the Arizona Border | links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
prousa| 4.27.10 @ 9:05PM
Sheeze! Just make everyone legal and then there will be no illegal immigration. In actuality immigration has become a big loser for the entire country except employers and a few ethnic lobbyists. When you consider education and health care costs, lost jobs and income, terrorism, disease, and even population congestion how can you feel otherwise?
Pingback| 4.27.10 @ 9:33PM
The State of the Immigration Debate « Inertia Wins! links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Pingback| 4.27.10 @ 10:47PM
Truth And Common Sense − An example of how the love for illegals clouds the fact they links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
maverick muse| 4.28.10 @ 6:09AM
Young and Nowresteh,
Progressive PC convenience is all that matters to neoconservatives. Enforcing the law? How bourgeois. Pathetic.
No doubt you would legalize all illicit drugs as well to solve the crime problem.
If there's one thing that Washingtonians do best, it is legalized ORGANIZED criminal activity with Congressional and Presidential pirates in charge.
Yet, having crime legalized has not solved any economic problems but has destroyed not only the American economy, but now redistributed America to the illegal alien with the citizen become the legally enabled pirate's serf.
Joe B| 4.28.10 @ 2:28PM
Don't fix immigration. Stop it. America has no vacancies left. Our economy is a zero sum game with 10% employment. Even skilled immigrants just replace skilled citizens at lower wages.
Jeremy C| 4.28.10 @ 3:50PM
The economy is NOT zero sum. Do your homework. Look up "comparative advantage".
Joe B| 4.28.10 @ 2:33PM
"From Plymouth Rock to the present day, people have risked everything they have to come to America in search of a better life. The government does everyone a disservice when it gets in the way of that noble quest. "
Brain dead. In modern times foreigners come to exploit America for money, welfare, and a higher standard of living. And they can't or won't assimilate, ruining quality of life for everyone.
Derek Leaberry| 4.28.10 @ 4:39PM
Bingo, Joe B. This Nowrasteh child has a new column out today clamoring for a new high tide of immigration and making all those tired claims like Hispanics being cultural conservatives(cultural conservatives with a 50 % illegitimacy rate, huh). Some of these younger "conservatives" are slow to grow up and think life through the lens the ramblings of their favorite writers when they were college boys.
M2TS File Converter | 4.29.10 @ 1:16AM
Hispanics being cultural conservatives(cultural conservatives with a 50 % illegitimacy rate, huh). Some of these younger "conservatives" are slow to grow up and think life through the lens the ramblings of their favorite writers when they w
M2TS File Converter | 4.29.10 @ 1:18AM
Hispanics being cultural conservatives(cultural conservatives with a 50 % illegitimacy rate, huh). Some of these younger "conservatives" are slow to grow up and think life through the lens the ramblings of their favorite writers when they w
Gringa in El Salvador| 4.29.10 @ 2:01PM
In response to Ryan's comment above:
"There is a systemic problem with entitlement in American labor that doesn't exist with Mexican immigrants. Maybe that's the problem instead. "
My background: married to an immigrant who was once illegal, now living with him in ES for time being, using legal channels for his immigration.
Surprisingly, I have some very conservative views on this subject, and would like to enlighten a few people with my experiences as a "fly on the wall."
I know many many illegals in the US, and can tell you that similar attitudes towards
Entitlements exist on both sides of the border.
For Example: the first thing Illegal immigrant women who have children do is obtain all ENTITLEMENTS for their child. In fact, it is 'gifted' to them in hospitals by social workers. The baby is delivered for free. Then comes WIC, Medicaid for the child, and possibly food stamps (I have to double check on that but I have an illegal friend who was getting free juice, milk, and other staples that she showed me). A woman I know who lives here in El Salvador gave birth to a son in the US last year and brought him back here b/c times were tough there. She heard about a program where the US sends 1,000+ a year in "assistance" from a friend for children citizens living outside the country. She does not speak English, but was able to find out this information very easily. $1000 a year is better than the thousands the baby would cost if she remained in the U.S. I like her personally, but know that money is coming out of my paycheck and everyone else's to pay for her child's social programs. So I'm kinda glad she came back here.
Immigrants, whether illegal OR legal will most often go after EVERY entitlement program available to them.
