Immigration ...
The Problem ...
All the uproar is about illegal
immigration.
Legal
immigration is presently
not a problem, except that current laws
limit the ability of US businesses to get enough engineers, doctors,
and scientists. Professionals that aren't allowed into the US
practice
their trades in their home countries, increasing the
competitiveness of those countries vs. the US.
There are
really two
separate, main issues with illegal immigration
that are often commingled and
confused. First, how do we protect our borders from entry by
people who wish to do harm to the U.S., and second, how do we better
control the flow of illegal immigrant labor.
We can't completely
protect our
borders from terrorists. We must take a dose of
reality. It's not
possible to completely secure our borders from a radical who is bent on
entering the US for the purpose of doing harm. We have two
thousand miles of shared border with Mexico, plus over five thousand
miles shared with Canada. The full resources of the US Army
have
not been able to secure one 10 mile stretch of road between Baghdad and
the Baghdad Airport. Anyone who seriously believes that the
resources exist, never mind the cost, to effectively seal over 7000
miles of border
from terrorists is engaged in pure wishful
thinking and not in reality. Even if securing the border was
possible, a terrorist with the resources to carry out a large-scale
atrocity certainly has the resources to obtain forged documentation
and enter the U.S. by other means. The solution to this
problem
lies in
fixing the United State's relationship with the rest of the world, not
in putting soldiers on the border.
America needs inexpensive labor.
We live in
a global economy. To be competitive in that economy there
needs
to be a pool of inexpensive labor. The price of labor affects
the
cost of production of everything from the hard goods we buy to the
food we eat. If all of the US-made goods we buy were produced
with high-wage US workers, the price of those goods would be
substantially higher.
Those goods would not be competitive in foreign markets, and they would
not be competitive against foreign-made goods available in the
US. The US businesses that produce them would go out of
business
and their high-wage workers would go on unemployment. Foreign
labor, particularly Mexican labor, has been reliably filling this role
in our fields and factories for many generations.
Consider Europe. Inexpensive
immigrant labor from the Middle East and Mediterranean is what is
presently allowing northern Europe to remain competitive, and it is a
contributing factor in the strength of the Euro against the US Dollar.
There are some problems
that need to
be fixed.
Immigrants need to pay
their fair
share. Most illegal immigrants are in
the US for
only a few
years. For every
5 that enter the US, 4 have left within about 4 years. They make enough
money to return to their home country and open their shop, or whatever
the goal was. While these immigrants are in the US they use
basic public and social services – for example, police and
fire
protection and emergency medical services. They should pay
their
fair share for these services. All legal immigrants
do, through
taxes. Many illegal immigrants also pay taxes by way of bogus
social security numbers and forged documentation. However,
many
don't. While they're here, using our public services, they
need to be paying into the
system like the rest of us.
Illegal border crossing
places an
heavy burden on property owners near the border.
Property owners
near the Mexican boarder are up in arms, literally. Hundreds
of
thousands of illegal crossers are cutting fences, damaging crops, and
leaving mountains of trash and other refuse on property all along the
border. The federal government is constitutionally mandated
to
protect the borders, but so far has not effectively done so.
Local property owners have a right to defend their property.
The Solution ...
One piece of the
solution is a real guest worker program.
Such a program needs to permit enough immigrant laborers into the
county to meet the needs of US businesses. Too few, and there
will still be jobs waiting for those who choose to enter the country
illegally. Too many, and we could end up with lots of
immigrants
in the US with no jobs. We need to figure what that
number is, and allow that many immigrants to legally work in the
US.
While
those legal immigrants are in the US they will be paying taxes via
legally obtained, official tax numbers.
There are already about ten million illegal immigrants in the
US.
It is entirely in our own best interest to have them be a part of the
guest worker program. As the workers who are already here
leave
the US and return to their home countries (as 4 out of 5 will),
additional vacancies are made for more workers to enter the country
legally.
One frequently hears an argument that illegal immigrants take the jobs
of American workers. I have been conducting my own
unscientific
poll on this issue. I've been asking two questions of people
chosen at random:
1) Have you ever lost a job to an illegal immigrant?
2) Do you know anyone who has lost a job to an illegal immigrant?
So far I have heard from one individual whose job was lost to a
lower-wage immigrant worker. Some loss of jobs is occuring;
however it appears to be infrequent.
If anyone reading this can answer "yes" to either of those questions
please feel free to contact me
and let
me
know about it.
There is no need for an additional path to US citizenship as part
of this program. Existing paths are sufficient.
The other piece of the
solution is
some strengthening of border security.
The border
will never be made secure enough to keep out radicals and
terrorists. The main purpose of strengthening border security
is
to
make illegal crossing more difficult than using the guest worker
program. Secondarily this will take some of the burden
off local land owners. Better border security, along with a real guest worker
program, will
significantly improve the situation.
The long range solution
is for
Mexico's economy to improve. Consider
that until
9/11, the border between the U.S. and Canada was essentially
open. There were very few checkpoints. Many border
roads
simply had signs saying "You are leaving Canada, Please Come Again"
followed by "Welcome to the United States of America". Let us
hope that the United State's relations with the rest of the world will
improve, and the economy of Mexico will improve, so that the U.S. /
Mexico border can become like the border with Canada used to
be.
Yes, this will take a long time. But we must keep our eyes on
the
end game.
Libertarian philosophy:
If it
weren't for all of the social programs that are paid for with taxes,
and the concern that some people will benefit from them without paying
taxes, we probably wouldn't be having this discussion.
Elimination of these programs would pretty much obviate the concern
over illegal immigrant workers.