2 different Legal immigrants I know from Lebanon and Russian have assisted their parents in getting Section 8 housing and medicaid benefits. I'm not blaming them - if one is asset or income eligible and aware of a program, most will go for an entitlement that benefits them.
Although I am married to an immigrant, I see a lot of things in the U.S. and here that make me disagree with a "blanket amnesty" program. I would like to warn Politicians of the financial dangers involved in legalizing female illegal immigrants from Latin America, or welcoming them to come over to live with a "husband who has a work VISA", because South of the Border has birth rates and family sizes much higher than the U.S. and their cultural attitudes towards family size come with them. On my 3rd visit to the local neighborhood church here in El Salvador, the man preaching asked women not to "plan" (as in prevent pregnancy). Hmm...
If a male illegal immigrant is allowed to stay in the US on a work VISA, will he be allowed to bring his wife into the country? If so, how much money do we have in our U.S. coffers to pay the a) baby delivery, b) WIC, Medicaid for the child, c) Food Stamps (if eligible), and d) possible public housing.
Most of the illegal women immigrants I know make 7-10 dollars an hour, that's in Boston, which has better pay but costly to live. They cannot afford medical insurance so the state and fed govt pay for their families.
Fortunately, due to the dangers of crossing the border illegally for women, there are significantly less women going over illegally. But for the ones that do, many more babies to come.
My motto regarding amnesty and work visas: keep the good fish, throw back the bad ones. Work VISAs provided through MERIT, and an annual or biannual FEE must be paid for processing, and it need not be cheap: Latin American illegals pay up to 7,000 to get here, and Brazilians pay more. What price are they willing to pay for a work visa, to help the American immigration system process them, and then some for future entitlements they may receive?
One final note, regarding illegal (or legalized) immigrants of low education and skills:
Illegal immigrants work very hard and deserve credit for it. They are also fantastic savers, often better than many Americans. Many of them deserve a chance at legal work VISAs, and most of them would love to be able to work in the U.S. and return home, with the ability to come back to the U.S. to work again.
But our OWN poor also need a chance. We have our own "high school educated" and "high school dropout" citizens to employ and consider, along with teenagers in H.S who would like to save money for school or a car. (By the way, Latin America is full of GRADE school dropouts who immigrate illegally, and our own corporations give preference to them over our own high school dropouts b/c they are cheaper).
Illegal immigration is just an 'underground facet' of globalization. Latin America's largest export and Ultra-Corporate America's new favorite import = cheap labor. As much as we talk and blog and discuss, it is hard to fight the rising tide of imported immigrants (low skilled and high skilled) and exported jobs, all of which are squeezing the middle class dry.
Cheap labor servers Corporate America's interests in the short term but may hurt America and American's in the long term if not dealt with, because we are absorbing a GIGANTIC underclass. (Tyson foods, large hotel chains, restaurants, some small businesses, etc. - don't let them fool you, they all hire illegals by utilizing employment agencies as the go between/fall guy, who in term employ illegals with fake SSN cards),
Who pays for it all in the end?
Pingback| 4.29.10 @ 5:42PM
Oh, Arizona « Who Promoted Major Major? links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Dennis Wilson | 5.2.10 @ 5:42PM
The article has many very interesting points.
I disagree with the statement that “Black markets are anathema to a free society”. Black markets—which are, in fact, UNREGULATED markets—are the ESSENCE of a free society and they are the ONLY market that keeps people from starving in a heavily regulated society! Complete removal of the regulations would also eliminate the “Murder, theft, smuggling, and even slavery are part and parcel” of all REGULATED markets.
I also note with interest—especially in the comments—the many calls for “respect the law” and “enforce the law”. However, because ALL these Federal “laws”, rules and regulations are themselves ILLEGAL, the solution is NOT reform but immediate REPEAL! THAT would be true enforcement of the law and true “respect for the law”!
As I stated in my 2007 article by the same name: "Immigration control is UN-Constitutional!"
REALLY! It is TRUE! The US Constitution does NOT AUTHORIZE immigration control! Check it out at http://tinyurl.com/yeyd7kq
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"From Plymouth Rock to the present day, people have risked everything they have to come to America in search of a better life. The government does everyone a disservice when it gets in the way of that noble quest. "
Brain dead. In modern times foreigners come to exploit America for money, welfare, and a higher standard of living. And they can't or won't assimilate, ruining quality of life for everyone.